By day, 17-year-old Anthony Steeves is a student at Adelante High School. But when the sun goes down, he’s got another gig.

“I am the vampire-lord king,” Steeves said Thursday night, looking the part in full prosthetic makeup.

Steeves is one of about 50 volunteer actors who put the scare into Callson Manor, the haunted house set up at the Placer County Fairgrounds through Halloween.

Sure, plastic props and fog machines can set a spooky tone. But it’s all about live – er, undead – bodies to get the screams really going.

“So far, I’ve made nine people cry. It makes me so happy,” said Rae Leblanc, a freshman at Woodcreek who is volunteering for the first time this year.

Callson Manor, in its second year at the fairgrounds, is actually three separately themed haunted houses. “Callson Funeral Home” features real embalming equipment as you “tour the body preparation areas,” according to its Web site; “The Deadlands” centers on an Old West bounty hunter whose victims are about to get their revenge – from the afterlife. In “Vampire’s Crypt” – a new addition this year, thanks to the current mania for all things vampire – cemeteries all over the world are releasing their occupants.

Many of the volunteers who populate the sets are high school students with theatrical aspirations. Others are long-time haunted-house veterans who look forward to participating all year.

All of them attended a casting call, where they were given roles – zombie, ghost, autopsy technician, murderous nurse (to name a few) – and were given training in improvisation.

Dwayne Hoppes, 15, of Roseville has a simple reason for participating: “It’s just fun to yell at them,” the vampire said.

Prior to each show, actors get into costume and enter a makeup trailer, where they receive anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes of application from professional artists Beth Johnson and Vanessa Diaz.

“Once it’s dry, I don’t even know it’s there and can do all the facial expressions,” Steeves said.

There’s no money involved – just a free dinner each night and the promise of eliciting yelps of fear

Brothers Phillip and Shane Kennedy, of Roseville, have been acting in haunted houses for 20 years.

“I’m more ‘growl’ than ‘grunt,’” Phillip, 29, who plays a zombie, said after changing into character. “When I’m in my costume, it just happens.”

Both dismissed the ‘boo’ school of scare as too simplistic. To really get to someone, you need to discover in an instant what their weakness is, they said.

“If you get that, you can have the biggest, baddest guy in here and have them fall at your feet in terror,” Shane, 33, who describes his character as a “zombie-slash-vampire,” said. “And if I get it wrong, I make it my mission the rest of the night to find out what will work.”

Mikayla Davis, a senior at Roseville High School, has acted in serious productions, but enjoys the rancorous energy of the haunted house for the direct interaction. She plays the role of a “crazy nurse” in a blood-spattered uniform and has developed a reputation for what she called her “creepy laugh.”

“It’s on a person-to-person basis,” she said. “It’s really fun.”

What: Callson Manor

Where: Placer County Fairgrounds, 800 All America Boulevard

When: 7:30-10 p.m. daily through Oct. 31

Prices: $10 per house; $20 for all three

Info: www.callsonmanor.com