ScareHouse unveils new haunted attraction for 20 Years of Fears celebration

For two decades, ScareHouse has made Pittsburgh a popular destination for horror fans with its high-concept haunted attractions. While the past few years have unleashed its fair share of setbacks, starting with a fumbled attempt at moving from the borough of Etna into Pittsburgh's Strip District and ending with the pandemic, ScareHouse is ready to welcome visitors back for a spooky good time.

On July 13, ScareHouse announced that tickets are on sale for its 20 Years of Fears anniversary celebration, opening Sept. 18 inside the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills in Tarentum.

“For all intents and purposes, this is our 20th season, and we want to celebrate in grand style, pulling out all the stops to keep our guests screaming with delight and trembling with terror,” says ScareHouse creative director Scott Simmons in a press release.

The ScareHouse team promises the return of some classic creeps from the last 20 years. The lineup includes “the original version of Bunny, the less-than-adorable, memorably menacing six-foot-tall rabbit with a hatchet; Creepo the clown, whose violent visage trolls the nightmares of everyone he meets; and Delirium, the neon-colored, unhinged, unpredictable raver who is more demented than she may first seem.”

ScareHouse, which only runs a few months out of the year, managed to open in 2020 with a scaled-down, reduced-capacity walk-through attraction at the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, a mall in the Allegheny River Valley. However, Simmons says guests can expect a return to form while also implementing safety procedures to continue keeping visitors and staff safe.

“This year, Halloween is back, and so is ScareHouse – bigger, scarier and more fun than ever – in a location that is going to allow us to raise the bar higher than ever and create a truly wild time for visitors,” says Simmons. “For the last year and a half, people have been bottling up a lot of fear and anxiety, and we’re going to give them a chance to get it all out – and then some.”

ScareHouse also provided an update on The Basement, the extreme scare component that had to remain closed due to the more intimate interactions between visitors and performers. The Basement will remain “bolted shut in 2021,” but Simmons hints at a “shocking” new development slated to open next year.

While those looking for the over-the-top terrors of The Basement have to wait, Simmons believes ScareHouse will still deliver plenty of the action fans look forward to each year.

“For longtime visitors, we’ve assembled the best – and most frightening – of 20 years of ScareHouse while creating shocks and jolts they’ve never experienced before,” promises Simmons. “And for those who are hearty and daring enough to visit us for the first time, there will be enough here to fuel their fear well into next year.”

Limited tickets to ScareHouse are now on sale at scarehouse.com/tickets. ScareHouse will be open Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 1, and Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through Nov. 6. General admission tickets – which require advance online reservations – begin at $22.95, with special RIP Tickets that start at $39.95 and offer no-reservation, front-of-line access.