Working With Death

Digging up creepy old artifacts for a living, working in dark caves, burial sites, and building ruins, à la Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, certainly sounds pretty creepy. In reality, only part of what archaeologists do involves working in dark places.

They also spend time in their brightly lit offices and labs studying these artifacts in order to identify them. In addition, they also write and present reports, which some find even scarier than working in dark places.

How scary must it be to get called to the scene of a murder while the body is still warm. That's what happens to crime scene investigators, also called forensic scientists.

There's no waiting until things have been cleaned up a bit when you work in this field—you must collect evidence immediately while it is still fresh. And not only do they have to collect evidence, they also have to examine, test, and analyze things like tissue samples ... as in from once living human bodies.

Then, eventually, they may be called as an expert witness, coming face to face with the person being tried for the crime. In spite of all the creepiness, there must be a tremendous amount of satisfaction when your work helps put bad guys (or gals) away for a very long time.

Pests. Vermin. Don't those two words send chills up your spine? Imagine having to deal with rats, mice, cockroaches, bedbugs, and termites day after day after day?

Exterminators, officially called pest control workers, do just that. On the bright side of things, they have very grateful customers who are probably much more afraid of pests and vermin than they are.

What could be more spooky than a job that is all about death? Undertakers, also referred to as morticians or funeral directors, do everything from transporting the body of the deceased to preparing it for burial or cremation.

But, as they say, death is only one of two things that are certain in life (the other being taxes) and because of this, there will always be a need for people to work in this occupation. It can be extremely gratifying to help grieving families get through one of the most difficult times of their lives.

Conjuring up creepy, spooky, or icky things in order to write about them seems like a very scary way to spend one's day. Writers of horror books, stories and screenplays must imagine terrible things and then express those ideas to readers.

One would imagine fitful nights and time spent peeking around corners looking for the ghosts, zombies, vampires, and monsters about which they write. Not necessarily.

When Time.com asked horror writer Joe Hill what scares him the most, his answer was "autocorrect." Maybe such a mundane fear is what keeps him and other authors from being too afraid to write about the things of which the rest of our nightmares are made.

There are many actors who became well-known after starring in horror movies. For example, who can forget Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho or her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween?

Those of a "certain" age cannot think of Linda Blair without the movie The Exorcist coming to mind. It makes one wonder how these actors aren't left with anxiety disorders due to the parts they played in those movies.

How did Janet Leigh ever feel comfortable in the shower after filming Psycho and has Linda Blair had a strong aversion to pea soup since the 1970s? Fortunately, most actors leave the character they are portraying behind once filming is over.