spookyfandomsandfeelseverywhere:
This is what it looks like when you punch a haunted house actor in the face. Please keep in mind that we are people you paid to jump out and scare you.
I don’t want this to happen to anyone.
Yeah but the workers understand the risk. Some people react aggressively to being scared and if you dont realize the risk there, you shouldn’t be scaring people for a living.
If you react aggressively enough to being scared that you might hit someone, you probably shouldn’t go to a haunted house.
^
LET ME TELL YOU A THING!
I work at/ run /build and coordinate a charity yard haunt every year for the last 10 years. Our actors are volunteers – they are not paid. Admission into the haunt is non-perishable food to donate to the local food bank, or a cash donation to help the food bank pay their rent and run their program. Volunteers are instructed not to scare any person that looks visually under the age of 10. For people who know they get scared (at any age) – we set up private day-time showings on the 30th and 31st. There are signs letting people know that there will be things jumping out at them. The ‘witches’ at the front ask anyone that seems anxious if their going to be okay – and if that person expresses fear over being scared by an actor, we give tell them where the actors are stationed so that they can prepare themselves.
Our volunteers are AMAZING. Last year, we had a woman work out in the rain and cold for 5 hours and turn down breaks to the point where we had to INSIST that she come in and have some dinner and a hot beverage (which we provide). It rains almost every year. Not all areas of the haunt are covered. They wear itchy makeup, costumes that don’t provide much heat and they spend hours next to irritating strobe light, chemically created fog and the same 20 Halloween songs on a loop. They are doing this or CHARITY. Because they care. Yet, every year we have someone get pushed, shoved or hit by a guest that comes through and isn’t equipped to handle it.
A 50 year old woman playing a zombie, got punched in the face – she has a freaking heart condition (and she’s the same one that stood out in the rain for 5 hours being the best damn zombie I’ve ever seen!). I had a 14 year old boy give up trick-or-treating to come volunteer with us, and some teenage guy pushed him into a wall and almost toppled over a display. The displays take me, my father, mother and brother – an entire MONTH to put together. New displays take three months to plan and build. I once spent two entire days with no breaks – paper mache’ing a 6ft tall T-rex, only to have it’s head ripped off by some guy that ‘got scared’. We had one girl acting in our torture chamber – she was running the electric chair, and our actors frequently pretend to be props (as we have a lot of props as well), and when people get close they say ‘boo’. Some guy ran up to her and groped her chest to ‘check if she was real’. Another volunteer had rocks thrown at her – to check if she ‘was real’. Our volunteers have to sign liability waivers, so that we don’t get sued because of dumbasses that come to a charity event and ABUSE AND ASSAULT THE VOLUNTEERS. Literally, that’s what it is.
There is no excuse for it. You can’t punch the kid behind the counter at a fast food restaurant for getting your order wrong. You can’t push janitors into walls. You can’t physically or sexually assault your waitress, dog walker, babysitter, accountant, lawyer, paper boy, mailman, or secretary. DO NOT TOUCH MY VOLUNTEERS.
IF YOU SCARE EASILY OR REACT TO FEAR WITH VIOLENCE, DO NOT GO INTO A FREAKING HAUNTED HOUSE! IF you can’t handle fear in an appropriate way – don’t go somewhere that’s designed to scare you! This is just common sense. I don’t get paid enough to deal with your bullshit…. because I literally don’t get paid. Knock it the fuck off, and have some respect!
SPEAKING AS A FELLOW FREE/DONATION HAUNT OWNER, I AGREE WITH THE ABOVE
IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE BEING SCARED IN AN APPROPRIATE WAY, DON’T GO IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT ALL
YOU DO NOT TOUCH US, WE DO NOT TOUCH YOU
SIMPLE RULE