ScareHouse

A Whole New Blog! Please visit www.scarehouse.com/blog

The ScareHouse team is hard at work creating new nightmares for our 2012 season, and soon we'll be sharing even more in-depth "behind the screams" stories and content ... as well as exclusive stories and secrets from our veteran cast and crew.

We've launched a new blog over at our main website: www.scarehouse.com/blog and soon we'll be filling it with tons of videos, photos, and updates about the haunt, the long and haunted history of our building, and the Scream Team of designers, artists, and performers who work year round to turn nightmares into reality.

You'll find all of this new content at scarehouse.com, under the News and Events tab. Please update your favorites and feed readers, because this blog will no longer be updated on a regular basis.

Thanks to all of our ScareHouse SuperFans for their continued support, and we hope that you'll check out our new home at www.scarehouse.com/blog.

 

20 Years of Haunted House History

In 1990, Scott Simmons met his future wife Barb while working at a volunteer haunted house fundraiser in Pittsburgh... now, along with Scott's dad Wayne, they are the owners of one of America's best known haunted attractions: The ScareHouse.

For the first time, Barb and Scott join ScareHouse podcast hosts Rob Johnston and Laura Kelly for an extended conversation about two decades of haunted house history. They reveal the stories you haven't heard about the early years of The ScareHouse, address the challenges of balancing haunting with "the real world," and reveal how they turned a love of Halloween into a full-time career.

Plus, really embarassing and personal stories that they will probably regret sharing with our international podcast audience!

Subscribe to the FREE ScareHouse audio podcast for fun and informative conversations with ScareHouse designers, cast,and crew - as well as extended interviews with other haunters, Pittsburgh icons, special effects artists, and alternative perfomers. New episodes available every other week from now through November!

New video! "We Get Paid to Scare People"

What's it like to scare thousands of people every night at The ScareHouse in Pittsburgh, Pa? Our new video features veteran cast members from Pittsburgh's Ultimate Haunted House:

Would YOU like to get paid to scare people? Interviews for our 2012 season take place from Thursday, August 16th through Sunday, August 19th. Available positions include ScareActors, special effect artists, cashiers, and customer service positions. These are paid positions and you must be at least 18 to apply. These jobs are demanding and FUN. Many people return year after year to join our "ScareHouse Scream Team!"

Visit www.scarehouse.com for more information and to download an application.

 

 

Exploring Shocktoberfest

The lastest episode of the FREE ScareHouse podcast features a conversation with Pat Konopelsi, owner of Shocktoberfest and president of The Haunted House Association.

Shocktoberfest (located near Reading, Pennsylavnia) is a 30 acre "scream park" featuring an elaborate hayride, multiple haunted attractions, a midway, and much more. It has been named as one of the scariest attractions in America by Travel Channel, Haunted Attraction magazine, and Richard Christy of the Howard Stern show.

Pat joins us for an extended conversation about his 20 year career in the haunted attraction industry. We talk about the challenges of scaring contemporary audiences and find out how a simple Halloween hayride in a picnic grove expanded into one of the country's most elaborate haunted events.

Visit www.shocktoberfest.com to find out more about Pennsylvania's Premier Haunted Scream Park: featuring the Biohazard Hayride, The Unknown, Club Shock, Monster Midway, and the 50,000 square foot Prison of the Dead.

Subscribe to our FREE podcast for fun and informative conversations with ScareHouse designers, cast,and crew - as well as extended interviews with other haunters, Pittsburgh icons, special effects artists, and alternative perfomers. Help us reach new listeners when you leave positive ratings and reviews on iTunes. Thanks!

The World's Best Haunted Houses

The editors of Top Haunts magazine are looking for the world's best haunted houses!  The ScareHouse has been chosen as a finalist in the list of Top Haunts for 2012, and now it's up to fright fans from across the world to vote for their favorite haunted houses, hayrides, and attractions.

Can Pittsburgh take the title of Top Haunt in 2012? Please click here and vote for The ScareHouse. Voting only takes a few seconds. THANK YOU for your continued support of The ScareHouse!

 

Anthrocon - The World's Largest Furry Convention

The latest episode of The ScareHouse podcast features a rare and guided tour behind the scenes of Anthrocon, the World's largest Furry convention, which takes place in Pittsburgh every summer.

What is Anthrocon? It is the world's largest convention for those fascinated with anthropomorphics, which are humanlike animal characters. It is a collection of nearly 5,000 artists, animators, writers, costumers, puppeteers, and just everyday fans who enjoy cartoon animals and their kin. Approximately 20% of attendees don specialized animal costumes, often based on original characters, and enjoy role-playing and interacting with both fellow attendees and bystanders.

