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Terror(izing) in Buena Park  Photos by MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo Makeup artist Denice Paxton, 34, transforms Rafu Shimpo reporter Joyce Tse into a zombie. |
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It helps that my photographer, Mario, is standing in the shadows behind me—otherwise I’d be scared too. The other monsters, while normal folks underneath the makeup and masks, are so convincingly undead that they’re giving me chills. For a fan of all things undead, I’m a big chicken. Before my big debut Friday night, I meandered around Knott’s back lot, seeing throngs of monsters, ghosts and ghouls in all stages of makeup and dress, hurriedly preparing for the seventh day of this year’s Haunt. Some of them doing mundane things like drinking sodas made me laugh. I have to admit, it was my first time seeing a vampire on a cell phone.
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Nearby, former Rafu subscriber Keith Kitagawa, 31, of Buena Park was tying back his waist-length hair. In his sixth year of Halloween Haunt, Kitagawa was dressing for his role as a “cantankerous caretaker” in 13 Axe Murder Manor, a Victorian mansion maze filled with horrors untold. Typically, maze monsters work their way up to becoming street monsters like Mathias, where they have more freedom roaming among park visitors outside the confines of maze walls. They can run, jump from bushes or slide on knee pads out of the heavy fog that descends on the many of the park’s walkways. Before adding finishing touches to his costume, Kitagawa imparted some tips on being a convincing monster to me before my appointment with my makeup artist. “Everybody has their own style of doing things,” said the Web site programmer by day. “A couple things I like to do is appear out of nowhere, if possible, and lunge at people.” Another piece of advice that made me feel better about my lackluster zombie skills later that evening also came from Kitagawa, who said, “Even if you don’t scare people directly, or even if you do scare them, as long as you entertain them and everyone’s having a good time, it’s great.” Yearly, Halloween Haunt, for all the fear it instills in visitors, is profitable, according to Jennifer Blazey, a spokeswoman for the park. “We don’t give out actual numbers, but 15 percent of our annual numbers come in October, so this is a huge thing for us. The key is that people can enjoy being scared, but it’s in a safe environment,” Blazey said. Sitting down with my makeup artist Denice Paxton, 34, of Irvine, I was amazed at how long she has been with Knott’s Scary Farm. Although she is a full-time software developer for Washington Mutual, Paxton, bubbly and exceedingly nice, has devoted the last 17 years to participating in Halloween Haunt—meaning she has been doing this from the time she was first able—after graduating high school. “I’ve always loved Halloween,” she said. “My family was really into Halloween. Four or five other houses in my neighborhood would have displays and we’d all try to outdo each other. It started out with graveyards, making fake blood and chasing people in the yard with fake plastic butcher knives … so there’s a lot of history there.” The first four years at Halloween Haunt, Paxton was a maze monster. Three years after that, she was a street monster. Her last 10 years have been devoted to makeup. “I realized I liked the backstage stuff more, so that’s what I did,” she said. While adding layers of pale cake base and air brushing my face with veiny, rotten shades of green, Paxton also divulged that she met the love of her life at Knott’s, just as her husband, Gerry, 28, walked up to see her canvas—my face. Gerry, a software engineer by day and a makeup artist with Knott’s for nine years joined us midway through the drawing of my outrageously arched eyebrows. “I love the little lividity spots,” he said to his wife. I laughed, thinking about how such a loving and cute couple could be capable of creating such demonic faces on seemingly normal people. When asked about their history borne from working together, they said in almost a sing-song way, speaking at the same time in the exact same words, “We met here nine years ago, fell in love about six years ago and got married two years ago.” Like I said, cute. Around us, in the large, bustling makeup room, countless creatures of the night stepped out into the darkness to terrorize more people. After tying my hair up into messy pigtails streaked with silver spray, Paxton sent me out, telling me how to stare blankly, slacken my jaw and keep my head tilted to the side for the ultimate zombie appearance. This, after she took me to the bathroom to see how I looked. I nearly shrieked because I was so hideous that I hardly recognized myself. It doesn’t get much better than that. Minutes later, I became one of the 890 monsters roaming the park. But after just 15 minutes of growling and throwing myself against a wall, I found myself exhausted, sore and almost hoarse. I never realized that being a monster is such hard work. Maybe this is a job better left to the professionals. === “ |
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