Portland actor James Lawrence has spent his Octobers scaring people at haunted houses since 2016. Unlike some fellow actors, Lawrence doesn’t only rely on jump scares, gruesome makeup, or heightened special effects to bring the creep factor. Instead, he’s what haunted house pros call a “talker”—someone who sets the tone as people file into the set. His job is to make sure visitors get an unsettling welcome and to “just be generally off-putting.” That might...