Using brutes and grunts without the character getting scared... oh, hello too! :)

[MrBigzy]

I don't think either of those options are possible, unfortunately. Well, one hackish way to prevent it would be to delete (or rename) the texture file that overlays when that happens. I think there was another post in the forums about preventing sanity drain from monsters; can't remember if they succeeded. As for playing a specific animation while following a path, that's something I've tried to do as well, and isn't possible afaik.