Pittsburgh's ScareHouse Returning With New Format

PITTSBURGH, PA — After a two-year hiatus, the creative team behind the nationally recognized ScareHouse will be back with a new Halloween experience this year.

The ScareHouse folks are partnering with The Plaza at North Shore to present Halloween Hangout. The attraction will run Oct. 1 through Oct. 31 and feature haunted experiences, events, movies, themed food and drinks from Sugarbird restaurant at The Plaza, family-friendly trick-or-treat, haunted happy hours and more.

“This month-long celebration is not a traditional haunted attraction but something new and unlike anything ever seen in Pittsburgh,” said Scott Simmons, ScareHouse Creative Director.

“The same talented team of Pittsburgh-based artists, designers and performers who generated national attention with ScareHouse are thrilled to now partner with The Plaza at North Shore to present Halloween Hangout – a multi-event and multi-year celebration of haunt season in the heart of the north shore. We’re able to customize experiences so that every time you visit this October it will be something new and surprising.”

Halloween Hangout will have a mix of free and ticketed events. Movie nights will feature the best in Halloween fun, from screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," to "Hocus Pocus," to "Halloween."

ScareHouse Haunt Nights will offer more frightful and intense interactions intended for older audiences seeking thrills, while kid-friendly family programming will pop up in the form of a community trick-or-treat and a charity pumpkin patch. Organizers also plan to have “Terror Tailgate” parties before and after home football games on the North Shore.

ScareHouse had been ranked as one of “America’s Scariest Halloween Attractions” by the Travel Channel and has been featured on Good Morning America, The Daily Show, Travel Channel, CBS and ABC News, Buzzfeed, Forbes, Mental Floss and many other national media outlets.

For years, ScareHouse operated out of an Etna location before taking a year off in 2019 to search for new accommodations. Simmons and company found what looked to be an ideal permanent location in the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills mall in 2020, but ScareHouse attendance likely was negatively impacted by the mall's dwindling number of retail tenants .

ScareHouse has been on hiatus since 2024.