As parents look forward to the start of a new school year and kids begin to think about that perfect costume, fall hayrides, apple bobbing and trick or treating, we walked around West Orange for some sweet treats, and sat down with someone whose work aims to send a chill down your spine.
When walking into Supreme Bakery in town, you’re welcomed into a bright, spacious room with displays chock full of pastries and baked goods. The workers are amicable, and spoke at length about their seasonal options -- there is something new for every holiday, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Not only that, but they are happy to provide recommendations if you’re feeling indecisive, which I appreciated! The amount of options can feel overwhelming at first, but the friendliness of the staff made things easy. Some of their cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and pastries are also allergen-friendly, allowing patrons with gluten-free and other dietary restrictions to find something for themselves as well.
When you’re done with your treats, feel free to sign up for some tricks! We spoke with Wolf, a scare entertainment actor and creator of custom haunted house experiences.
Wolf has always loved the haunted house genre, but from his first visit to the Haunted Mansion in Long Branch, New Jersey, he was hooked. While the ambiance of the space intrigued him, the sense of pride and accomplishment after completing the experience had a longer lasting effect. After teaching film to students for some time, Wolf now works closely with schools and students to help them create and display a haunted house experience. We asked him some questions about his work in scare acting and how he adapts that for an audience.
What is your favorite part of the job?
My favorite part of the job is being challenged creatively. Schools have been hiring me to come in one week in October, and they say “We want to have a haunted house for our school, heard you’re the guy to talk to. What can we do?” Well, we can either do a walkthrough, we can do a one-area kind of haunt, we can put on a haunted production where you’re sitting in seats, quite a few ideas. Sometimes they’ll give me [a space] like a “haunted garden”, and I come back with [it] being a hiding place for an alien invasion, and I’ll teach the kids how to scare, how to create things with paper mache and plastiques, rubber materials, latex…I help them to develop scary, creepy sounds as they go through this thing.
Do you put on a show, teach kids how to build their own haunted house, or both?
It’s a bit of both. I’m teaching kids how to structure it and put it together, but I’m also teaching them how the business should run. Usually for their clubs, their fan club, their film club or glee club, but if we’re building this, everything has to be done by a certain time. Once we get into the middle of it, that's when we know we’re gonna be able to finish it and we can start selling tickets.
What do you like more- planning things out, like figuring out how to turn that garden into an alien invasion, or the final product?
The execution. It’s proper planning, but the key point is working the imagination. You’ve gotta really go far out there, you can’t just take a piece of cardboard and paint on it, there’s just not a scare factor. That’s when the research comes in, which is supposed to be the fun part- we sit and watch horror movies, we look and see “oh, I like that idea. See how that girl got chased? How about we have a mannequin on wheels and they hear the sound effects and see the chainsaw, but since it's dark and smoky, they won’t even realize it’s not a real person?” I’m like “That’s it! That works, let’s do it. We’ll make the arms out of wire so it swings toward them and pushes them into the next room. Let’s get the crew together and let’s get the materials.”
So that “lightbulb moment” is really something special.
Oh, it is.
How do you feel when you scare someone?
I like scaring people, but I'm not looking to hurt them. When I work for Bane, their biggest thing is they don’t care who it is. If you’ve got a family who brings their seven year old kid, you scare them the same as you scare someone who’s eighty years old. We don’t want anyone having a heart attack, but bad news is good news. We had a lady pass out, and we had to call an ambulance. There was a full line of people, and once they saw the ambulance show up and somebody get carried out, that’s when the line got bigger. Everybody goes to social media, and then all of a sudden the next day, we got three times the line because somebody tweeted something. But for me, I scare you for fun. If you're scared but yet you will walk outside, you're laughing, and you remember me, that’s the key point of why I put everything together and do it.
What is your most unusual experience scaring someone?
I'm dressed up in leather, jacket and all--wearing Pigman, my face is distorted, I’m looking gruesome. I’m pushing people along, and as someone enters my room I see this little girl. I'm like okay this is gonna be fun, they’re going to have to walk her out. I put on the whole act as hard as I can, and she looks at me and I thought oh, this is working. She’s going into a catatonic state. She’s not moving, her eyes are wide open… Yeah, right!
I’m doing all my facial expressions, the snarling, the teeth… biggest performance I ever got. This little girl looks up at me with these sad eyes and all of a sudden she holds her arms out.
I said “Did you come here with mom and dad? Do you want me to get them?” She says “Please.” I walk her outside, and I found her parents.
Before I left, I said “Before you go, why weren't you scared?” She said “I didn't see anything scary. The only thing I saw was your heart.” I almost burst into tears! That’s how she knew everything was going to be okay.
Wolf can be found on Instagram and Facebook at Wolflyght Arts or Wolflyght Films (spelled with a Y, not an I). On a parting note, he says:
would love it if everyone takes that time of the year to do a few things: have fun, face your fears, and be creative. Those are the three major mottos that define the things that I do, and if people can wrap themselves around those three things, then mission I accomplished, you know?
Sometimes they’ll give me [a space] like a “haunted garden”, and I come back with [it] being a hiding place for an alien invasion, and I’ll teach the kids how to scare..
I would love it if everyone takes that time of the year to do a few things: have fun, face your fears, and be creative.
I scare you for fun. If you're scared but yet you will walk outside, you're laughing, and you remember me, that’s the key point of why I put everything together..