Three weeks out from opening night, the activity at the farm on College Avenue consists of the full-time staff putting on the finishing touches of what they have worked on since the doors closed the year before. That is the part people who buy tickets in October never see, and it is where Field of Screams actually gets made.
Gene and Jim Schopf opened the place in 1993 with one attraction, a hayride through their own cornfield. Neither of them had any business being in the entertainment industry. They were farm kids from Mountville who wrestled Division I out of Hempfield High and Millersville University, and they built the first ride on the family ground because it was the ground they had.
Thirty-four seasons later they are still on it.
The barn came second
The hayride ran alone for two years. In 1995 the brothers turned an old barn on the property into the Den of Darkness, three floors of it, and that is the one that eventually put them on the Travel Channel as one of the scariest haunted houses in the world.
Frightmare Asylum followed in 2002, four floors of the fictional Applegate Asylum, complete with a dental wing and a resident named Dr. Stitch who has been giving Lancaster County teenagers something to think about for going on twenty-five years.
The fourth came in 2013. The brothers opened Nocturnal Wasteland, a twisted and demented trail through the woods, on Friday, September 13. That was not an accident.
Each of the four takes twenty to twenty-five minutes. Do all four and you have spent an evening, which is the difference between Field of Screams and a haunted house you knock out in a half hour on the way to somewhere else.
New this year is a scene inside the Den of Darkness they are calling the Midnight Masquerade.
According to Co-Founder and Co-Owner Jim Schopf, the Midnight Masquerade scene fits in perfectly to the Haunted mansion style theme of the Den of Darkness. “We wanted to give our customers a high-level, unique experience while inside the Den of Darkness. The Midnight Masquerade scene puts in in the middle of a Halloween party like you have never seen before.”
Opening night is September 11
The season runs Fridays and Saturdays through September, then Fridays through Sundays in October with Thursdays added starting October 15. It closes out with November 1, 6 and 7.
Two nights sit outside the regular calendar. Extreme Blackout runs November 13. The Zombie Fun Run 5K follows on November 14, and part of what the run brings in goes to the PA Breast Cancer Coalition.
Prices move with the calendar. The Scream Pass that covers all four attractions runs $40 on the quiet nights and climbs to $60 on the October Saturdays when the lot fills. Front-of-line VIP adds $15 to $35 depending on when you come.
A few things that catch people every year. The ticket booth on site takes cash only, though there are two ATMs and you can buy online with a card. Online tickets are timed entry and all sales are final. Open and closing times vary upon the day and the time of the season. The lot generally opens around 5:30, the gates at 6:00, and the booth shuts around 10:00pm generally, though once you are in line every attraction runs until the last person is through.
And here is the one the Schopfs have been telling people for years without much success: Halloween night itself is usually not that crowded. The Saturday before it is the one that fills.
It stopped being a Halloween business
Somewhere along the way the operation outgrew October.
There is a haunt every March around St. Patrick's Day. In May of 2025 they added the Halfway to Halloween Haunt and Music Fest. There is a Creepy Christmas Haunt in December and a Bloody Valentine’s Day Haunt in February. The Blackout and the Zombie Run close out November. Between those and the four fall attractions, the property is working most of the year, which means the crew and the build shop stay in place instead of scattering every November.
The Entertainment Area is free to walk into even without an attraction ticket. Live bands or a DJ every night they are open, food, games, the Scream Shop, axe-throwing lanes, and a beer garden called the Chainsaw Bar for anyone over 21.
The money has stayed close to home too. This year the business put more than $23,000 into Mountville organizations, including a batting cage for the youth athletic association and an outdoor classroom at the elementary school.
"Mountville is where Gene and I grew up, played ball, and went to school," Jim Schopf said this summer.
“Giving back to the community is something very important to us. We have been a staple in the local community and we are happy to be able to give back to the local organizations near and dear to us, especially the Mountville Community.”
Who it is for, and who it is not
The Schopfs are direct about this in their own FAQ, which is refreshing in an industry that will sell a ticket to anyone. They do not recommend it for children under ten. Their own line on the subject is that "some 38 year olds cry for their mommy," which is about right.
Families with younger kids get pointed to Corn Cob Acres, the daytime attraction the brothers run on the same farm, forty-some activities, none of them frightening.
The indoor attractions, Den of Darkness and Frightmare Asylum, run rain or shine. The hayride and the trail can close in genuinely bad weather. You are coming to a farm in Pennsylvania in October, so dress like it.
One more thing worth stating plainly, because it comes up every single year. There are haunted attractions in other states operating under the Field of Screams name. None of them have anything to do with the one in Mountville. The Schopfs say so themselves, and the certification from the Haunted Attraction Association that lists Field of Screams among its Iconic Top Haunts belongs to the farm on College Avenue.
Roughly 75,000 people come through every fall. More than a million have come through since 1993.
Co-Founder and Co-Owner Jim Schopf says, “Back in 1993 we never imagined that Field of Screams would be on the level that it is today. But we worked hard, poured our hearts and souls into it. Field of Screams really IS our passion and it is also the passion of our amazing staff each fall season! The future is looking for scary (in a good way) for Field of Screams.”
Field of Screams opens Friday, September 11, 2026, at 191 College Avenue, Mountville, off the Mountville exit of Route 30. About ninety minutes from Philadelphia and Baltimore.
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