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.

 

New Podcast with Tall Cathy from 96.1 KISS and Katie O'Malley from Pens Tv

ScareHouse podcast co-host Laura Kelley shares many passions with her friends Tall Cathy from 96.1 KISS and Katie O'Malley from Pens Tv ... a love of Pittsburgh radio, the Penguins, and late night karaoke...and total hatred of horror, haunted houses, and Hugga Bunches. So why not invite them into The ScareHouse and see what happens?

Rob Johnston (aka "The Manly Willy Wonka") talks to Cathy, Katie, and Laura about their friendship, the challenges of working in the male-dominated fields of radio and sports broadcasting, and the challenges of finding fashionable gentlemen. It's a fast and fun episode that may or may not feature singing, fart analysis, lumberjacks, and tales of "the hockey funk." And join us next time for Part 2: when Cathy, Katie, and Laura explore The ScareHouse in total darkness!

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!

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.

 

 

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. 

Grant Wilson's final episodes of Ghost Hunters

Why is Grant Wilson leaving Ghost Hunters? TAPS' team member Amy Bruni talked about his surprising announcement In a recent episode of The ScareHouse Podcast:

Amy Bruni:  It's really hard because ‑‑ and Grant even said it ‑‑ he said, "People are talking like I'm dead!"

ScareHouse podcast co-host Rob Johnston:  Well, if you watch the show, those teases, I thought someone had died. I was seeing Steve crying and I was going "What is happening?"

Amy: It's crazy! He's not dead. He's still very much alive and very happy. He's home with his family, and they're working on a new company that they started recently. They wanted to focus more time on that. I think people just, they can't realize there's no drama. There's absolutely no drama. He's just done.

Anybody who's been at a job for a long time, you may have another opportunity to come along or you get to the point where you don't need it, you're just done and you move on to other things. That's all that happened.

ScareHouse Creative Director Scott Simmons:  As you said, he has a family. He's raising kids... and as you said earlier, your team is often spending nearly 300 days a year on the road. That's a commitment.

Amy: Yeah, it's a lot. After eight years, it was just enough for him. He was just done. It was a very hard decision for him to make because we're kind of like his second family. As much as he hated being away from his family, at the same time, he's out with us on the road and we're kind of his family, too.

Luckily, we're all pretty near him, so we still get to hang out and everything. It's just not as often.

Click here to subscibe to our FREE audio podcast via iTunes or visit ScareHousePodcast.com. New episodes available from now until November.

Pittsburgh's Scariest Ghost Story?

During a recent episode of The ScareHouse podcast, our friends from Haunted Pittsburgh revealed one of the most terrifying stories of the paranormal we've ever heard...

ScareHouse podcast co-host Laura Kelly: All right guys, I'm ready. I want to hear the story.

Haunted Pittsburgh: We talked with a woman who lived, who grew up on Shiloh Street in Mount Washington. We've spoken with the woman. All the time she grew up there, she felt that there was a very not‑so‑nice presence in her bedroom at night. Not exactly evil, she said, just not nice.

She felt that the thing, whatever it was... she didn't know if it was male or female, was looking at her at nighttime. She also discovered as a little girl that she would lose things that meant a lot to her, so her parents gave her a ring that was her grandmother's ring on her 13th birthday.

One time she had her friend up there and told her friend... She made the mistake of saying, "This is my prized possession." The ring. As soon as she said that, she realized "I should not have said that." She went to bed that night and she clutched her hand as tight as she could. She woke up the next morning. Her hand was still clenched and the ring was gone. They tore the house apart looking for the ring.

All the while she grew up, stuff like that would happen. She's 18 and she couldn't wait to get out of there. She moved away. Three years ago, she had to come back home because the water line broke in here house. She had to come back and stay with her mother in that same bedroom for the first time in 11 years. She went to bed that night and she thought, "I don't like being here. I still feel it."

She felt that even though she had a cell phone. She had a ring. She felt something's going to be taken the next day. She went to bed and she woke up. Everything was still there. She was very relieved about that. About a week later she's showing her friend pictures of her dog on her cell phone. She discovers that there are six new pictures on her phone...

They were pictures of her sleeping in that bed.

Laura:  Oh my gosh.

Haunted Pittsburgh:  The angle was right where she always pictured this thing watched her from the foot of the bed.

Check out The ScareHouse podcast on iTunes to hear more stories from Pittsburgh's haunted history.

Ghost Hunters Exclusive

For years The ScareHouse in Pittsburgh, PA has offered fans a chance to meet the stars from two of the country's top-rated paranormal TV shows: Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International. TAPS' team members Steve, Tango, Amy, Kris, and Dustin are all frequent guests at events and paranormal investigations produced by The ScareHouse.

Check out more than 20 minutes of exclusive content in this new playlist.