Meet ‘zombies’ from “Containment” at Shoppingtown Mall

By Lauren Young

Staff writer

Just when you thought the nearly-abandoned Shoppingtown Mall in DeWitt couldn’t get any creepier, Frightmare Farms is holding its first-ever “Containment,” a zombie-themed haunt experience, at the former Fun Junction Laser Tag site now through Halloween.

“Well, you figure if you have a dead mall, you should fill it with dead people,” said Susan Williams, the army uniform-clad woman who greets you at the counter upon entering “Containment.”

“Empty malls have been inspiration for horror movies in the past,” she said, and Syracuse was even mentioned as an outpost overrun and destroyed on an episode of “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” she added.

According to the attraction’s website, its concept is based on a rapidly spreading, brain-damaging virus causing panic throughout Central New York. After the governor’s office institutes martial law and requires citizens to seek their closest emergency shelter, you go to Shoppingtown Mall as your closest safe haven — or so you think.

Though Frightmare Farms has been operating since 2012, this is its first “Containment” attraction featured at Shoppingtown Mall, thanks to the talent of 16 or so crew members.

“It’s a test run,” said Frightmare Farms Creative Director Andrew deRuiter, also co-owner of the Museum of Intrigue at Destiny USA. The attraction took about three months to build, featuring not only the “Containment” haunted attraction, but “The Flesh” — an escape room constructed like a decrepit medical wing where patrons must locate items while locked in a room with a zombie patient.

The attractions are suggested for at least ages 8 and older, but this is no child’s play — this is for “anyone who can take it,” said Williams.

Behind the screams   

To help bring this terrifying attraction to life are its equally, if not more terrifying, scare actors.

“We have a stellar cast and crew,” said Williams, an accountant at BNY Mellon during the day and counter operator of “Containment” on weekend nights. A longtime worker with Frightmare Farms, Williams is a veteran scare actor, with silent pop-up scares being her specialty. She helps keep actors in line and in communication, and even performs a run-through of the attraction before every opening.

“I make sure everybody has a great time as they’re coming out, and everybody comes out having a great time,” she said.

On the night of Saturday, Oct. 6, actor Brandon Fallon was filled with adrenaline as he awaited human flesh on his first night as “The Lingering Experiment,” a zombie left behind and an escape room terror.

“My adrenaline is pumping right now,” he said. So how does a zombie prepare for their first night?

“A lot of screaming,” he said.

Fallon started working for Frightmare Farms last year at “Escape the Estate,” now called the Museum of Intrigue, where he currently works as an actor. Though it was his first night as the blood-drenched zombie, Fallon experienced some unexpected reactions prior during rehearsal runs, especially as a spiderwalker, like in “The Exorcist.”

Between the time the attraction officially opened and a run-through was performed, he said someone punted a large speaker, threw a large barrel at him and he was nearly kicked in the face while crawling backwards.

“I was expecting it, but it was definitely still a surprise,” he said.

While scare actors intimidate guests, they do not touch them and are instructed in “keeping a safe distance from people,” said Williams. There are also managers who wander throughout in character to ensure safety and communication between actors, she said.

“The actors are more likely to get punched by a patron who is scared when they jump out,” said Williams, an occurrence that happens “from time to time.”

As a nine-year Marine Corps veteran, actor Matt Gordon plays a military survivor in “Containment,” joining the crew after an actor left town for a few weeks and was asked if he’d like to “come yell at some people,” which he enthusiastically accepted.

Gordon, who works alongside fellow actor Brandon Fallon at the Museum of Intrigue, said one of the things he learned from working at a haunt attraction is that every time you get scared, it’s not always by a different actor.

“You might have one person who scares you six different times throughout,” he said. “There’s just a handful of us running around like crazy people backstage.”

For one zombie known as “The Slider,” his “goal is to eat people and come after them,” and of course slide up to unsuspecting victims.

“No one reacts well to the sliding,” said Jeremy Kasten, who plays the bloody-faced zombie. “Not one person.”

During his interview for the job, he demonstrated his sliding ability by scaring Susan Williams, which helped him land the job.

“He’s also been known to drag a certain survivor around from time to time,” said Williams.

Kasten is currently training another zombie to slide as well so they can provide double the scares. To ease knee pain, Kasten wears kneepads, though his arms bruise occasionally. He said he’s been punched before sliding toward someone, and even scared someone into a corner last week.

His scare acting career began as a volunteer for a small, local haunted house, no longer in existence, where he would drag around a shovel, creating sparks, and chase around patrons.

When Kasten isn’t sliding out of dark corners as a flesh-hungry zombie, he’s caring for patients as a CNA at the Cottages at Garden Grove in Cicero.

And if you’re due for an appointment, you may run into actress Serena Seals, who plays a doctor from the dead, specializing in screaming.

“It gives you the chills — that’s when you know I’m close,” she said.

Seals is no stranger to scare acting — her family is part of the American Legion Dunbar Post 1642 in Syracuse where a haunted house has been held for the last 15 or so years. When Seals found out a haunted attraction was arriving to Shoppingtown Mall, she immediately contacted Frightmare Farms on Facebook and asked how she could be a part of it.

Her favorite part about the job? “Watching people piss their pants,” she said, which coincidentally already happened twice the day before.

“We had a person scream and fall back — I loved it,” she said. “It’s fun watching people be terrified for some reason.”

When Seals isn’t jumping out from corners as a zombie doctor in gory scrubs, she’s the owner of Black Cuse Pride, an entertainment organization in Syracuse.

As scare actors, all of them said they enjoy going to haunted houses as patrons, feeding off that adrenaline “you can’t replicate anywhere else,” said Matt Gordon.

“I love haunted houses — that adrenaline gets going when you’re getting scared…you can’t replicate that anywhere else,” said Gordon. “You understand that you’re safe and not actually going to die, but there’s still that adrenaline pumping, your heart gets going … it’s intoxicating.”

Experience Frightmare Farm’s heart-racing “Containment” at Shoppingtown Mall in DeWitt by ordering tickets online at Frightmarefarms.net. Tickets for the haunted attraction are $17 per person and tickets for “The Flesh” escape experience are $10 per person.

The attraction is open Friday and Saturday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. and Sunday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. leading up to Halloween, where it will open from 7 to 9 p.m.