General admission tickets to Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld San Diego start at $40. That significantly undercuts competitors two and three hours up the 5, including Knott’s Scary Farm ($60), Halloween Horror Nights ($77) and Six Flags Fright Fest ($70).
For a pair of Andrew Jacksons, you get access to five haunted houses, a handful of scare zones, a monster-themed dance show and three roller coasters (Emperor, Arctic Rescue and Electric Eel). On its face, it’s one of the great values offered by a Halloween theme park event in Southern California.
Reality reveals something else. Howl-O-Scream came to SeaWorld San Diego in 2021, and its three haunted houses did not measure up to the competition. Experience has not improved the event.
Given the low price of the ticket, less sophisticated sets and costumes are to be expected. But the issues at Howl-O-Scream are more fundamental. Nearly every house features wide-open rooms with minimal set dressing, leaving performers nowhere to hide. This makes the houses a series of poorly-plotted vignettes. You walk into a room, the performer stands still for a long time and then rattles off some potted dialogue. Rinse, repeat.
Ranking the five mazes is pointless. They include Circus of the Damned 3D, Nightmare Experiment, Simon’s Slaughterhouse, Deathwater Bayou and Area 64: Alien Outbreak. Of these, Deathwater Bayou is the most atmospheric and interesting, though it suffers from the poor lighting and inconsistent set dressing as the rest of the lineup.
Circus of the Damned 3D is the worst offender. Rooms are brightly lit and filled with minimal props. Performers, most of whom are clowns, have no opportunity to startle or scare guests so they must resort to making them uncomfortable. This, as you might expect, offers mixed returns.
Nightmare Experiment, on the other hand, offends differently. It is not explicitly an asylum-themed maze, but it is absolutely an asylum-themed maze. We’re talking performers with little direction other than to “act crazy” while wearing straitjackets. It’s disappointing that a relatively new event still relies on such tired tropes.
There are undoubtedly guests who will shriek every time a performer looks at or talks to them — and if that’s you, perhaps Howl-O-Scream is a good use of your time and money. But if you’re looking for haunted houses that intend to frighten you at a low price, you’re better off finding a local haunt to support instead of what SeaWorld is offering.
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This article is spot on! Just went yesterday and was a very bad experience...nothing scary. Horrible performers, my 8 year old wasn't even scared. Looks on the level of what the 5th graders presented at the elementary school. They had no coordination, ypu walk in and wander around lost for a while, and no clear place to get a wheelchair or stroller. I would have asked for my money back but the line for guest services was like an hour wait. Never again
I've never been to Howl-O-Scream in Tampa, but Busch Gardens Williamsburg has the same problem. They've scaled back the event so much that it's primarily bars and cheesy shows. The mazes that they have lack the sophistication of competitors, and they keep the same themes around for decades.
Not sure if he's the one in charge of SWSD's Howl-O-Scream or just one of the heads, but I have a friend who is super involved with the event and can share a little insight into its problems. Apparently, the first year the event was thrown together on short notice, so they had to build it from props and equipment the other parks were no longer using. The second year was the strongest for the event in terms of offerings, but unfortunately it didn't bring in the crowds that were anticipated, so the budget got majorly cut after that. As such, they're doing the best they can with the very limited resources they have, and it's an event driven purely by the quality of talent they're able to hire to staff mazes and scare zones (which, in my experience, has been on par with or even better than some of SoCal's other theme park haunts). The park has said they'd like to discontinue it and do something different, but both those involved and corporate insist on it continuing. I can't really refute any of the problems cited in this article, nor can I say it isn't last place among SoCal's theme park haunts, but I've enjoyed it enough when I've gone to justify the visit.
I just think they have not provided a good enough structure (literally or figuratively) for it to matter at all how talented the performers are. The sets are just too barren for them to be effective spaces for performers to do their best work.
They'd be better off using black walls and boo-holes rather rather than continue with what they're doing now.
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Sometimes I wonder if United Parks executives remember that they have properties out west.