Busch Gardens Williamsburg Howl-O-Scream 2026

[netdvn]

What makes a great haunt boils down to the actors. If the actors are dedicated to their work and try to actively scare you, the maze is elevated in my book. It doesn't matter how crappy the set design is.

SFA got by with crappy set design because they hired good actors. I remember a maze that had literally one actor in the whole thing and she'd stalk me through the maze. The maze itself was just a bunch of blank walls with barely any decor but the one actor inside was actually pretty aggressive. Idk how that could be managed on busier nights, but it's very effective on slow nights where you're the only one in the maze.

HHN is the opposite. Many of their mazes are well staffed and the decoration is on another level compared to most haunts, but the actors are forced to go through the motions because the scares are all the same, so it's not particularly intense.

This year BGW hit that right balance. Actors are a bit more aggressive and they're actually given lines of dialogue so it's not the same style jump scare over and over again. Mazes are actually well staffed as well, which is a huge plus. Set design could use more work, but I do like that the park has animatronics in their mazes again. I was wondering why they did away with those in the past.

Tampa's mazes obviously have a much higher budget to work with but a common problem they have is they put tons of investment in new mazes and leave the older ones to languish.

I prefer independent haunts myself. Even if the set design is weak, independent haunts give their across a lot of freedom to work with so they're often more intense than most park haunts.

 

[Zachary]

As a haunt event, this year's HOS sucks, for the record. No idea what anyone sees in it. Bloodshot is the only house of even passable quality. I'm driving to Kings Dominion where they actually have people interested in producing a Halloween event. This HOS makes SWO's look strong. out BGW.

 

[warfelg]

For it's not if I get scared or nervous ghat I judge in but can I lose myself in the house and enjoy the environment. BGW actually did a decent job of that at one point with houses like Deadline, Unearthed, Kill Dine, Witches and even ladt year with Bloodshot which is still good but had to much light pollution and a cast that just wasn't selling me on the story opening night. But most of their houses lately just don't have an atmosphere that causes me to lose the sense of hey that wall is a black curtain.

I'll second what @horsesboy said. I think a lot of people (including me) don't actually find haunted houses "scary" in a literal sense. You always know in the back of your mind that it's a safe, controlled environment. "Startles" is probably better word than "scares" for me, because there are still jump-scares that get me, and that's the fun of it. But jump-scares alone get old quickly. I think the magic of haunted houses is that they're a combination of immersive themed environments and what's essentially interactive theater - with an added layer of thrill coming from the suspense of a jump-scare that could happen at any moment.

In an ideal haunted house, all three of those elements are present: immersive environments, storytelling, and suspense. And they play off each other. A spooky environment that makes you feel like you're somewhere other than a theme park, a well-conveyed story that helps you suspend disbelief and pretend you're really in that environment, and the looming threat of a jump-scare to give everything a bit of stakes... that's the secret sauce. The spookier the environment, the more the storytelling and effects can play on your senses, the more your primal instincts get the better of you when a monster jumps out at you unexpectedly, the more fun the experience.

It really is all generally for fun, IMO. The main reaction of me in a haunted house is laughter, along with maybe the occasional "Oh shit!" blurted out if someone gets me good. I think it's a totally different goal than a horror movie, for example, where the realism and phycological tricks (and all the other characteristics of film as a medium) can create something that's genuinely, deeply disturbing and not just comically gory or scary for laughs like a haunted house. (I say this because I'm a total weenie when it comes to horror movies and want to make clear that my finding haunted houses funny isn't just a pathetic attempt to appear stoic.)

To that end, I think it's possible to judge haunted houses somewhat critically and objectively without being jaded by how well you handle scares. They can be judged much like any other theme park attraction or show. If BGW sticks a bunch of scare actors into a sparsely decorated black-painted plywood hallway, that's not a good haunted house, even if every scare actor is on their A-game and gives you a jump scare at every turn. Likewise, a beautifully built haunted house can only be so effective if either the actors aren't trained to convey the story (or scare well) or the house is poorly staffed; this seems to be a perennial problem for KD's Trick or Treat, for example. (I think the latter problem is less important because walking through a well-built environment is still somewhat enjoyable, and training/staffing is a problem that can be more easily solved than getting the basics of house design right).

All this to say... I've never really stopped to think about what makes haunted houses such a uniquely fun medium before. They're pretty cool. I love this time of year.

I appreciate these responses. I think it what makes special events hard is we all respond to different things. But also what makes it great.

