[ScareHouse]/The Basement: All New Nightmare Fuel

What is it with basements that are just inherently creepy? Not only has Sea World Parks gone with this as one of the maze themes for this year's Howl-O-Scream, but so has Pittsburgh's very own premiere haunt, the ScareHouse. Time for the little guy, eh? However, the name alone is the only similarity between these two, I can guarantee that. Joining their formidable line up of The Forsaken, Creepo's Christmas in 3-D and Pittsburgh Zombies is: The Basement.

Myself and +Carrie H.C. are no strangers to the ScareHouse (both of us have previously worked there) or the intensity that they can bring, in our review last year we even went so far as to say that some of their actors and scenes weren't intense enough (yes, we're crazy) but it seems they've come back with an answer for us with this one. Personally I've never been sold on these types of experiences, but this one very well could be my first...

ScareHouse's creative director, Scott Simmons, has pulled some real nightmare fuel out of the closet for this one and this fourth attraction in the line up definitely looks to bring the scares to an all new level. According to their website, guests will enter in groups of no more than two and be faced with a dizzying arrangement of terror:

Underneath ScareHouse, there is a massive basement.

No more than two people enter at once ... but there are many of us waiting for you in the dark.

You will be touched.

You will be restrained.

You will be scared out of your mind.

Due to the nature of this one, you can definitely say that it won't put a lot of people through per hour like traditional haunts. For that reason, reservations for times to experience this are limited and must be done in advance. Also, it should be noted that this is an 18+ ONLY event and requires that participants sign a waiver before being allowed into the haunt.

Overall, this sounds like it's shaping up to be a very unique and intensely personal haunting experience, one that's not too common in the haunt business either. (Lots of reasons for that too.) However, this isn't the first time an event like this has been done, but it is the first in the area from what I could find. The most famous of the previous haunts would have to be the Blackout Haunted House in which the entire haunt is a terrifying dive into the realm of nightmares that you have to experience alone, no exceptions.

There is a slight difference between Blackout, Busch Gardens Tampa's Howl-O-Scream "Alone House" and ScareHouse's new offering, however. Mostly this is the fact that both ScareHouse and Busch Gardens allow for groups of more than one to go through the experience, Busch Gardens allowing groups up to four and ScareHouse allowing at max two at a time of course. That said, The Basement is definitely closer to that of Blackout as those brave souls who venture into it's madness are much more part of the action. At least from the description we have so far, it's safe to assume such.

I have reached out to the ScareHouse staff in order to find out some more details regarding the creation of, and what we can expect from, this new experience and hopefully we'll get word back on this new addition for 2013 to share with you all.

ScareHouse is located in Etna, PA and will be operating on select nights from September 27th thru Nov 2nd (mostly Thursday-Sunday) as shown by that lovely little calendar taken from their site.

For more information regarding tickets, please visit their site here.

Stay tuned for our review of this new experience this fall!