A scary amount of work brings Howl-O-Scream to life at SeaWorld San Diego

MISSION BAY – “I get to chase guests with a knife.”

Some people just find their dream job. Emma Elizondo did. She plays “Jay,” sort of a demon nymph in the Carnival of Chaos.

Jay lurks, and sometimes crawls, along the walkway near the Circus of the Damned and springs into action to scare the mini churros out of guests’ hands as they try to dodge the petite prankster.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Elizondo, as a makeup artist added finishing touches to her look about 90 minutes before this season’s Howl-O-Scream opening night on Sept. 12.

The 22-year-old self-described contortionist, who competed in gymnastics in school, is now in her third year as a SeaWorld San Diego scare actor. “I can do the creepy crawly thing, and I like that I get to be a freak.”

For the more than 150 scare actors SeaWorld San Diego hires for Howl-O-Scream, getting their freak on becomes an annual part-time gig.

“I like to say they get bitten by the scare bug,” said Alexander Krikes, entertainment specialist and producer at SeaWorld San Diego. “We have open auditions in June and a lot of people return year after year.”

And the scares come in all ages. “Oh yeah, it’s not just young people,” Krikes said. “We have actors who have day jobs – dentists, lawyers, teachers – and do this at night. They like getting paid to scare people.”

Even magicians. Kenny Shelton, 41, is a mild-mannered professional magician from Alpine who performs at birthday parties, corporate offices, and on stage. But during evenings from mid-September to Nov. 1 for the past three years, Shelton assumes the character “Mayhem,” a sadistic magician within the Carnival of Chaos.

Why so sadistic? “Because the circus people burned me alive and sent me to hell. But I escaped and returned to wreak havoc with my Dark Magic – anyway, that’s what my backstory says,” Shelton said.

When Mayhem performs his vile vignettes for the guests, he usually chooses an eager volunteer to help him hammer a 5-inch-long nail into his head, and then yank it out.

“It’s fun to see people squirm. One guy got scared and started to run away, but his pants fell down. The reactions of and interactions with the guests are the best part, and that one was memorable.”

What happens if a guest gets too spooked or aggressive? “All the performers look out for each other,” Shelton said. “We work together as a team.”

For SeaWorld San Diego, it takes a massive amount of teamwork and more than five months to put this event together. Eight scare zones, five haunted houses, and several vile vignettes need concepts and storylines.

“Our team creates and designs character profiles and staging for each role,” said Tracy Spahr, director of public relations at SeaWorld San Diego. “Then we will work with our costume shop on designs and make-up artists on their final looks.”

The park starts building the haunted houses in April. “Once a house theme is completed, our culinary team develops accompanying speakeasies for each house with exclusive, themed drinks for each house,” Spahr said.

After five years of putting Howl-O-Scream together, does anything frighten her anymore? “Simon’s Slaughterhouse is probably the scariest of the haunted houses, but honestly, you never know what is lurking through the pathways,” Spahr said.

If it’s a clown lurking, then you may have taken a wrong turn off a pathway into the Circus of the Damned and met “Patricia,” who pops out of the wall with a high-pitched giggle that causes goosebumps to stand at attention.

Isaac Naftalin, 27, a soft-spoken massage therapy student from San Diego, has played Patricia the clown for three years. “You know what? When I was little, I was scared of clowns. Now I get to do the scaring.”

Naftalin has developed the character over the years, adjusting the makeup and adding the scream/giggle to get better reactions. “I love to interact with people, and I get a variety of reactions. One year, this young girl stopped and stared at me, and then wagged her finger and just said, ‘No!’”

Makeup artist Lety Bernal can take some credit for Patricia’s scares, as she helped create the clown’s demented look. “At first, I used John Wayne Gacy as inspiration, because who is a scarier clown than that?”

Bernal is in her fourth year of making performers into gruesome characters and enjoys the camaraderie. “We have a great team and a lot of talented artists. SeaWorld provides us with face charts, but we put our own twist on them. I love being creative.”

Whether you’re roaming the pathways or taking blind turns in the haunted houses, just waiting for those jump scares, the engagement of the characters and details of the attractions can make this unique event into a wild night with friends.

“It’s a fun group experience,” Krikes said. “It’s a safe place to experience some fear.”

Howl-O-Scream highlights

Haunted Houses

• Nightmare Experiment Sweet DreamzZz, guests are led through a converted asylum now run by a mysterious pharmaceutical company, testing a sleep aid with horrifying side effects.
• Deathwater Bayou Awakening, where a Mardi Gras night in New Orleans takes a dark turn – guests are bewitched and dragged into a cursed bayou
• Circus of the Damned unleashes chaos and confusion in a neon-lit, 3-D clown nightmare.
• Simon’s Slaughterhouse delivers a gruesome walk through a deranged meat factory.
• Area 64: Alien Outbreak brings extraterrestrial terror, luring guests inside a quarantined facility where aliens have slipped loose.

Scare Zones

• Overgrowth, an overrun greenhouse where a botanist’s mutant plant experiments now feed on passersby.
• Ripper Row, where the infamous killer still stalks fog-drenched streets.
• Deadly Toys, featuring demonic dolls and twisted plush playthings.
• Carnival of Chaos, where deranged carnies wait to recruit new victims.

Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld San Diego runs through Nov. 1. More information and tickets can be found here.