I’ve said before I don’t go because I know my response to scares is physical so I avoid going so my response doesn’t hurt anyone. (Yes I would be someone who goes viral for punching a Home Depot scare display after knowingly hitting the button) I know it doesn’t take much so I feel like my care of effort of set design wouldn’t be high as I would be worried about where the next moment was coming from.

 

[RollyCoaster]

Great first impressions of Fright at the Museum!

It wasn’t the most immersive haunt, but the set designs and costumes were fun, and I liked that the actors were given dedicated lines.

I found the ending particularly funny, which definitely gives it some extra points from me lol

 

[Nicole]

So, I just left Williamsburg’s HOS and I have things to say.

First off, the best part of the event for me was my glow in the dark nail polish. 10/10

Unfortunately, that is probably the nicest thing I have to say about my evening. Luckily, I have a very snarky sense of humor and, thus, my visit wasn’t a total loss.

As others have said, Bloodshot was easily the best house of the night. In my opinion, it was absolutely adequate by pre-COVID standards. We went through it twice and the first time the actors were killing it and making full use of the structure. They were even telling stories. I exited with some feelings of residual tension. The second time, however, is seemed dramatically less staffed and my experience wasn’t as good.

I am kinda sad that I experienced Tampa’s Anaconda house first, because it made whatever that was in Festa feel even worse. They have got to stop with the pre-show. It ruins the walkthrough experience for everyone. I got the backstory from the actors in the opening rooms in Tampa without having to experience the whole house in a giant mob. Not that there really was anything to experience, anyway. There was one effective distraction scare at the very end of the maze. Other than that, there was essentially nothing but lightly decorated rooms and a few ineffective puppets and things on pistons. To be clear, Tampa’s is a near HHN-level house and highly immersive with lots of storytelling. This was a half-hearted attempt at a lightly-themed queue.

I had a brainwave about the rest of the event. It isn’t a traditional theme park haunt. It is a high school art project! If you think of it as a group of interactive walk-throughs, designed to give the impression of haunted houses, it isn’t nearly as disappointing. Not that any if the kids would have earned high marks for anything we saw tonight, however.

The Museum house had very nice sets and clever props. I viewed it as the attempt at a humor house. I really enjoyed the signage throughout the maze. I’m not sure what the aliens had to do with anything, but the were kinda funny, I guess? I give it a C.

Going through the werewolf house, I felt as it I was watching a series of loosely-connected action scenes. I wasn’t involved; I was just the audience. Many of the actors were doing a great job; they just had absolutely no way to interact with me, so they were essentially just putting on a show. I wish they had some sets and props, however. Maybe it was meant to be like Blackbox theater? It gets an F.

Was Clown Town longer this year? It was certainly more boring. Once again, kudos to the high school art class for the props and set! Next year, they should focus more on maze structure maybe. They earned a D.

Besides being painfully amateur and boring, the event had a few unforgivable issues.

The one thing that a theme park should know how to do is queue management. The lines at HOS were chaos, especially behind DFH. They felt as if someone forgot to set them up before opening day and threw something together at the last minute. And how is it that they still haven’t figured out the QQ/RAP line in Festa?

Also! Where was security? I saw some of the clustered in the house queues, but when we witnessed a brawl escalating on the bridge between Oktoberfest and San Marco, we couldn’t find anyone to notify. After walking through all of San Marco, we finally spotted a supervisor, but by then the fight had moved and he was heading in the wrong direction.

And No Boos should not be allowed in the houses and it shouldn’t be up to a scare actor to keep them out. Yet, that is exactly what we witnessed at Bloodshot.

Honestly, BGW, do better or stop trying to host an adult haunt.

 

[horsesboy]

I was there tonight and was pleasantly surprised with the Museum house. I was expecting to rate it a zero point something on a scale of 0-10 it's probably a solid two and my second favorite house of the event behind Bloodshot.

My list in order

Bloodshot
Fright at the Museum
Werewolf
Clown Town
Anaconda.

 

[Turbo]

Planning to attend on a Thursday in October. It would be easiest for my wife and I based on crowds / child help. Do I remember reading somewhere where Thursday night didn't seem as good with staffing? Trying to weigh the pro's and con's of a Thu versus a Sun. We only get 1 visit this year...

