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Today I interview Cecilia Calhoun, a haunted house designer and actor. Cecilia shares how she initially overcame her fear of scary things and got involved in the haunted house industry. She discusses her experiences working in haunted houses and running her own charity haunted house in high school and a dorm haunted house in college. Cecilia's creative process involves focusing on creating realistic and unsettling experiences for visitors, tapping into their senses and leaving them feeling uncomfortable and wanting to take a shower after the experience.

[00:04:00] Origin story of fear.

[00:07:39] Realism in creating scares.

[00:11:34] Training sessions and fun.

[00:15:00] The fight or flight response.

[00:18:42] Smelly maze mishap.

[00:24:02] Techniques to create scares.

[00:27:10] Disturbing character at haunted house.

[00:33:00] Playing with levels in scares.

[00:34:00] Indoor vs outdoor haunts.

[00:37:38] Ultimate haunted house scares.

[00:41:43] Psychological breakdowns of actors.

[00:44:43] Working multiple jobs and exhaustion.

[00:48:37] Mirror maze secrets.

[00:53:00] Minimum age for haunted houses.

[00:55:46] Haunted houses and kids.

[01:00:00] Using sea shanties for audio.

Find Cecilia here: TikTok - @andherewesew

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