So what really happens at Anthrcon? What kind of people are performing underneath all of that fur? And why is Pittsburgh the perfect home for thousands of Furries?

Programming director John "Kuddlepup" Cole takes Katie "Dudders," Margee Kerr, and ScareHouse creative director Scott Simmons on a guided tour of the convention and introduces us to multiple attendees, organizers, and surprise guests. He speaks to us about the community, the costumes, and the years of coordination; responds to the misconceptions and criticisms; and even reveals surprising connections between Furries and the haunted attraction industry.

This extended episode of The ScareHouse podcast is made possible by the generosity and enthusiasm of the Anthrocon community, who continue to raise thousands of dollars for Pittsburgh based charities and businesses. Visit www.anthrocon.org to find out more about their community.

Subscribe to our FREE podcast for fun and informative conversations with ScareHouse designers, cast,and crew - as well as extended interviews with other haunters, Pittsburgh icons, special effects artists, and alternative perfomers. Help us reach new listeners when you leave positive ratings and reviews on iTunes. Thanks!

Zombie Museum at Monroeville Mall

When there's no more room in hell the dead will walk the earth... and probably visit the Zombie Museum at Monroeville Mall.

George A. Romero's epic zombie film, Dawn of the Dead, is arguably the most influential and critically acclaimed zombie movie of all time. The 1978 film is the middle chapter of a trilogy of walking dead films shot in and around the Pittsburgh area from 1968 thourgh 1985 that has contributed to our city's international reputation of "Zombie Capital of The World." For approximately four months, Pittsburgh's Monroeville Mall was used as the primary filming location for countless scenes of mayhem and gore involving hordes of flesh-eating zombies.

Now, nearly 35 years later, two local horror fans have created a year-round tribute to our living dead legacy with Monroeville Zombies: a themed attraction located featuring a museum, gallery, min-golf, a gift shop, and more!

Check out the latest episode of The ScareHouse podcast for a private tour of the museum, personal memories from the sets of Romero's films, and exciting news about the upcoming Zombie Crawl at Monroeville Mall taking place on Sunday, June 24.

Subscribe to our FREE podcast for fun and informative conversations with ScareHouse designers, cast,and crew - as well as extended interviews with other haunters, Pittsburgh icons, special effects artists, and alternative perfomers. Help us reach new listeners when you leave positive ratings and reviews on iTunes. Thanks!

New podcast with Miss Gay Pittsburgh

Ian Trischler is a haunt manager at The ScareHouse, a veteran drag queen performer, and Miss Gay Pittsburgh 2012.  Ian, who performs as "Ann Fu Young," visits The ScareHouse podcast for a fun and frank conversation about Pittsburgh's LGBT community, the secrets and misconceptions from the local drag scene, and Pittsburgh Pride Fest.

Plus: a shout out to Sharon Needles, secret methods of hiding leg hair, and the hidden agenda of "The Breakfast Club."

The ScareHouse is one of America's Best Haunted Houses! Join us for fun and informative conversations with our designers, cast, and crew - as well as extended interviews with other haunters, Pittsburgh icons, Ghost Hunters, and alternative artists and performers.

Click here to subscibe to The ScareHouse Podcast for FREE  via iTunes or visit ScareHousePodcast.com. New episodes available from now until November.  THANK YOU for the positive feedback. 

Scary Monsters and Squeaky Cheese Curds

This week on The ScareHouse podcast: how former "home haunters" Tim and Anne Marie Gavinski turned their Halloween hobby into one of America's best haunted attractions. Their creation, the Wisconsin Feargrounds, was recently ranked as the #1 "Must See Haunts" in the country by Haunted Attraction Magazine.

So how did an elaborate yard display grow into an enormous annual production with more than 150 employees? How do Tim and Anne Marie create such elaborate haunted attractions with such a limited amount of time for installation, production, and teardown? And what's with the Squeaky Cheese Curds?

"Timmer" and Anne Marie join hosts Rob Johnston and Laura Kelly, and ScareHouse Creative Director Scott Simmons, for a VERY lively and fun episode of The ScareHouse podcast! Click here to subscibe for FREE  via iTunes or visit ScareHousePodcast.com. New episodes available from now until November.  THANK YOU for the positive feedback. 

The ScareHouse 2012

The ScareHouse announces a NEW attraction for the upcoming 2012 season  ... 

The ScareHouse haunted attraction has been featured on Travel Channel, USA Today, Yahoo News, AOL News, Forbes, and Fangoria - and named as America's #3 MUST SEE Haunted house by Haunted Attraction Magazine for two years in a row! Visit www.scarehouse.com for tickets, directions, and more information. The ScareHouse is open on select dates from late September through early November.