Ashley Young
- Ashley Young worked at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights as a scareactor for five years.
- She would get home from work at 3 a.m. and says the job is physically demanding but so satisfying.
- This is her story and what the job was like, as told to Phil Rosen.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Ashley Young, a 26-year-old model and actress who worked as a scareactor for five years at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights and now lives in London. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My mom, an Orlando, Florida, native, has always loved all things spooky. She's been going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios for a long, long time. When my twin sister and I were 11 years old, we begged her to take us with her – and we loved it. We became superfans and would go multiple times each year.
In 2013, when my sister and I turned 18, my mom told us that she signed us up for scareactor auditions (maybe she did this for the free tickets). We both got parts and continued to participate for five years in a row.
You do work long hours, but it's really a rewarding job – and definitely one of the most fun jobs I've ever had
There are usually about eight main houses you can work at at Halloween Horror Nights, each with a different theme, like "The Conjuring" or "The Walking Dead."
From 2013-2016, I was part of "The Walking Dead" cast. Then in 2017 I was part of "Festival of the Deadliest" and "Revenge of Chucky" in 2018. People are usually in one cast per season.
Working in the house means a lot of repetitive movements. While on the street, you have to be acting 100% of the time, so that gets tiring.
But it's fun because you really get a scare every single time you jump out and you get the creative freedom of embodying the character and making it your own.
The creative team already has characters in mind when they have a group come in for casting, so when you come in for auditions they decide if you fit a specific role in the main house or the street.
For example, I was assigned a zombie role because I'm tall and slim with one arm. No role is really better than another, it's just whatever fits the bill for a character.
When you get to work, you can spend over an hour in makeup and costume, especially if you have really complicated prosthetics
At one point, I was fixed with a complicated face prosthetic that made it look like I had one eyeball hanging out of my eye socket. Some of the actors only had some blood splattered on them or they would wear a mask, so their makeup would only take a few minutes.
If you're a scareactor working a house, you usually show up around 3 or 4 p.m., but if you're working the park or the streets, you come in a bit later. I usually would get home from work around 2 or 3 a.m.
This sounds bad, but when you scare someone and they jump so badly they shatter their phone or something, it's so satisfying
Since I have only one arm, people are already uneasy when they see me. But I still have my elbow and a tiny bit of my arm, so what I would do is bend my elbow over and over to create this tiny movement. That would guarantee people got really horrified and confused. That was my favorite scare, and it just worked every time.
The drunk guests were always hard to deal with. There were guests who would feel entitled, so they would reach out and touch you or hit you even. But even with that, this job is where I met some of the most amazing people I've come across. Everyone just had so much love for what we were doing every night.
I grew so close with the cast and coworkers
Everyone would come back year after year. We'd go in and talk about our day jobs together, and we really worked in this great family-oriented atmosphere.
At the time, I used to work as a scuba diver during the day, from about 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., then I would have to clock in at 7:00 p.m. at Universal Studios. Most of the scareactors work two jobs because it's just a seasonal role from September to October.
We got all types of people, like construction workers, firefighters, police - a lot of us weren't professional actors, but the role really hones your skills in that direction
For people thinking about scareactor jobs, definitely consider your mental and physical health. It's long hours, late at night and early into the morning, and it's physically demanding.
I ended up moving from Orlando to London in 2018, but if I still lived there, I'm sure I would still be doing Halloween Horror Nights every year.