On a fall day near the end of September, sophomore broadcast major Samiar Nefzi gets an eerie feeling while walking through the ScareHouse and starts rushing to the exit until someone shuts the door, leaving him in darkness.

Although it seems like a conventional tactic used to scare visitors at the ScareHouse, Nefzi is actually supposed to be the one doing the scaring—he is one of the actors who hide in wait to jump out and scare visitors walking through the house.

“All the noise creeps you out, I’m really terrified of being alone there, it’s really unsettling,” Nefzi, who also works in the ScareHouse group sales team, said.

The ScareHouse is a haunted attraction that started in 1999, but moved to Etna in 2007 into a building more than 100 years old, which used to house meetings for a secret society known as the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE), a social club founded in the mid-1800s, according to BPOE’s website. Because of its history, several employees say the place is really haunted, and paranormal investigators have visited in an attempt to find evidence of spectral phenomenon.

“We didn’t know about the history when we bought this building, but we had people tell us about it,” Scott Simmons, co-owner of the ScareHouse, said.

“We’ve had people hear voices and see shadows when they were alone,” Katie Dudas, director of sales and marketing for ScareHouse, who was previously an actor, said. “We’ve had actors touched, and some people even see things.”

Simmons himself recalled a particular unexplained experience he had while working one night.

“I was here late at night, and I heard a very heavy door slam, and it couldn’t have done it by itself, so my first instinct was that someone broke in,” Simmons said. “I locked the door and ran outside across the street ready to call the police. After about 20 minutes, I realized nobody was there. I still get scared in there, especially when I’m alone.”

Now the ScareHouse has “well over 100 people,” from actors to designers to makeup artists, who bring spooky characters to life, according to Simmons. Veterans who have worked in the ScareHouse for years still come back to work every season in spite of creepy unexplained experiences. Several of the actors said that being the one scaring people is their favorite part of the job and is what makes them come back year after year.

“I mainly did it because I wanted to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone, and it’s a fun way to play,” Charissa Sedore, third year ScareHouse actress, said. “I like watching people have fun.”

“It’s fun, and it’s really cool that you get paid to scare people,” Tracy Campbell, an actress at ScareHouse since 2007, said before the doors opened.

Aspiring actors go through an audition process to become part of the haunt crew at ScareHouse, which includes a performance for a panel of judges, in addition to an interview. Dudas, who was previously an actress and is now on the judges’ panel, gave some advice on performing.

“Be silly, be loud and get out of your comfort zone, we have acting workshops where people get to go to practice, too,” Dudas said.

No acting experience is needed to play a character in ScareHouse, and although there are actors with a background in performing, there are others with no experience that still get into the job.

“I always wanted to work in a place like this, it was my dream job, and I heard this place was actually haunted,” Chelsey Prom, actress at the ScareHouse who started acting there last year, said.

Some of the actors said that getting into character was easy after getting into costume, such as Nefzi.

“There’s a real dehumanizing factor when you look in the mirror, the scratches and costume makes you feel evil, makes you bad,” Nefzi said.

Actors line up in front of the costume and makeup crew, who give each person a signature character look and costume, which the actors then adapt to. The costume and makeup departments help come up with characters and backstories for the actors to play.

“I get a lot of creative freedom and it’s a really collaborative environment,” Madison Hack, costume manager at ScareHouse in her second year, said.

“I enjoy doing this job, I help design the makeup looks for people,” Molie Hines, makeup manager at ScareHouse for three years, who also has a background in face painting, said.

The actors prepare themselves to be scary both in and out of the workplace. Some say that watching horror movies is a good way to get in the spirit.

“I hated horror movies prior to working here, but now I  like to find things that push me out of my comfort zone, and now I’m a big horror fan,” Jennifer Dallas, an actress at ScareHouse in her third year, said, while wearing clown makeup preparing for her role as Trixie the Clown. “I watched every possession movie, all the horror movies on Netflix and looked at alleged cases of possession to get ready.”

Dallas also said that the crew practices their mannerisms and vocals together before the attraction is open.

“We’ll all get in a room together and scream obscenities at each other to get the adrenaline pumping,” Dallas said.

Once they are ready, the actors get into places where they then hide until guests stumble across them. The actors enjoy the reactions they get from unsuspecting visitors, especially ones who work in the basement, an extra area of the ScareHouse where actors get physical.

“I was working in the basement and I grabbed someone from behind and held them against the wall, and I could just feel his heart pounding in his chest from it,” Campbell said.

In addition to the scaring aspects of the job, the crew members said that the friendships they have made in their time working are the reason they continue to come back every season.

“It’s like a family environment; all of the people are really fun and into it,” Ann Kelly, Show Manager at the ScareHouse for eight years, said about the crew of the ScareHouse.

The ScareHouse is open from 7 to 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays, and 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays until Oct. 30.