He slips on a wrinkled mask, pulls on his blood-splattered costume and clears his throat in preparation for a long night of shrieking. Within moments Matthew McConnell has made the transition from lanky teenage boy to a nightmare-worthy monster. Some may say McConnell has an odd job, but he thinks it is the best job in the world.

McConnell, senior, works as an actor at Creepyworld, the self-proclaimed largest haunted house in the world, where he scares customers every Friday through Sunday night from September to November for $10 an hour. McConnell applied for the job in July through an audition in which he tried to scare the manager of Creepyworld. Two weeks later, McConnell was notified of his impressive performance; he got the job.

“I was just kind of ecstatic,” McConnell said. “It’s scaring people for money. There’s not too many jobs out there that are better. Ever since then, I was just waiting for the first day.”

McConnell was drawn to Creepyworld by his previous Halloween traditions in which he set up a haunted scene at his friend’s grandmother’s house, dressed up with friends and stood motionless in the yard to scare trick-or-treaters.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, I kind of want to do this more professionally’ because it was fun, but at the same time, it didn’t have all the huge things that a haunted house has,” McConnell said

When his choices came down to Creepyworld, The Darkness or Lemp Brewery, McConnell chose Creepyworld because of its closer proximity to home.

His first day at Creepyworld was Friday, Sept. 13, when the scream park officially opened for the season. To prepare, McConnell took actor training classes at Creepyworld in which he learned skills such as proper diaphragm use for making noises, scare tactics and various other tricks of the trade. He was put in the “Pig Farm,” the haunted attraction mimicking a slaughterhouse, and thus began his new occupation.

“It’s pretty physically and vocally draining,” McConnell said. “Whenever people come through they only see each actor scare them for like 10 to 20 seconds and that’s it. They don’t think about the fact that we have to [scare people] over and over for four to six hours. But you get used to it.”

According to McConnell, a lot of actors work in scare boxes where the employees pop out of a hidden box in the wall as groups come through the attraction. McConnell said the managers encourage actors to use only vocals and movement, straying away from actual speaking.

“You can’t break character. You can’t act like a normal person when customers are looking at you,” McConnell said. “It’s especially funny to get the macho man of the group who’s all like ‘Oh nothing scares me’ and then you get him real good and everyone else just laughs at him.”

The importance placed on vocals has led McConnell to practice his shrieks and yells more–even when off the job. McConnell said he gets inspired by the movements and sounds in horror movies and practices new noises on the drive to and from work. He even attempts to scare his friends.

“You end up wanting to make all the noises and scare people all the time,” McConnell said. “Sometimes I just can’t help it because making noises and practicing them and getting better at them is just so much fun, but I can switch the character off if I need to.”

McConnell agrees working at Creepyworld has been a great experience. He said he is sad the job is seasonal because of how much fun he has working.

“Matt has done phenomenally. I am proud to say he is in my section,” Haley Hall, lead actor in the Pig Farm attraction at Creepyworld, said. “He does what he’s expected to do and even more. It’s rare to have an actor as dedicated as him.”

Looking ahead, McConnell plans to audition again next year so he can work for Creepyworld another season. As for mere students planning to attend a haunted house this year, McConnell has one piece of advice:

“Don’t be in the middle; that’s where we’re told to scare the most,” McConnell said. “Whenever I hear people come up arguing about who’s going first I think, ‘just stay in the middle so I can get you.’ After that we scare the person who’s afraid of us the most.”