With HOS being confirmed to be cancelled for the 2020 season and Halloween Harvest taking it's place, now seems like a better time than ever to reflect on the past. The event started in 1999 with a fairly small offering of one haunted house in Hastings, the themed railway overlay known as the Transylvanian Express, and Fiends in Das Festhaus. The event has grown rapidly, and has experienced significant changes throughout years due to slashed budgets and the constant shuffling in the entertainment department leadership.
I found the strongest year to be 2011 by far. Almost the whole park was decked out in halloween decor, the path scares we're arguably stronger than ever, and the new houses that year provided detailed sets and showed a step-up in quality that we hadn't seen before. The shows we're lacking slightly that year with a watered down, but still solid version of Monster Stomp: Revamped, and the strange family-friendly version of Jack is Back! It seemed like the event really started to embrace it's adult side by dropping the pumpkins rating system, and moving away from Jack as the icon and using the Dark Side of The Gardens theme, which fit the landscape of the park perfectly. 2011 HOS as a whole just provided a really immersive over-all feel throughout the park that I have yet to see another year come even close to in comparison. Ranking my top five years would be:
1. 2011 - ^
2. 2009 - Strong cohesive zones and house that were tied together, neat how they only relied on using the European theme.
3. 2015 - Really creative new houses themes that year and some superb marketing.
4. 2006 - Great Jack's Nightmare Express with some sweet fire effects, good zones as well. OG Monster Stomp was killing it in the Canadian Paladium.
5. 2008 - Masquerage and the introduction of MS:R, was just a stellar year overall.
Obviously, many of us on this site have been visiting for varying numbers of years and are going to have different opinions. What did you find to be the best year of Howl-O-Scream? Share your thoughts!
I found the strongest year to be 2011 by far. Almost the whole park was decked out in halloween decor, the path scares we're arguably stronger than ever, and the new houses that year provided detailed sets and showed a step-up in quality that we hadn't seen before. The shows we're lacking slightly that year with a watered down, but still solid version of Monster Stomp: Revamped, and the strange family-friendly version of Jack is Back! It seemed like the event really started to embrace it's adult side by dropping the pumpkins rating system, and moving away from Jack as the icon and using the Dark Side of The Gardens theme, which fit the landscape of the park perfectly. 2011 HOS as a whole just provided a really immersive over-all feel throughout the park that I have yet to see another year come even close to in comparison. Ranking my top five years would be:
1. 2011 - ^
2. 2009 - Strong cohesive zones and house that were tied together, neat how they only relied on using the European theme.
3. 2015 - Really creative new houses themes that year and some superb marketing.
4. 2006 - Great Jack's Nightmare Express with some sweet fire effects, good zones as well. OG Monster Stomp was killing it in the Canadian Paladium.
5. 2008 - Masquerage and the introduction of MS:R, was just a stellar year overall.
Obviously, many of us on this site have been visiting for varying numbers of years and are going to have different opinions. What did you find to be the best year of Howl-O-Scream? Share your thoughts!
Last edited: