CSU student works as haunt actor and gives insight about professionally scaring.
Written by Kirsten Kimbler
For five days a week, Dylan Winchel is a full-time student at Cleveland State University. As many other students wrap up their week, however, Winchel’s chilling weekend is just beginning. His unusual part-time job is located just over an hour away at Cedar Point, where Winchel, 22, is a scare actor for the park’s Halloweekend events.
"Winchel explained that once you put the costume on, you must entirely become the character you’re acting as."
Winchel has been scaring at Halloweekends and various other haunted houses since 2021, but his passion started when he was just a child.
Winchel’s stepfather has always been a huge fan of Halloween, so much so that Winchel said their house became a haunted house. That is where he got his first taste for scare acting and developed a love for Halloween.
“It’s giving people experiences that, for 10 months out of the year, they won’t get again,” Winchel said.
For Winchel, scare acting is more than a part-time job, it is an emotional outlet unlike any other. Scaring allows for an emotional release that is not socially accepted in many places, which adds to the allure of scare acting.
“It’s not an experience you can find anywhere else,” Winchel said. “Haunt acting is an outlet for expressing yourself.”
Winchel said that scare acting is a beneficial way of becoming someone or something you are not and expressing yourself in a completely new way. Winchel described it as a means to let out buried emotions and forget the person you typically are.
“All of the responsibility of being yourself disappears,” Winchel said. “It allows for a moment to be as weird and open as you want to be.”
When it comes to being truly scary, there’s nothing more important than embarrassing yourself, according to Winchel.
“Be prepared to make the biggest fool of yourself,” he said. “Be embarrassing.”
Winchel explained that once you put the costume on, you must entirely become the character you’re acting as. Being scary is about letting go of the regular constraints of society and becoming the most boisterous, dramatic version of your character he said.
When getting ready to scare, Cedar Point actors are reminded to always be louder and more outgoing than they already are. According to Winchel, no matter how scary an actor believes they are, guests will see them as less scary than that.
“If you see yourself as an 11, guests see you as an eight,” Winchel said. “If you see yourself as an eight, guests see you as a five.”
Unlike many jobs, terrifying people is the goal of scare acting, or at least this is how Winchel viewed it when he started scaring. Now, he has learned that the true goal of scaring is giving guests the most enjoyable experience, which is also the biggest reward.
Winchel said he has always enjoyed making others feel better about themselves, and considers it an honor to be able to do that through scare acting.
Winchel explained that two years ago, while playing a character named Killian, a guest approached him with a few pieces of artwork drawn of his character.
The guest had been at Halloweekends every week that year and was such a fan of Killian that she wanted to show her appreciation for Winchel’s scare acting through her artwork.
“To me, it’s just a job,” Winchel said, “but others get to see something a bit bigger than themselves, and a bit bigger than me.”
For those that may be interested in scare acting, Winchel said to really, truly do it. Scare acting is a welcoming community, and once you scare someone for the first time, you will never want to stop, he said.
“Scaring acting is open to anyone and one of the most inclusive groups of people,” Winchel said. “You will never feel left out no matter who you are.”
Here are more behind-the-scenes images of Dylan putting on his scare face in his costume!
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