Halloween Horror Nights scare actors say they often deal with harassment and assault from belligerent guests

• Each year, theme parks such as Universal Studios have Halloween attractions.
• Actors are hired to help set the Halloween environment and frighten guests.

Scare actors at horror theme parks like Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando often have to deal with assault and harassment from belligerent guests for a job that pays little more than minimum wage, employees told Insider.

Workers wearing elaborate costumes and make-up at horror-fied theme parks say they enjoy scaring the living hell out of guests who willfully attend these attractions every Halloween season.

Peyton McCormick, an actor and comedian, is working her second year at Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights in Los Angeles, California. Her first year was a decade ago, in 2013.

She told Insider there's a unique pleasure in seeing guests' reactions when you've successfully terrified them.

"There is nothing more hilarious than seeing the fear on someone's face when you pop out and really get them," McCormick said. "So it's a very fulfilling job. There's a lot of times where I am cracking up right after a good scare."

But there are two caveats to the job, she said: The pay isn't great, and there are always people who get violent.

"The majority of people are wonderful and they showed up for the right reasons," McCormick said. "But there's always a handful of people, and by handful I mean a big handful of people who are there to start fights with the performers, it seems."

This year, McCormick says dealing with belligerent guests can be particularly frustrating as many of the employees at her park are also actors going without pay due to the Hollywood strike.

The SAG-AFTRA union, representing about 160,000 actors and other media employees, is in its third month of striking. Negotiations came to a halt on Wednesday.

"Performers have gone through a lot this year with these strikes," McCormick said. "We've had to fight so hard just to earn a living wage, which we don't necessarily still have, so we don't need to be punched in the face at work."

An unfortunate part of the job

Jordan Allen, a firefighter who works at horror theme parks during the season, told Insider that violent encounters with guests have been common even before he started working as a scare actor 14 years ago.

"I've had a handful of occasions through my years of scaring, where people actually try to throw punches at me," Allen, who currently works as a scare actor at Universal Studios Orlando, said. "One person got his hands on me, but I was able to subdue him to the ground."

While he couldn't say if guests were more problematic this season, Allen said the issue worsened in the past few years after the COVID lockdowns.

"I have seen with my own eyes multiple instances of just more aggression by people, even if it's just verbal," he said.

Women scare actors are often targets

McCormick and Allen say that the perpetrators can vary across the spectrum: old, young, men, women, sober, or drunk.

Alcohol is a factor, McCormick said, while adding that people also appear to be embarrassed that they've gotten scared.

"I guess it's their pride," she said. "They want to throw hands to make up for the fact that they were scared. It's funny because they paid for that exact experience."

Allen also said that the violators oftentimes can be drunk since alcohol sales are high at these events, and the mixture of the hectic "Halloween-type atmosphere" can call for chaos.

He recalled one instance in 2014 at Horror Nights when a large brawl broke out after a scare actor was attacked by six men, resulting in security deploying tear gas and Tasers.

Women scare actors can be more frequently targeted than their male co-workers, McCormick and Allen said.

Recently, actors costumed as Chrissy Cunningham, a minor character from Netflix's "Stranger Things," have been having the most issues, according to McCormick.

"The people who are cast in that role have to wear a cute little cheerleading uniform. And for some reason people think that gives them license to grab their legs or harass them in some way," she said. "There have been multiple complaints in a single evening just because people will not stop, kind of like, sexually harassing them while in that role."

Allen said he noticed that people would target smaller scare actors because guests might assume they're easier targets. In one case, he witnessed a guest tug on a scare actor's ponytail and pull her to the ground before running off.

He added people in more risque roles could also be subjected to more harassment.

McCormick said it may be one of the reasons Horror Nights has gone "less sexy" each year. In 2013, she recalled there being go-go dancers, "sexy nurses," and an overall more "sexier vibe."

"Now, the vibe is not sexy at all. It's just horrifying. Straight-up scary," she said. "Universal, if I can guess, has leaned less toward sexy costumes and sexy roles just because it's almost unfair to put an actor in that situation knowing they're going to be harassed."

'They're the last group of people who should ever be assaulted on the job'

In a statement to Insider, a spokesperson for Universal Destinations and Experiences said, "We have entertained millions of guests during Halloween Horror Nights over the years and we take the safety of our guests and Team Members very seriously. Universal has park policies and preventive measures in place to ensure a safe and fun experience."

Both scare actors also said Universal has taken many precautions to ensure workers are safe.

McCormick said that every scare actor has an emergency button within arm's reach that warns a security team and will also trigger CCTV cameras to record the moment.

She added that the managers are also sympathetic to employee concerns and are readily willing to switch actors' positions if they feel uncomfortable in a particular role.

In Orlando, Allen said every zone has coordinators and managers that will look out for the scare actors.

"Overall, I feel like they've got as best a protocol that they can for such a large event," he said.

Behind the scenes, McCormick says there's a unique camaraderie between all the employees, many of whom are in similar positions as aspiring actors or those with roles in TV, film, or as social media influencers.

That environment not only makes it great for networking but also provides an overall enjoyable work experience.

"It's a great group of people to be around," she said. "And they're the last group of people who should ever be assaulted on the job."