Trinity Graves oversees more than 100 monsters.
And that’s just part of her job description.
The Blue Island resident and Eisenhower High School graduate is the backstage manager of the Midnight Terror Haunted House in Oak Lawn and now that it’s October, she is in full swing teaching actors the right way on how to scare the bejesus out of paying customers.
“Definitely there is a huge amount of training that goes on behind the scenes,” Graves said. “We just don’t throw people in the show and say ‘OK, do what you want.’ There are rules and regulations as far as working with the public. There are limitations and boundaries the actors have to abide by.
“We want them trained a specific way. The hours that they put into that is something that is not seen by the public eye.”
While much of Graves’ work is behind the scenes, she is a part of the show as well. She plays Roxy, a horrid greaser who entertains guests who are waiting in line before the show.
“She’s a 50s greaser girl and she has a cage on her head,” Graves said of her alter ego. “And she is a little rebel.”
Graves/Roxy interacts with the crowd by sometimes scaring them or sometimes having fun.
“You have to read the crowd, talking to them to see what they say to you first,” she said. “Then you bounce off of that. If someone talks about my shoes, I’ll talk about their shoes.”
Recently some kids asked her to run around with the phone while their grandparents were watching on FaceTime.
Graves has also been a competitive dancer for years with City Nation in Midlothian and has competed in various state and national events.
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She read a social media advertisement about the haunted house and when she applied to be a scare actor, she had no idea how sophisticated the program was.
“I did not expect it to be so in depth. I think that’s one thing that people don’t realize about haunted houses is that there is so much that goes on behind the scenes,” she said. “There are 100 people who have to make the show happen as far as makeup artists, costume teams, actor trainers, actor managers, there is just a lot that goes into it all around.”
The nights are never the same around Midnight Terror.
“Every night is pretty much a gamble,” Graves said. “You can get the crowd that is fun and very into it. You can get the people who are so scared they don’t want to look at you.
“You could get the crowd where people are a little more aggressive. It’s something you have to be aware of when you go into it. That’s where the training comes in so that they can read the crowd because you never know what you are getting into.”
The shows change from year to year. There are new animatronics, props, masks and costumes.
Creator/owner Justin Cerniuk, who started the project in 2014, said the goal is to make each year scarier than the last.
“We’ve added more actors than ever before and specially trained them to terrify our visitors more effectively,” Cerniuk said in a news release. “We’re also allowing our performers greater flexibility in how and where they scare, empowering them to modify and creatively enhance their characters as they see fit so that our patrons get a more memorable fright experience.”
Midnight Terror, 5520 W. 111th St., is wheelchair accessible and open from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays: Oct. 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, and 28 and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays and select weekdays: Oct. 8, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29, 30, and 31.
The admission, ranging from $30-65, provides access to two interconnected, mazelike haunted houses under one roof — Black Oak Grove, and the Factory of Malum.
Graves, 23, said actors who have worked at Midnight Terror have gone on to perform on stages in New York and in movies in Los Angeles. She hopes she can someday dance or get a part in a horror movie.
For now, she gets a kick out of interacting with people at the haunted house.
“It’s nice to see people get scared and then crack a smile,” she said. “That’s something that’s really rewarding because they are enjoying themselves and having fun.
“You are the entertainment, and those types of reactions get the people to keep coming back. I think it’s nice to see people enjoying the show.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.