Horror-obsessed woman gets dream job scaring people on Halloween

By Kate Pounds via SWNS

A life-long horror obsessive landed her dream job - as a scare actor.

Michelle De Feo, 32, loves Halloween and used to host horror sleepovers in a converted stable when she was a teen.

Now the actress spends six nights a year scaring people as part of a Halloween-themed attraction.

Michelle spends her time hiding and jumping out on people, and creepily following them about.

She gets to scare around 600 people a year in her job - which she is now doing for the fourth year running.

She loves putting on her horror make-up - to dress up as a possessed child, dentist or nurse maid, - before driving to work to scare the public while she's driving and when she stops for fuel.

Michelle, from Colchester, Essex, said: "I just love the looks I get - it's really funny.

"It's my absolute dream job - I just wish I could do it all year round like you can in America, but I like living near my family.

"I just love Halloween, I always have, and I love scaring people.

"I've done something for Halloween every year since I was a little kid.

"We lived on a farm and always did really scary Halloween scenes.

"I love horror and anything spooky – you have to be a horror freak to do this job.

"I went to a scare attraction about eight years ago and I was hooked.

"I just remember thinking 'I just want that to be my job.'"

Michelle works as a TV extra during the rest of the year but can't work full time due to endometriosis and Lyme disease.

During October she works evenings at Trinity Scares, in Ipswich, Suffolk, which runs from October 18 until 31.

She also talked her partner, Gavin Conlan, 46, an actor, into joining her as a scare actor - and he chases people with a chain saw and dresses up as a hospital patient.

Trinity Scares is a huge maze and a series of Halloween-themed areas - like castles and graveyards.

It takes about an hour and a half to go around, and includes barns, tents, woods and cabins.

Michelle likes to buy her own costumes, and so far has collected long Victorian nighties, a nun's habit and wimple, some medical scrubs, and a Victorian maid outfit.

Michelle said: "Personally I find the dark corridors the scariest - they're pitch black.

"I also find the strobe lighting extremely disorienting, I can't work in those areas.

"My best scares have been in the corridors - one man I jumped out on was petrified. He fell over and his trousers fell down, it was extremely funny.

"He was laughing too so that was OK.

"I cornered a woman in the corridors, I was dressed as the possessed girl from the Exorcist, the girl was terrified but she offered me a hug, that was one of my favorite moments.

"It's amazing when you get a group who are really into it and up for a laugh - you just bounce off each other and it's such a great feeling.

"I just love all of it, it's a great job, but you wouldn't want to do it if you are a scaredy cat."