Do you fancy being scared? Do you enjoy walking through spooky mansions or surviving a zombie apocalypse? If you do, I’m sure you have been to the hit amusement parks Knotts Scary Farm or Castle Dark, walking through mazes where monsters lurk around every dark corner. If you enjoy any of these attractions, you will love Fear Farm.
Fear Farm is unlike any other Halloween walk-through; it encapsulates an entirely different environment that rips you from reality and places you directly into the undead. Here, you can walk through a haunted manor, a creepy clown park, a haunted hayride, or fight for your life while you run from zombies! Some of the most favored attractions are the fight maze and the flight maze;
In the fight maze, you are led by a squad leader through a paintball arena and given gel guns filled with Orbeez. Your objective is not to let the zombies leave a hand-print on you while you run through the arena. Shoot the zombies to stunt their endurance.
In the flight attraction, you are led into an infected maze crowded with zombies while you must dodge fake exits, tunnels, turns, loops, and pipes that will make it almost impossible to get out with the three lives you are given at the start. The zombies try to take the flags off the flag football belt you wear; three flags act as your lives. Your objective is not to let the zombies pull three of your flags and find a way out.
Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a scare actor? Or are you curious about the history that led to the foundations of Fear Farm? You’re in luck! We’ve gathered insights from real scare actors and owners at Fear Farm. I want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at their experiences and maybe get some inspiration!
To get a better idea of the inspiration behind Fear Farm, these are some of the questions we asked co-owners Matt (49, co-owner of Fear Farm) and Rix (33, co-owner and creative director at Fear Farm), and Nick (31, co-owner):
How did you start Fear Farm?
Rix said, “I was about six years old when my uncle and my aunt did a home haunt for a couple of years at their house on their porch, and one year, they didn’t want to do it anymore, and I kind of threw a fit because I wanted to continue doing it. So I rehang some tarps and some strobe lights, and it went from that to where it is now, but it was a lot of history.”
Matt said, “I started scaring when I was 18, and I have been scaring every year since. I got into design and management when I was about 23, and Fear Farm IE was a merger of my company, Nightmare at Dos Lagos, mixed with Fear Farm from Phelan.
Do you hope to improve any aspects of Fear Farm in the future?
Rix: “Every day. All the time I want to improve. You have to learn something every day. You can never be perfect at something. So if it’s making the mazes longer or adding more restrooms, then I will do whatever it takes to make more people happy.”
Matt: “Absolutely. We are always improving. We are never done. We are constantly working on stuff and making changes.
Nick: “Definitely. This year we are pushing really heavily on the quality of our mazes and our attractions. Next year, we are trying to add more to it and improve actor safety.
How long have you been in the scaring business?
Rix has been in the scaring business for 26 years.
Matt has been in the scaring business since 1991.
Nick has been in the scaring business since 2014.
What inspired the idea of the zombie survival experience?
Matt’s Flight and Fight mazes aren’t your typical haunted houses, so he said, “I got bored with normal haunted houses because they don’t scare me. When I walk through and somebody jumps out, it does nothing to me, but I have been fascinated by zombies, and I have always wondered if I would survive, so I came up with the idea of creating an attraction that would help find out if you would.”
After learning about the history of Fear Farms mazes and the owner’s work, these are the insights that we gathered from scare actors Autumn(zombie), Treyshaun (23, zombie), Logan (17, miner), Hannah (25, Clown), Nick (31, Outtake) at Fear Farm:
How long have you been a scare actor? What got you interested?
Nick became interested in his wife. He stated, “My wife one day said that we should go to this small haunt, which was coffin creak at the time, so I showed up and ended up meeting Matt, which led to where I am now.”
Logan became a scare actor this year, saying, “I have been going to Knotts Scary Farm and other haunts in general for about nine years.”
Treyshaun said, “I have been a scare actor since 2016.”
Hannah has been a scare actor for five years, and her family also does scare acting, which led to her interest in it.
What is your favorite thing about being a scare actor?
When Nick is in the flight maze, his favorite thing is “creativity. The scare is awesome because seeing my mind of what I envision by building it and putting it out there is cool, and seeing it being super successful.”
Autumn said, “My favorite thing is really scaring people because when they scream their heads off, it’s so funny.”
Treyshaun favorite thing is the ability to scare people. “I love the creepiness of the haunts and it feels like a family when we’re working in the maze as scare actors.”
Hannah said, “You get to come in here and be a totally crazy person, which you don’t get to do on a normal day.”
How would you inspire someone who would want to be a scare actor?
Every actor at Fear Farm is a firm believer in “just doing it,” whether that be because it’s fun or because of the family you make, everyone who is interested should take a deep breath and do what you love!
How do you get into character?
Logan said that the best way to get into character is by acting stupid.
Autumn’s best way to get into character is to start screaming as soon as people walk in.
Treyshaun said, “Since I am a zombie, I get into character by not thinking and just acting mindless.”
Hannah said, “I listen to a bunch of music before I get here to help get me into character.”
Is there something you wish to get better at while scaring?
Logan wishes he wouldn’t fall so much throughout the night.
Autumn hopes to learn how to slide when scaring.
Treyshaun wants to play different characters to expand his acting skills, such as a clown instead of a zombie.
Hannah stated, “I feel that if I get five scares one night, then I want to get ten scares the next night. I just want to keep getting better. It’s not always a technique thing; it’s just finding the right things to do.”
Buy your tickets and get more information at https://www.fearfarmie.com/.
