BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Andrea Cuddeback will allow visitors to enter, if they dare, inside the Pennsdale Haunted Barn as she guards the secret elevator.

PENNSDALE – Thrill seekers will love this one! The element of surprise just doesn’t let up when traveling through the Pennsdale Haunted Barn. Now in its 8th year, this fundraising event is a hauntingly wonderful experience according to the organizers who put this yearly event together.

The Muncy Township Volunteer Fire Company features two floors of frightful scares with rocking floors, constricting walls, moving chains, and total darkness.

A preview night was held on Thursday, October 11 to set the stage for the next three Saturdays when the Haunted Barn will be open. Dawn Palmatier said there are frights around every corner of the 5,376 square foot barn and two floors of non-stop hauntings. Beware of the bloody surprises, hairy spiders, hidden spooks, moving sirens, liquid smoke and more as you travel through four sets of stairs, dark tunnels, flashing lights, a moving elevator and screaming ghosts.

“Each year we keep growing,” Palmatier said. “We keep changing it around. It is new every year.” A group of 30 volunteers work on the event all summer long putting in well over 60 hours according to Kate Nichols who escorted visitors in and out of the facility. “Have no fears. If you can’t make it out, no worry an escort will assist you through one of our many emergency exits,” she said.

The attraction is recommended for those 12 and over according to Palmatier who said they have had to help some out as they could go no further. “Only the brave do dare to enter,” Nichols said.

BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Willow Nichols of the Pennsdale Haunted Barn likes to frighten visitors passing through her chambers.

Tickets can be sold in advance or during the next two Saturday nights, October 20 and 27. Doors open at 7 p.m. with a not so haunting hay ride for the more traditional who want to experience fall outdoors. The hayride will travel through the village of Pennsdale and two wagons will be towing visitors throughout the evening until 11 p.m. “This is not haunted,” said Palmatier.

Last year close to 2,000 came to the event which is listed as a major Halloween attraction in Pennsylvania Haunted Houses.

“We like to visit other sites and get ideas,” they said and have traveled to New York and Scranton to add to their scare tactics. Soon they discovered fog machines, laser lights and liquid smoke plus added sound effects. “It just keeps evolving,” they added.

A night of terror,” said a visitor. Another said, “It is so scary, and so black in there.”

“I was always confused, and never knew where I was going,” said another visitor as they exited a side entrance.

BARB BARRETT/The Luminary In the barn of horrors, Gabby Hileman lurks in the parlor ready to send visitors into fear as they pass through Pennsdale’s Haunted Barn, a fundraiser for the Muncy Township Volunteer Fire Company.

“I never knew if it was dead or alive,” said someone and another commented on the “surprise leaps.”

Kate Nichols added, “This event continues to grow and change, so if you’re looking for something fun to do this Saturday, come enter if you dare.”