Singapore’s major spooky season activity for over a decade has been Universal Studios Singapore’s Halloween Horror Nights. The kid-friendly park transforms into a haven for ghosts, ghouls and goosebumps as guests walk through intricately crafted haunted houses and scare zones, waiting to scream at the pounce of scare actors.
Debuting scare actor Sherlene Bo and veteran scarer Jagjit Singh shared more with tabla! on what lies behind the art of scaring.
Ms Sherlene, 21, is a first-year communications undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University and has been an avid fan of the event, even when she was too young to attend.
“I always watched videos of the houses on YouTube or read articles about it. So, I kind of knew it like the back of my hand, the changes and evolutions across the years. I’m a huge fan and have a lot of admiration for the event and the minds behind it,” she said.
As a previous intern producer at the park, Ms Sherlene was able to assist with the development of one of the haunted houses last year. This year, however, she uses her dancing expertise to come to life as a Fatimah Rocker, a Pontianak-inspired dancing demon damsel.
Since scare actors have just a few seconds to leave a mark, she said that the scarers have to pace themselves so that the element of surprise always remains. One strategy she uses is to target specific visitors.
“I usually target the most scared-looking people, those people sandwiched in the middle. I know that I’ll get a good reaction out of them,” she said
“I enjoy particularly scaring men because they’re still such a strong presence and demeanour; you will never expect that a lot of them are a little bit scared. There was one time I scared this couple, and the boyfriend got so scared he shot up in the air,” she added.
Compared to Ms Sherlene, Mr Jagjit, 51, has been spiking visitors’ heart rates since 2015.
Mr Jagjit has worked in media as a DJ, emcee and actor for several years, and is a self-proclaimed introvert, unlike his menacing Sarong Uncle that roams in The Raveyard at the park.
“I came (to Halloween Horror Nights) in 2014 with my son. I looked at the way the actors were doing it. I was fascinated by it, you know, this is a different perspective of acting,” he said.
As to what keeps Mr Jagjit coming back to this gig for over a decade, he said: “I think it’s because every year it’s not fixed to one particular character. Over the years, I have been given different designations and different characters. So each character is very unique and challenging. So, I think that is a big factor for me because it kind of pushes me to push myself beyond my normal limits.”
Halloween Horror Nights 2026 at Universal Studios Singapore is running on selected nights till Nov 1.
