Screams, shivers, and bumpy rides
Pittsburgh’s ghouls, ghosts, and witches have risen once again this October to haunt the living. Haunted houses that lay quiet before are now alive with the noise of clanging metal chains and devilish screams. The countryside, too, is teeming with the supernatural, and not everything is as it seems.
Haunted Houses
Halloween would be incomplete without the occasional haunted house at the corner of the street. Many of the professional haunted houses have great haunts, featuring all kinds of spooky situations, from mad doctors to blood-thirsty vampires.
Scarehouse
118 Locust St. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15223 Phone: 412.781.5885
Scarehouse promises a night of shivers and screams with its three creepy haunts: The Hall of Nightmares, Screamatorium, and Delirium 3-D. Each of the haunts makes use of Hollywood- quality light and sound effects that, along with well-disguised actors, create a really haunting experience. The Hall of Nightmares allows visitors to walk through a dark hallway where dark creatures lurk in the shadows. Screamatorium places the visitors in an abandoned laboratory where a mad doctor is on the loose, while Delirium 3-D scares everyone senseless with three-dimensional special effects.
Hundred Acres Manor
Hundred Acres Dr. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15102 Phone: 412.583.9675
Haunted by the twisted and terrifying Theodore Acres, Hundred Acres Manor is the largest haunted house in Pittsburgh, and it offers four different bone-chilling attractions: Massacre Mansion, Valleyview Hospital, Fearscapes Factory, and the MAZE. The legend behind the Manor describes the birth of Theodore Acres and his wicked transformation into the dark and evil man who spent his time dismembering human bodies.
Castle Blood
2860 Main St. Beallsville, Pa. 15313 Phone: 724.632.3242
Ranked the “#1 haunt in America” by Hauntworld.com in 2007, Castle Blood offers a chilling Gothic Halloween tour, led by the creepy MacCabre family, as they show visitors around their dark castle home. This year’s special theme is “Evilution,” and the show guarantees a frightful night as visitors are bound to run into the different zombies and vampires that are roaming through the castle hallways with them. Be prepared to be spooked by the vampires Anastasia, Alexander, Skully, Katerina, and many more.
Haunted Hayrides
The usual hayride is fun but nowhere close to how exhilarating these haunted hayrides are. Combining the screams from the haunted houses with the roller coaster ride through the countryside, haunted hayrides are a must-do during Halloween.
Cheeseman Fright Farm
Cheeseman Road Portersville, Pa. 16051 Phone: 724.368.3233
Hold on tight as Cheeseman Fright Farm takes everyone on a bumpy ride through woodlands and over hills in the middle of the night. The ride is simply terrorizing, what with the jumps and jerks and the scary attractions along the way. But the Halloween fun isn’t over when the ride is. More horrors are waiting in store for the visitors once they get off the ride.
Allen’s Haunted Hayrides
2430 Pittsburgh Road Smock, Pa. 15480 Phone: 724.677.0510
Take a scary trip through the countryside on one of Allen’s Haunted Hayrides. The ride takes visitors through a dark and desolate portion of “Route 666,” and after traveling through cornfields, arrives at a “Haunted Barn” where ghosts and monsters await. After the hayride, visitors can also enjoy happy carnival games and rides.
Lonesome Valley Farms
Mount Pleasant Road Greensburg, Pa. 15601 Phone: 724.423.4290
Much like the others, this hayride too takes visitors through the cornfields, but it promises a spooky adventure as it navigates through a haunted corn maze, where ghouls and other unknown spirits dwell.