Schopfs’ ‘Field of Screams’ in Mountville, Pennsylvania, back for year 32 of extreme horrors

Brothers Gene and Jim Schopf have spent over three decades entertaining visitors at their “Field of Screams,” a theme park in Mountville, Pennsylvania, with extreme scares and frightening fun, but their mission has always been about more than just making a profit.

“It’s still a passion for my brother and I,” says Jim Schopf. “We absolutely love what we do and never feel a sense that we are tired of doing this. We love it every day. You get to be creative and come up with new ways to entertain people.”

Now in its 32^nd season, the niche theme park caters to a crowd looking for extreme terror delivered by talented scare actors and makeup artists. The entertainment continues to evolve, thanks to a team of a dozen production designers working year-round to bring the macabre magic to life.

Visitors enter the Schopf brothers’ abnormal realm to find ghastly creatures and roaming maniacs spread out over four main attractions concocted on the family’s 35-acre farm. The building now also accommodates a chainsaw bar for adults looking for a potent libation as well as a midway with carnival games, ax throwing, escape rooms and even live rock bands.

A good starting point to a night’s visit, and sure to get the heart rate going, is a 20-minute sweaty jaunt through the Nocturnal Wasteland, plopped in a forested terrain complete with a shantytown, human chop shop and living cemetery.

Victims move through a dilapidated ice cream truck and enter an apocalyptic land filled with twisted metal catwalks; bridges; numerous burned-out vehicles; metal cages; and a sewer pipe maze — all featuring some very invested scare actors.

Especially notable was a “Road Warrior” father and petulant undead son arguing over directions while inside a crashed bus.

By far, the biggest scare of the night was found in its thick neon-green swamp created with laser effects to make it look like visitors were wading through toxic water. And, even though one might have mentally prepared for the possibility, of course, a witch popped up from its murky depths to startle.

Also, included on the survival mission this year is walking around a crashed and split-apart 50-foot private jet that, although impressive, needs much more carnage and bodies to be an effective scare.

It’s worth noting that the Wasteland is a workout, often requiring traversing through paths that may slightly collapse, and areas filled with potential tripping obstacles. So, walk carefully and pay attention to the terrain at all times, even when passing over the immersive Haunted Hayride.

So, while on the topic, let’s talk about what is often considered the star attraction of Field of Screams, the Haunted Hayride.

Using still-working vintage 1970s tractors attached to 35-foot long, custom-built wagons, drivers take up to 80 visitors per trip through foreboding cornfields.

They make 10 stops within unpredictable warehouse-enclosed cinematic scenes for about a 25-minute worth of scare-actor heavy horror.

Each living presentation dives into humans’ darkest fears and features blood-hungry pigs and carnivorous farmers, twisted clowns, massive bugs and snakes, toxic mutants and a human body “chop” shop with headless corpses hanging on ever-moving conveyor belts.

New this year was an additional chamber to the cryogenic facility that through some engineering tricks made it feel like the wagons were going to fall into the abyss of space.

Most movie memorable was a stop within a human slaughterhouse featuring dismembered bodies dropping from the ceiling and chainsaw-wielding maniacs poking at potential victims. A strobe-light effect made the entire violent happenings look ripped from a 1980s R-rated slasher film.

What was most astounding in the Hayride this year was the aggressive nature of the ghouls and demented inhabitants.

Not only do the scare actors taunt, mock and liberally poke and scream at attendees, but at one point, one was seen dragging an unlucky girl across the wagon floor.

It was a shocking to witness and more so for the unlucky victim, laughing and screaming in disbelief.

Field of Screams also boasts 10-minute walkthroughs of two very authentic haunted houses that are actual mansion-style abodes and not simply mazes stuck in a warehouse.

First, the Den of Darkness is a multistory Victorian-themed mansion actually transformed from an original barn built in 1840.

A skeletal-faced ghoul initially introduces visitors to the main secret entrance to the mansion.

Dare to walk in and it is now a gantlet of horror while navigating through areas such as a dining room, a room of standing bodies covered in sheets, and dilapidated kitchens as maniacs looking for human flesh and body part are ready to harass or even deliver a bear hug (I am not kidding) on attendees.

It also includes squeezing into that damning pitch-black attic space and climbing over a dead body in a guaranteed heart-racing pinnacle moment for the Den.

Next, is the four-story Frightmare Asylum aka Applegate Mental Hospital with an updated basement area that still contains a smell of death, thanks to moldy concrete and rotted wood. A collection of inmates, doctors and nurses deliver a nearly nonstop collection of jump scares.

Guests walk through rooms containing unholy experiments, a children’s ward and even a checkered psychotherapy area.

Expect to witness medical staff “cutting up” live bodies, chainsaws poking at guest’s legs when least expected and a dwarf-sized inmate looking plucked from a German Expressionistic movie.  

And without a doubt the most visual and verbally disgusting moment in the house, as well as entire night, was meeting one of the patients covered in bulbous sores in a gross bathroom and having her let me know that “this is what happens when you eat your own feces.”

Field of Screams clearly has no filter and continues to inject every level of visual and aural horror imaginable on its unsuspecting guests, much to Schopf brothers’ delight.

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IF YOU DARE GO

What: Field of Screams

Where: 191 College Ave., Mountville, PA 17554

Fear factor (out of 5): 4 for adults; children younger than 12 need to stay away.

Hours: Open weekends rain or shine through Nov. 9 — Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and select Thursdays; also, Extreme Blackout night on Nov. 15, open until the last person is through the attractions.

Also, open for four offseason events: near Christmas (Dec. 13 and 14), Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14 and 15), St. Patrick’s Day (March 15) and halfway to Halloween (May 3).

Price range: $18 to $23 for individual attractions to $55 for a “Scream Pass” accessing all four attractions (look online for price variations and daily deal sites to find less wallet-bleeding pricing). Add $20 to $35 more per person (depending on the weekend) to avoid the lines with a VIP upgrade. Only cash is accepted at the event, but there is an ATM on-site.

Website: https://www.fieldofscreams.com