Scary houses haunt Pittsburgh during Halloween

Sometimes, especially around Halloween, living in a normal house can grow a bit dull…. Sometimes, especially around Halloween, living in a normal house can grow a bit dull. Thankfully, the Steel City has more than enough paranormal haunts to keep boredom at bay — if you’re brave enough.

Every October, Pittsburgh’s metropolitan area becomes host to a thriving network of haunted house attractions, from small one-man operations to gigantic, nationally renowned fright factories. The directors of four local haunted houses have their own views about preparation, keeping things fresh and how to scare people out of their wits.

Fright Farm

2043 Springhill Furnace Road

Smithfield, Pa.

Sunday-Thursday dusk-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday dusk-midnight

Tickets $10 with student ID on Wednesday; $19 general admission

www.richfarms.com/frightfarm

Despite being about an hour and a half outside of Pittsburgh, Fright Farm has no trouble drawing attention to itself.

“Each year we build onto the [haunted] house,” co-owner Mike Rich said. “If you looked at it from the road, it looks like a big castle. It’s huge.”

Now in its 21st year of operation on the family-owned Rich Farms, the attraction has grown to encompass not only the requisite scary mansion, but also a wagon ride, a maze and even a festival area featuring movies, vendors and live performances (past guests have included Blue Oyster Cult and Hulk Hogan).

Rich said they try to give Fright Farm a unique spin each year.

“Our claim to fame, what we’re the proudest of, is that you won’t walk in here next year and recognize anything,” Rich said. “We change everything.”

This year, the farm is overrun by that bane of Pittsburgh’s existence, zombies.

“It was a good theme for the year,” Rich said, citing the local Zombie Walk as evidence. “It’s a thing people are really relating to.”

Of course, an annual re-imagining presents its challenges.

“It’s hard to recreate 50 original scenes every year,” Rich said. “We go to a lot of flea markets, believe it or not.”

Fortunately, Rich said he has his own phobias that keep him vigilant.

“My worst fear is someone walking through and saying, ‘This sucks,’” Rich said. “I try to push the edge.”

Hobbs Manor Haunted House

Indiana Township Town Hall

3710 Saxonburg Blvd., Pittsburgh

Friday-Saturday 7-11 p.m.; Sunday 7-10 p.m.

Tickets $10

http://noahhobbs.powweb.com

Like many haunted house administrators, Shawn Maudhuit is somewhat of a veteran in the scare industry.

“Ever since I started the West Deer Nightmare, I started saving a little bit of money here and there to start my own,” Maudhuit said.

Hobbs Manor — a homemade installation in the Indiana Township Town Hall — is just that: his first chance to craft his own haunted house. In addition to calling all the shots, Maudhuit has built nearly all of the house’s materials from scratch.

“You could create what you see,” Maudhuit said. “I would advise anybody, if they want to go into some type of haunted house business, to learn how to do that.”

Rather than relying on a single theme or scare tactic, Hobbs Manor revolves around a character Maudhuit created during his years at the West Deer Nightmare: psychopath Noah Hobbs.

“I knew Noah Hobbs would play a big part in my personal business venture,” Maudhuit said. “I hope [people] will come and say, ‘What’s Noah Hobbs going to do next year?’ It’s just like any movie franchise: you know he’s going to be back, you know even if he’s dead he’s going to come back to life.”

This year at Hobbs Manor, Noah’s twisted experiments — purportedly involving zombies — have been cryogenically frozen. And as is always the case with these scenarios, Maudhuit cautioned, “Something may go wrong.”

Hundred Acres Manor

100 Acres Drive, Pittsburgh

Sunday-Thursday 7-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 7-11:30 p.m.

With Student ID, tickets $10 every Wednesday, $3 off every Thursday and Sunday; general admission $16

http://hundredacresmanor.com

The construction of a haunted house — especially one the size of Hundred Acres Manor, located in a sprawling expanse of South Park — is a yearlong endeavor. Just ask art director and operations manager Ethan Turon.

“Literally, the day we open there’s wet paint on the walls,” Turon said. “It’s a big production to get to the point we are at right now.”

Hundred Acres Manor, which contributes to the charities the Homeless Children’s Education Fund and Animal Friends, is divided into five different sections in an attempt to target each participant’s phobias.

“Every individual’s scared of different things,” said Turon, adding that the Manor will “give everybody an opportunity to get the living hell scared out of them.”

To ensure this, Turon said, each section has a different angle: Massacre Mansion (“a traditional haunted house, but it’s amped up”); South Valley Hospital (“if you’re afraid of the doctors, this is not a place you want to be”); Site-R (“picture going … through boot camp and somebody’s saying, ‘you’re dirt, you’re garbage’”); the Maze (“it takes forever to find your way out”) and the Grindshow Bazaar (“even if you’re not scared of clowns, this section of the haunt is extremely intense”).

While the array of scare tactics Hundred Acres Manor employs may seem dizzying, Turon said he finds the simple pleasures most satisfying.

“It’s so funny walking through behind a 6-foot-6 football player and watching him fall to the ground in terror,” Turon said.

The ScareHouse

118 Locust St., Pittsburgh

Sunday, Tuesday-Thursday 7-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 7 p.m.-12 a.m.

Tickets $18

The ScareHouse Shuttle departs from Carnegie Museum of Art today at 7, 8 and 9 p.m.

www.scarehouse.com

Housed in the imposing former Etna Elks Lodge, The ScareHouse has amassed a fearsome reputation over the years — a reputation that Creative Director and Pitt alumnus Scott Simmons thinks stems from  its novel characters.

“We try to come up with concepts from characters that you haven’t seen in other haunted houses,” Simmons said. “Even if you don’t get scared, you can at least appreciate the level of detail in some of these concepts.”

Simmons cited Creepo the Clown as an example of The ScareHouse’s memorable approach to horror.

“He’s actually kind of bitter,” Simmons said. “He’s been a clown too long. There’s something not only scary but kind of funny about this guy who’s just muttering to himself and hates kids. He’s just done one birthday party too many.”

The ScareHouse aims to complement its diverse characters with equally diverse environments. Like Hundred Acres Manor, the attraction is divided into different sections — “The Forsaken,” “Delirium 3-D” and “Rampage” — each with its own mood and aesthetic.

“It’s almost like three different kinds of movie experiences,” Simmons said. “That helps the audience enjoy it because your energy level is changing.”

Keeping participants enrapt, however, presents a host of challenges.

“When you go through a haunted house, it has to exist all around you — it has to be fully immersive,” Simmons said. “You’ve got to create this environment that has to be able to withstand 360 degrees of people looking around and not seeing the cracks.”