Kris Bohrk, a senior majoring in cinematic arts while minoring in Japanese history and language, is helping to bring the scares to California State Monterey Bay this spooky season. As a professional scareactor since 2021 had a blast running a workshop out of the Meeting House on Thursday. Bohrk hopes to have taught and encouraged fellow students interested in the world of scareacting all about how to get knocking on opportunities’ door.
Bohrk’s love of all things spooky didn’t start at CSUMB, but instead his love for horror and special effects started young.
“One of my earliest memories is being somewhere around 5 to 7 years old and watching the first ‘Scream’(movie) with my dad. I remember being so freaked out, seeing Sidney Prescott’s character bloody and hurt,” Bohrk said, “but my dad paused it and replayed the scene that made me uncomfortable over and over before showing me the behind the scenes of how they made those effects work. Once I realized it wasn’t actually real, I immediately asked how he and I could make movies like that!”
He continued to talk fondly about his childhood and how his family fed his aspirations in every way. “I remember building our own costumes for Halloween every year, going to the theater, playing with collectibles and going to the movies a lot as a child.”
On top of all that childhood inspiration, Bohrk has been in the world of costume building as a cosplayer for the past 12 years, and has more specifically been a scareactor since 2021. Outside of his work at various haunted attractions, he’s also worked closely with The Performing Otters and other students majoring in Cinematic Arts & Technology (CART).
“I’ll be working with The Performing Otters for the third time! I am very excited to see what the Avocet haunted carnival does this year,” Bohrk said. “I was at their first one, so it’s been so great to watch the subculture grow and keep fun accessible to us even as we move into adulthood.
“I pride myself on being an all ages scareactor,” Bohrk said. “It’s important to be accessible to all ages and disabilities”
“I try my best to balance the voice and physicality when scareacting.”
While the workshop has passed, Bohrk plans to open his garage to work his special effects magic on students in need of help with custom prosthetics and costumes. Requests are open on his website, or through the company’s Instagram.
He also has big aspirations to continue growing his website and nomadic workshop Port of Curiosity Productions, as well as all of his original characters. In those plans he hopes to expand the website into an even more interactive space and tackle some modifications to his signature character Canary’s costume, to involve wings with built in forearm crutches to help showcase how accessibility can take on many forms.