First Annual Dusk To Dawn Scare-A-Thon
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Halloween 2025 just entered my top five favorite nights spent on the lot at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Halloween 2025 just entered my top five favorite nights spent on the lot at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.
The first annual Dusk-To-Dawn Scare-A-Thon was a marathon of five horror movies that began on Halloween night and continued to the sun coming up on the morning of November 1st. There were five movies, the first four of which were screened from 35mm.
Here's the catch: All of the titles were a surprise. No hints. No clues. No inside information. You just show up and let it ride.
It was so windy in the hours prior to gates opening at 6:00 that one of the port-a-potty stalls had blown out into the road. I'm just glad it didn't top over. Unfortunately, these damn pumpkins on the photo op stage weren't as cooperative. Each pumpkin was a separate piece that locked together, but they were pretty lightweight. They blew over a few times, and the top center pumpkin kept coming loose. We must have fixed them at least half a dozen times.
Mark wasn't sure how well this show would do because there's so many other things happening on Halloween night. I'm pleased to say that we were absolutely slammed.
These pictures were taken by Sergio. He took the one of the cars waiting in line too. I try to remember to give credit where credit is due on here. Generally speaking, if you see any photos on here of the Mahoning or any other theater that looks good enough to appear in a magazine, you can bet that it's one of his.
I worked the front gate with Dave and Donnie and we were scanning and selling tickets straight up to showtime. It's a pretty safe bet that this will become an annual event.
I'm going to miss these folks over the winter. I've never been much of a social guy before coming to the Mahoning, but I've met so many awesome people and made more friends on this lot in five years than I have in the rest of my adult life. This truly is a special place.
You're welcome to tell me or anyone else on the staff that the temperature is not to your liking, but I'm not really sure what we could do for you. Maybe a hug or a pocket burger?
I sat outside for the first movie but it was just too damn cold. My little Mazda 3 turned into a cozy blanket and pillow fort for the rest of the night after that.
Here are the movies. I'm going to come back in here later on and add a short review for each of them, but I've been falling so far behind in keeping up with posting on this thing, so I wanted to at least get the names of the movies and the photos of the title cards up.
Movie #2: Black Christmas (1974)
Sunrise held off just long enough to finish the final movie.
There were a lot more people who made it through the entire night than I was expecting. I thought there would be a dozen people or maybe twenty at the most, but I'm pretty sure there were over a hundred. It was a great night, and the start of a new tradition that will make Halloween night incredible for years to come.
