Behind the screams and fear inducing monsters at haunted houses are ordinary people who find it fun to scare the living daylights out of others.

Shadow’s Edge, open once again after a two year hiatus, is one such haunted house that is organized by prosthetic makeup artists and horror enthusiasts.

The volunteer actors range in all ages, but they all have something in common—a love for horror.

Putting together a truly frightening experience for their guests takes a lot of behind the scenes work.
Before the attraction opens each night the whole staff, including those who have been in the business for years and those who are experiencing their first year of haunted acting, come together for a meeting to take attendance and plan for the night.

From there, it’s on to wardrobe and makeup. While getting their makeup and prosthetics done the actors and artists like to spend time relaxing. Behind the scenes of The Shadow’s Edge there are couches to sit on and heavy metal music playing in the background, as well as plenty of candy to go around for everyone to enjoy while preparing for the night.

It is during this time that many of the actors and artists bond over their shared interests, like giving back to the community.

“I like being a haunted house actor for the charity work and the money goes to the Buford Foundation which helps under privileged kids go to camp,” volunteer actor Jordan said.

After all of the prep work is done it is time to take their positions and let their character take over. A horn cues that the show is starting, and the terror begins. However, for some this involves a nightly risk. Scared people don’t always see the person under the costume, but only a bloody monster coming after them which can cause altercations between customers and actors.

“Haunted house actors can get bad reactions from the simplest things because people are in flight or fight mode, so actors might get swung at, pushed and swore at,” volunteer actor Matt Wagner said.

In the end, the reward of knowing they did their job and truly gave customers a good scare keeps the actors coming back night after night throughout October despite the risk.