“Boo University” Offers Scary Learning Opportunities

Each year at haunted houses around North Texas, thousands of people line up -- and pay -- to be scared.

But behind the scenes, there's a whole crew of people who are paid to be here -- and paid to do everything they can to scare you.

"I love sitting there, waiting," said stage manager Donald Patterson. "It's like a hunter waiting on their prey. I can sit back in the dark and just wait for them to come by and I pop out and scare 'em. They're so frightened, they don't even want to look at me anymore, they just keep on running."

Every Thursday at 7 p.m., up until Halloween, the Cutting Edge attraction in Fort Worth opens their costume shelves to actors who want to transform themselves into frightening spooks. They call it "Boo University" -- teaching the intricate art of scary.

The first lesson is pretty simple.

"What would scare you? Then do that to somebody," Patterson said. "If a clown scares you, be a clown and scare people."

"I love scaring people, knowing their expression -- it's so hard not to laugh sometimes," actress Sophia Livingston said.

Livingston's part of the acting staff and focuses on makeup. How powerful is the makeup part of being scary? Using herself as an example, Livingston goes from a young girl to a scary ghoul (as seen in the photo above).

"It's a long vigorous process, it can be pretty stressful sometimes," Patterson said. "You got 60 [actors] in here every night getting makeup... it's very stressful."

You won't get a degree when you graduate this university, but you will have some fun, some laughs and some serious spooks.

Cutting Edge Haunted House is at 1701 East Lancaster in Fort Worth and has "Boo University" every Thursday at 7 p.m. until Halloween.

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