With the landscape of events ever-changing and many organizations opting to cancel yearly events or alter them to virtual versions, the Pine Theater in Prineville is soldiering on and presenting a haunted house again for all the thrills and chills many will be seeking over the Halloween weekend.

Owner Ali Mehrabi has seen a decrease in business since reopening the movie theater earlier this summer as movie releases have been pushed and fewer people are going out in general.

“We’re just having to pretty much focus on some other things than movies,” he said indicating that while movies are the main drive, there will be a more diverse schedule of events including college football games, opening up for party rentals and hosting comedy shows, the next one of which is scheduled for Nov. 6 and will feature local comic Alex Elkin.

For Halloween, Mehrabi has transformed the movie house into a haunted house open to the public but keeping in mind that there is still a pandemic going on. Including wearing masks, performers will also keep their distance from patrons —also required to wear masks.

“The performers themselves…will be at a distance because we have a stage, so there’ll be a performer on the stage and people in the seats, seated far enough away just to startle them enough,” he said adding that groups will be limited. “Usually two (people in a group) at a time in a haunted house works the best but if people want to go up to four, sometimes the kids get a little too scared.”

Opening Wednesday, Oct. 28 and running through Halloween, groups will be staggered when entering to allow a safe distance between people.

The theater is also offering two different shows each night. The first “Family Friendly” show is a little less intense in terms of live performers and has more lights on so younger crowds don’t get too frightened. The second show, called “X-Streme Scare” will have more actors and be darker overall, creating more frights.

“It’s pretty one way,” Mehrabi said of the pathway through the show, “There’s a couple of dip in and outs if you really wanted to go in and out or you can just bypass them” as all the doors for exits and entrances are clearly marked.

For those in groups not interested in going in, the concession stand will also be open where they can wait for the rest of their party to exit.

As far as those doing the actual scaring it is entirely local.

“My son is going to be one (of the performers) and his buddy and then…High Desert Dance is going to volunteer some of their dancers to help out.”

This is only the second time the Mehrabi has held a haunted house at the theater, the first time being in 2018.

“The last one we probably had a couple hundred…we did it for, I wanna say, three days that time. And about a hundred a day-ish…maybe a little less, maybe about 75 or so,” he said.

The intimate theater space has now been transformed into a haunt with much of the auditorium blocked except for the aisles he said, with the hanging plastic creating makeshift walls.

“It’s kind of a walkthrough… (with) some cages and jails and when you get to the main part of the theater, the stage is set up and there’ll be some sort of movie in the background. For the kids’ show, it’ll be some sort of cartoon and the later at night some kind of Freddy Kruger-type horror scenes.”

Regardless of how scary things are, any show is open to any age range, with Meharbi stating that “some kids love it.”

While there is no specific theme and will include things like zombies, Mehrabi has tailored the haunted house to be a bit more clown oriented, joking that everyone hates clowns.

What: Pine Theater Haunted House

Where: Pine Theater, 216 N. Main St., Prineville

When: Family friendly show, 1-4 p.m. and X-Streme Scare 5-9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday

Cost: $4 per person for family friendly show, $5 per person for X-Streme Scare show

Contact: pinetheater.com or 541-416-1044