Minutes before show time, a few cast members were wriggling into long black socks and patting on makeup with jittery hands. The frightful getups masked any possible stage fright.

Dom McChesney surveyed the room packed with gray-faced ghouls and monsters sporting garish rips of flesh, dispatched zombie skaters to warm up their skateboards, then addressed the rest of the 43 local actors he had prepped for last week's dress rehearsal of "Festival of Fear."

"Take deep breaths — in and out," said McChesney, who serves as director of the festival's scare school. "Remember to keep it simple. One or two scares, then reset," he said, adding, "The show will rock. It will be fantastic."

Kapolei water park Wet'n'-Wild Hawaii partnered with Sudden Impact! Entertainment — a New-York-based company that specializes in creating spooky, live theatrical experiences for amusement parks and other venues around the world — to present "Festival of Fear." The elaborate Halloween production opens tonight, providing one more option to get your scare on for the season.

It features two mazes: The dystopian Freezer set, which portrays a meltdown at a cryogenic prison, and the scary-but-beautiful Freakshow, which uses black-light glow to project floating skulls and other eerie effects.

Audience members wear 3-D glasses for both Freakshow and Terror Tunnel, the festival's other live set, which involves crossing what appears to be a twisting, spinning bridge.

Elsewhere on the park's grounds, skating zombies and assorted ghouls haunt "scare zone" areas. Three water slides are available, though there will be no Halloween-related frights there.

SHOW'S THE STAR

Lynton Harris launched Sudden Impact! in his native Australia in the early 1990s. His first arena show, Madison Scare Garden, featured 10 theatrical sets and ran for four seasons in New York City starting in the mid-1990s.

Over the years, Sudden Impact! has developed a nontraditional format for a haunted-house show. As with "Festival of Fear," there are no chainsaw-vampire-Freddy Krueger mixed-plate scares — instead, there are design-centric sets, with a cohesive blend of actors, props and soundtrack.

"We want a cool, clean design, and we want the experience to be entertaining and scary," said Harris, who was at the water park for the festival preview.

Actor Ronney Reddig, positioned just inside the Freezer, spent about an hour in a makeup chair, morphing into an ashen maniac with a third eye bulging from a bloody forehead, before taking his place under pulsating white strobe lights in the chainlink-lined set.

"I'm the first one they see. So, I have the advantage of getting that first jolt of a scare," Reddig said. Then, as the audience moves along — disoriented by fogging mirrors and monsters — he said, "I come back around and get them from the side."

Reddig completed the weeklong scare school session at Wet'n'Wild. Among the top lessons learned: Don't yell "Boo!" A creepy whisper can be far more effective. And don't touch audience members. A bit of physical space allows passersby to get scared without feeling uncomfortable.

During scare school sessions, McChesney said, actors also learn to work as teammates. "We don't have room for divas," he said. "The star is the show."

Inside the less intense Freakshow, the show's choreography calls for collaboration; some actors cloaked in black cast still shadows, while others drift about or suddenly pop out — with only shining masks visible — within arm's reach of audience members shuffling through the maze.

Handrails help you keep your balance while lurching through Terror Tunnel. Note to anyone without an iron stomach: Don't enter the physically disorienting set immediately after polishing off refreshments at the park's Graveyard Grill, Killer Cafe or Witches Brew House.

FRIGHTFUL FUN

After "Festival of Fear," which is also being staged at a water park in Phoenix and other Mainland locations, Harris will travel to Copenhagen, where design is under way for a permanent spine-tingling show at Tivoli Gardens.

In the international scare business, Harris said, "What is most rewarding is watching people's reactions when an actor gets it right."

In an effective gotcha moment, the temporarily terrified will scream, grab friends, family or whomever the closest audience member may be, and then laugh.

"I like to say that laughter is our No. 1 emotion here — not getting scared," Harris said.

Of his job, he adds, "It is, honestly, a humorous endeavor."

SCARES APLENTY

These haunted hot spots are now open:
• Haunted Plantation, with a "year of the obake" theme and two houses open for the first time, starts tonight; 7-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and Oct. 25 through Halloween, Hawaii Plantation Village, 94-695 Waipahu St., Waipahu; $8, fast-pass line tickets $13; 677-0110. No children under age 13. A portion of proceeds goes to the Plantation Village.
Also: Tours with ghost stories (separate from the Haunted Plantation): 7 and 8:30 p.m, Wednesday-Thursday and Oct. 28; $10.
• Scare Factory IV Haunted House, 6-9 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, noon-9 p.m. Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays, upper level, theater wing, Windward Mall, Käneohe; $12 general, $10 children; 235-1143.
Also: The mall will offer trick-or-treating and entertainment 4-7 p.m. Oct. 31.
• Haunted Lagoon Canoe Ride, 6:30-9 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 31, Polynesian Cultural Center, Läie; $15 general (kamaäina), $10 ages 5 to 15; fast-pass tickets and other discounts available; 293-3333, www.polynesia.com.
New offerings this year:
• Victorian Horrors, with actors bringing authors such as Mary Shelly and Poe back from the dead in a lantern-lit, historic setting; 6:30-9 p.m. Oct. 24, Mission Houses Museum;$25, $20 members; 447-3929.
• "The Undead Invasion": participants will use gadgets, crack codes, follow clues and interact with actors to track down zombies in Honolulu, 7-10 p.m. Oct. 31, Aloha Tower Marketplace;$35; www.undeadinvasion.com, 266-0478.
• Keiki Costume Ball, featuring trick-or-treating at the center, pizza, games, arts and crafts, and a carousel ride, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, Children's Discovery Center, 111 Ohe St.; $10 members; $16 nonmembers. Registration is required: www.discoverycenterhawaii.org/events.html.
For a full, freaky list of Halloween events, check out the Oct. 23 and Oct. 30 issues of TGIF in The Honolulu Advertiser, and visit Metromix, http://honolulu.metromix.com.