Don't be scared: Being afraid is outright fun, and maybe useful

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The gates to Markoff's Haunted Forest in Dickerson, Maryland, is reminiscent of folk horror classics like "The Wicker Man." Ryan Benk/NPR News hide caption

It's October and that can only mean one thing – the spooky season is in full swing.

Americans are expected to spend more than $13 billion dollars on celebrating this season, whether that's on horror films, costumes, candy or attractions, according to the National Retail Federation.

As much as $300 - $500 million of that spending comes from attending a haunt, where people willingly give up their hard-earned cash to be frightened. And tens of millions of people take part in this kind of activity every year.

But why do people like getting scared? The search for that answer starts with one of the largest haunted attractions in the country, Markoff's Haunted Forest in Dickerson, Maryland. Markoff's has more than a mile of haunted trails and dozens of themed haunted houses. It employs hundreds of engineers, retail attendants, makeup artists and actors.

Open since 1992, the attraction starts with towering skull-emblazoned wooden gates reminiscent of folk horror movies like "The Wicker Man."

Just inside, director of operations Paul Brubacher stands in between two huge bonfires.

"Some of our designers, including myself, have done some music festivals before. So yeah, that's the inspiration… from kind-of [a] Van Helsing vampire village aspect of things," Brubacher says.

There is hardly a thing that happens in this haunt without him knowing.

"This is an emergency radio that we have in each one of our scenes. In case an actor has a problem or somebody falls down and needs to be evacuated," Brubacher says. Before hitting the trail, he takes us behind the scenes to a barn where scare-actors are getting finishing touches of makeup.

Art director and makeup manager Chris Knowles and his team are using a bevy of pressurized airbrushes to quickly creep-ify all kinds of ghouls, vampires and aliens.