PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Every October, a fleet of artists comes together to make people bloody.

For hours at a stretch, they apply wounds to innocent victims, rotting flesh to zombies and sinister visages to unfriendly clowns.

And they’re having a great time.

“I honestly love working with the gore and the blood,” says Sue Weil, assistant makeup manager for the ScareHouse. The haunted attraction has been chilling visitors for more than 20 years; from 2020-23, they did so at Pittsburgh Mills Mall, turning a former clothing store into a maze of monsters and misdirection. (The traditional haunt is on hiatus this year, though they’ve revived their extreme, immersive attraction, “The Basement,” and launched a vampire-themed mocktail experience, “The Chipped Fang.”)

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

The ScareHouse has become known for the high quality of its effects and makeup. Last year, on each operating night — mostly weekends in September and October — actors punched the clock in the former break room of a bygone H&M location before reporting to Weil and her team to be transformed.

“There’s anywhere from 35 to 45 actors that we get ready in a very short amount of time — two hours, roughly,” Weil says. “It’s crazy in there.”

Among the folks redirecting that nightly madness is Katt Kersting, who will apply makeup to others — she’s won awards at Steel City Con for her cosplay creations — before suiting up herself. Kersting plays the Bride, a demented (and quite possibly deceased) charmer in a wedding dress who stalks guests as they arrive.

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

The Bride has become a recognizable character, appearing in ScareHouse advertisements and on the attraction’s merchandise. But recurring creatures and ghouls make up only a small portion of the overall roster each night, says Taryn Barnes, one of the ScareHouse’s makeup artists.

“Bruises and scratches” make up a lot of the output, according to Barnes. “There’s a lot of basic zombies … There’s a lot of demons and such. There’s very few that are actually face characters,” the term for recognizable, consistent characters such as The Bride or Dave the Clown, a hulking jester with a nasty habit of sneaking up on unsuspecting guests with a bicycle horn ready to blast.

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Some of the workers, including Barnes, apply makeup for hours then head into the haunt itself, switching from makeup artist to haunt actor in a matter of minutes. Barnes’ favorite part of the job, she says, is “making grown men fall to the ground in fear.”

“The team is fantastic,” says Melissa Sapienza-Garrett, the ScareHouse’s operations manager. “They’re always killing it and working together — they are just little makeup machines.”

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

That’s evident in the speed with which performers pass through the bustling makeup area. Some are in and out in moments — performers wearing masks typically only receive a bit of shadow around the eyes. Others are there for more than an hour; Dave the Clown sits for an hour or more, patiently waiting for every detail to take shape.

“Makeup is a vital part of the characters,” Sapienza-Garrett says. “If the makeup is not done correctly, it can make or break the character itself.” That can also require consideration of the unique lighting conditions inside a haunted attraction; the makeup has to be catered to the twists and turns of a dim, maze-like environment.

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

“You could have a character that looks completely normal under normal lights, but you throw them in an [ultraviolet] room and they have completely crazy designs,” Barnes says.

As for Weil’s preference: She has a fondness for the many macabre clowns that stalk the ScareHouse corridors. She’d just like them a bit more maudlin.

“We don’t really put any blood on our clowns. I would prefer blood on them … I honestly love working with the gore and the blood — that’s my favorite.”

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