Oct 25, 2002 By Angie Santello For The 5 min read

Brandon Smith spends his October weekend nights lurking in the dank graveyard at a nearby haunted attraction. Threatening to chase away visitors traveling on the footpath curving through his graveyard home, the 21-year-old Fairchance man searches for a candidate to satisfy his distorted appetite for brains. “Seeing the look on people’s faces – when people are afraid – gives you more confidence to scare more people,” Smith said.

Smith, who is decked out in an old dingy tuxedo suit to pull off his zombie role, said he recently had the chance to frighten someone so much that she stumbled over a tree stump. She fell onto the ground where she laid, laughing for at least five minutes.

“You must think in your head, ‘I don’t care what people think, I’m going out there to act stupid and to be scary,'” Smith said. “That’s when you’re really prepared to scare.”

Smith, an employee of the haunted amusement for three years, explains that the only problems he faces while working as the ghastly zombie are the struggle to keep warm on those long, cold nights and the rowdy second nature of some graveyard travelers.

“We attempt to ignore people when they want to hit or push,” Smith said. “Security is around 24-7, and that tends to keep the peace.” Working her second consecutive year at the event, Holly Siders, 21, plays the demanding role of “The Exorcist.” Siders can be found on the haunted mansion’s third level, where she performs bodily contortions from her place on a raggedy bed.

Speaking about her ability to keep the energy to frighten continuous, Siders said she pulls it from inside herself. Siders said she tries to become the character.

“You get all the make-up on, put on the costume and then imagine that you’re that character,” she said. “I’ve had the chance to frighten people a lot. I’ve made people scream.”

Stressing that the atmosphere before show time is “very hectic,” Siders stood looking through costumes as approximately 100 teen-agers and young adults poured in and out of the backroom additions that act as a sound booth, a costume and make-up dressing room and a lounge area.

Sounds including the music from the radio, the hustle and bustle of foot traffic on plywood boards, the rustle of costumes and the conversation on show-time preparations fill the air, as numerous people witness their once-pleasant faces transformed into those of ghouls, ghosts and goblins.

Sitting in the barber-type chairs, actors and actresses gaze into the tall mirrors as the transformation occurs before their eyes. Thanks to the various on-staff make-up artists, who are busily planting devil horns, painting black eyes and creating the appearance of blood and scars on the young faces, the transformations appear real.

In the festival area, the crowd continues to pour in, as the bonfire blazes, ticket colors light, hot chocolate, burgers and fries are bought and special guests are greeted.

Kristin Vansickle, 14, was caught just as she exited the haunted tour – still filled with fright. She said this marked the third time that she took the haunted trip. But she admitted that she never travels alone as she motioned to her pack of friends and relatives braving the journey along with her.

Although Kristin may have withstood the test of terror three times, her traveling partner, 13-year-old Leslie Vansickle said that it was the first time she’s been on the tour.

“I screamed a lot at everything,” Leslie said. She and her friends explained that the exiting tunnel and the dark parts, where it is almost impossible to see, were their favorite parts of the tour.

Nine-year-old identical twins Samantha and Tricia of McClellandtown have ventured to the haunted attraction twice this October to enjoy the scary sites.

The twins mentioned numerous parts that frightened them throughout the tour. Among the frights that put a tremendous scare into the twins was the schoolteacher, who pounded on her desk with a paddle and demanded that patrons “report to the principal’s office.”

Additions to their terrifying scares were a girl with horns on her head, who was said to have chased Samantha around the maze, and the two monsters at the beginning and end of the attraction, who were armed with chainsaws. The monsters frightened visitors as they moved closer to them.

“Samantha ran so fast that she left behind her mom,” chimed in the twins’ mother, 42-year-old Sissy.

With wide-eyes and big smiles, both twins agreed that they would return next year to be filled with fright all over again.

“I’ll go again next year 27 times,” shouted Samantha.

But, Tricia has other plans. When she grows old enough to participate, she wants to become transformed into one of the spooks herself.

“I always tell myself that I want to be one of those actors,” Tricia said. “My mom tells me that their just actors. Samantha and I know that they are just make-believe.”