{"id":951287,"date":"2026-10-30T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T01:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/951287\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T01:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T01:00:13","slug":"more-than-a-scare-airdrie-actors-story-behind-shilo-vane-discoverairdrie-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/951287\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a scare: Airdrie actor’s story behind Shilo Vane – DiscoverAirdrie.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autumn Blacksmith lives with anxiety, but she has long enjoyed haunted houses, where the fear is something she can anticipate.<\/p>\n

“I knew what I was getting into,” she told DiscoverAirdrie.<\/p>\n

She said those controlled scares gave her anxiety an outlet. Now, she’s the one frightening visitors.<\/p>\n

Blacksmith says she performs at Haunted Calgary<\/a> as Shilo Vane, an original horror character with red-and-black pigtails, a muzzle and unsettling movements.<\/p>\n

Related Stories:<\/p>\n

Creating Shilo Vane<\/p>\n

Blacksmith said she has been an Airdrie local for almost 11 years and has been acting since childhood.<\/p>\n

She said this is her first year performing at Haunted Calgary, although she previously worked as a scare actor at Scream Fest about nine years ago.<\/p>\n

Her interest in scare acting grew out of a lifelong love of Halloween and horror movies.<\/p>\n

“So when I found out that scare acting was a thing, there’s nothing that could have kept me away from it,” she said.<\/p>\n

Her favourite horror film is Child’s Play, particularly because of Chucky, the murderous doll at the centre of the franchise.<\/p>\n

“He’s vulgar, but at the same time, he’s funny about it,” Blacksmith said.<\/p>\n

Blacksmith said the scare actors and horror enthusiasts she’d spoken with often favoured ghosts, zombies and other supernatural creatures. She wanted Shilo to be different.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to create a character that was very much alive,” she said.<\/p>\n

In an Oct. 28 email to DiscoverAirdrie, Blacksmith described creating Shilo from scratch, inspired by her fascination with psychological fear and her personal experiences with mental health.<\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t just want to play a nightmare. I wanted to create one that meant something,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

During a subsequent phone interview, Blacksmith spoke openly about living with borderline personality disorder, bipolar I disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety.<\/p>\n

“I don’t mind sharing my mental health issues at all. It brings awareness,” she said.<\/p>\n

Blacksmith said her personal experiences helped shape Shilo, but emphasized that the character’s unusual appearance and behaviour don’t necessarily make her bad.<\/p>\n

“She’s just different,” she said.<\/p>\n

In her original email, Blacksmith described Shilo as a “haunting asylum character,” while stressing that she did not intend to portray people living with mental illness as monsters.<\/p>\n

“She’s not a monster because she’s mentally ill,” Blacksmith said during the interview.<\/p>\n

Asked how she navigates that distinction, Blacksmith said her portrayal depends on the audience and setting.<\/p>\n

At Haunted Calgary, she described Shilo as nonviolent, although the character may stare at visitors, make jokes or behave in ways that leave them uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Blacksmith said an adult-oriented portrayal could involve violence, depending on the setting.<\/p>\n

A different side of Halloween<\/p>\n

Blacksmith said she’s also competing in Face of Halloween 2026<\/a>, a competition she entered partly because of her lifelong love of the holiday.<\/p>\n

The competition’s website identifies Colossal as its operator and says AIT, a public charity, will grant donations to the U.S.-based Starlight Children’s Foundation.<\/p>\n

She also wanted to encourage her children to pursue their interests, even if they might not succeed.<\/p>\n

“No matter what, just try,” she said.<\/p>\n

For Halloween, Blacksmith plans to dress as Starfire from Teen Titans rather than Shilo.<\/p>\n

She said she attended her first cosplay event when she was about 10 years old, dressed as Raven, another Teen Titans character.<\/p>\n

For Blacksmith, returning to Teen Titans for her Halloween costume feels like coming full circle.<\/p>\n

Blacksmith said she works as a haunt actor year-round and wanted a change for Halloween.<\/p>\n

“I live horror,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You can be scary, cute, silly, horrifying, or just simply yourself,” she said.<\/p>\n

Get your local news directly from the source. Bookmark DiscoverAirdrie.com and download the DiscoverAirdrie app to stay connected wherever you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Autumn Blacksmith lives with anxiety, but she has long enjoyed haunted houses, where the fear is something she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-951287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}