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| Photo: Haunt Hunters App |
by Tara Adams
Writer, Haunt Hunters App
PENNSDALE, Pa. — Green lights flickered inside the weathered walls of the Pennsdale Haunted Barn, where St. Patrick’s Day cheer took an unlucky turn.
The popular Halloween attraction, located about 15 minutes east of Williamsport, reopened for a two-day St. Paddy’s Day Haunt, trading pumpkins and fall leaves for leprechauns and mischief.
The haunted attraction, operated by volunteers, runs primarily in the fall and serves as a major fundraiser for the Pennsdale Volunteer Fire Company, Co-chair Kristina Bitler said.
The haunt began in the fire station in 2010 but moved to the barn for more space.
“It got too big for the fire department building, so we decided to use the barn on the property,” said Bitler, who was in costume and carrying the skull of a cow named Oreo.
Many of the actors are theater students from Hughesville High School, while others are members of the fire company.
“It's all volunteer, so these kids are not getting paid,” Bitler said. “Nobody is getting paid here. It's just something that we love to do.”
The St. Paddy’s Day Haunt kept the same core formula used during the October season, such as dark corridors, live actors and sudden scares, while layering in Irish-themed twists.
Organizers included a Leprechaun Hunt as part of the weekend festivities, in which patrons searched inside the barn for a leprechaun. If they found him, they were asked to take a photo and upload it to a link for a chance to win tickets to the fall haunt.
The barn houses 42 haunted rooms, including a castle, a rocking elevator that shifts while guests are inside, and a pirate-themed area filled with fog, sea creatures and misty green lighting. In one section of the pirate scene, a character asked guests to dance an Irish jig before allowing them to cross a bridge leading deeper into the attraction.
Costumed performers lurked behind walls and in low-lit corners, mixing humor with jump scares. Laughter, screams and sudden loud noises echoed through the barn, serving as a familiar soundtrack for a haunted house, even if the calendar said March.
At the end of the walk-through, visitors encountered one final character before exiting the barn: a leprechaun wielding a running chainsaw.
The actor chased groups through the final doorway and out into the open air, a last burst of noise and movement designed to send guests off either laughing or screaming.
“Everybody's a tough guy until they meet a chainsaw,” the leprechaun told a group of patrons he had just chased out the door.
The Pennsdale Haunted Barn will close again after the St. Patrick’s Day run and return to its regular fall schedule later this year.
“We're excited about October and the changes we have coming,” Bitler said. “I can't give too much away, but there's definitely going to be some obvious changes.”
Until then, the barn’s brief March appearance, chainsaw and all, served as a reminder that the attraction’s mission does not change with the season: raise funds, bring people together and give visitors something they will remember on the way out the door.
