In a cramped tent in the middle of Luna Park, 25 people are scrambling into costume and make-up. Pig masks. Bloodied ruff shirts.

“ Some parents come in and say, ‘Do not scare my child’,” I overhear from the make-up chair. “It’s like, bro, what are you doing here?” The man puts on his scarecrow mask and picks up a massive rubber scythe. I have another go attaching my spindly ghoul fingers to my gloves.

Will Cox as Mr Moon as part of Luna Dark. Credit: Eddie Jim

For two weeks every October , Luna Park fills with costumes, music and spookiness. The centrepiece is a temporary haunted house which skirts the borders of kitsch and genuinely unsettling. The backstory goes that unhinged former park staff have been living in subterranean tunnels, assembling their own twisted amusements w

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