Halloween performers ‘roughhoused’ by visitors

SINGAPORE — Several performers working for the annual Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Singapore — which have been going on from Oct 3— said they had been roughly treated by guests on the set of the event. At least one said she had been molested in the dark.

In a Facebook post last Sunday, which has since gone viral, a scare actress said she had been pushed around and groped by guests on the set the night before and “felt violated”.

“I was standing at my position and different people poked my clown nose, touched my hair, my face, my chest, my shoulder … They tossed the props around, slamming it into me. And then they came nearer and brushed past me again,” she wrote. “We put in so much effort for a good performance, only to be molested by people, touching scare actors everywhere,” she added.

The ticketed event takes place on selected nights throughout October until Nov 1. Guests make their way through eight “haunted” attractions which comprise four haunted houses and four scare zones with different themes.

The post was taken down on Wednesday afternoon, but screenshots of the post continue to circulate online, gathering more than 1,300 retweets and about 180 favourites on Twitter as of press time. When contacted by TODAY, the scare actress declined to comment. However, this newspaper understands that she has met up with the management to discuss the matter.

TODAY spoke to seven other performers, six of whom said they had experienced first-hand “attacks” from guests. However, they had brushed these incidents off as a common occurrence. None pursued the matter though they were advised to report it to their respective crew member in charge.

Mr Neo Ri Xin, 20, a polytechnic student working at Bogeyman, one of the scare zones, said: “He (one of the guests) punched me in the nose, but it wasn’t a very hard punch. And another time, I scared a girl and her boyfriend pushed me.”

He added: “We can alert our crew and they will help us to chase the guests and if we want to pursue the matter, we can. But most of the time, we do not because it’s nothing much and we understand that it’s a natural reaction when people get scared.”

A 20-year-old crew member working at one of the haunted houses, who only wanted to be known as Min, told TODAY: “It’s more common for the scare crew in the haunted houses to be attacked compared with the scare crews in the zones because it’s enclosed and they (guests) think that nobody can see them provoking the scare crew.”

“One of the more serious cases that were reported to us was last year, when one guy kicked one of the female performer’s crotch and punched her for scaring him,” she added.

In response to queries, a Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) spokesperson said: “The safety of our guests and performers is of utmost importance to us. There is a no-contact rule and we have measures in place to ensure the safety and well-being of both our guests and performers. Our performers receive dedicated training on this as well.”

Crew members shared other precautionary measures taken by RWS, such as a three-step rule where the scare crew are encouraged to take only three steps out of their hiding areas to scare guests. Crew members are also deployed around the haunted houses to keep an eye out for rowdy guests. Such guests will be thrown out of the theme park, said Min.