Scream King Matthew Lillard Haunted by His Own Fears

Matthew Lillard, the renowned actor known for his roles in horror movies, has been scaring audiences for years. However, it seems the tables have turned, as Lillard recently admitted that he is the one getting spooked these days.

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE ahead of the release of his new scary movie, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, Lillard revealed that one of his first jobs was working at a Halloween haunted house. "I was a haunt actor at Knott's Scary Farm when I was 19 years old," he recalls, "and I ran around the asylum with my clothes ripped off and scaring people. And that's one of my first jobs I ever had."

Despite his experience in the horror industry, Lillard still gets scared at haunted houses. "Last year I went through a [haunted house] at Universal Studios [...] and I was like, 'Oh, this is going to be lame.' It scared the bejesus out of me," he admits.

Lillard, who is set to appear in Scream 7 in 2026, has now used his scare-king status in a partnership with Exact Sciences to help spread awareness about Cologuard, a noninvasive at-home screening test for colon cancer. "Colorectal cancer is the number two killer of people in the world. And so I just feel like [...] if I can lift the message and sort of change people's perception of being tested, then it's a win," he says.