 

[Zachary]

Yeah, Wednesdays and Thursdays are often more lightly staffed than Fridays, Saturdays (especially), and Sundays. Staffing doesn't necessarily equate to house experience quality though. I'd almost always take an empty Thursday over a busy Sunday as more crowds don't only equal longer lines, but also larger groupings, more exhausted casts, stacking in houses, etc. In the second half of a Thursday HOS, you can often just walk right into whatever house you want—making repeating anything you had a particularly bad walk-through of trivial (for instance, when you catch up to a group of 6 year-olds with No Boo necklaces on stumbling through the house as a single blob at a glacial speed in the second room of the house).

I'm of the opinion that, in lieu of massive, theatrical spectacle houses a la HHN, most regional parks events are strongest when they can maximize more individualized, one-on-one experiences with casts. A Thursday will almost always provide far more of those than a standard October Sunday.

 

[AlpenChrist97]

As a haunt event, this year's HOS sucks

Every year since 2017 for me…🫩

 

[RollyCoaster]

Something happened at Bloodshot tonight (around 8:50) They won’t be opening the maze anymore tonight, but they didn’t send the actors home. Instead, a bunch of them are out in the walkways around Pompeii.

Super freaking cool! I do wonder what happened that caused them to close the maze but still keep all the actors staffed and outside though.

 

[AlpenChrist97]

Something happened at Bloodshot tonight (around 8:50) They won’t be opening the maze anymore tonight, but they didn’t send the actors home. Instead, a bunch of them are out in the walkways around Pompeii.

Super freaking cool! I do wonder what happened that caused them to close the maze but still keep all the actors staffed and outside though.

Oddly enough, it ended up being arguably the best scare zone in the park, even though it’s accidental

 

[horsesboy]

It's worth noting that some additional effects have been added to Museum. It's still weak but it's at least a minor improvement I move it up to a 2.2 on a 0-10 scale.

 

[James]

Something happened at Bloodshot tonight (around 8:50) They won’t be opening the maze anymore tonight, but they didn’t send the actors home. Instead, a bunch of them are out in the walkways around Pompeii.

Super freaking cool! I do wonder what happened that caused them to close the maze but still keep all the actors staffed and outside though.

My best guess is something structural within the maze that couldn't be quickly fixed.

 

[horsesboy]

My best guess is something structural within the maze that couldn't be quickly fixed.

My information is there was an electronic a l issue with the fore alarm and emergency lighting that was causing them to falsely activated. It was addressed before open today and should be all good now.

 

[horsesboy]

They finally got the trill fully working.

 

[CamisaAnn]

I had originally planned to go to HOS tonight, but had to alter the plans about a month ago when I found out there were going to be 4+ projects due at work this week, so taking Monday off was just too stressful for me. I decided to go Saturday and deal with the crowds, thought maybe since they kept threatening rain by 6pm yesterday some people wouldn't come. Nope. I can not believe how packed this park gets on Saturdays. And it makes me happy. People in line for food like you wouldn't believe. Lines out the door at Marco Polo and the Fest House was packed even the tables in the way back at the 2:15 show were mostly full. So many people forking out who knows how much for that silly oversized piece of chocolate cake that looks better than it tastes. And that's a childhood/teenage memory the cake wasn't that good. I just like to know the park has to be making money and it's not going away. It's a scary time for the economy you never know when your favorite places are going to disappear.

I decided to go early so I could see all the shows and because I thought the weather might be right. Not to mention I just get up early for work and didn't want to ruin my schedule too much. I got rides in, went to my car for lunch. started making my way through all the shows at 1:30. The rain didn't come so I did the museum house and the werewolf, really nice that you can go through two houses back here now and only wait in line one time. Then I did Anaconda which didn't even have much of a line at 7. After that I made myself leave because I didn't want to be overtired today and all week. No scares for me, but lots of disappointed actors. I actually feel bad at the disappointment you can see in their faces when they don't scare you. I loved seeing other people scream and jump, I am just too aware of my surroundings. I felt one of those trees following me by Verbolten and when I turned around to and he/she realized they were caught they quickly went to find a better victim.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to take a theme park break for '27, but it has been so much fun going a lot this year. I will go to Christmas Town at least once, but going to cancel the pass and do something different next year. As an outsider to this community, but as someone who grew up going to this park. I really don't see the decline you all see. It's still got that special feeling it's always had for me. Of course there are rides and shows I miss, but there's also new rides and shows I like. When I was at Disney and Universal in '23 lots of rides were closed in June their peak season. Yesterday at some point all the rides except the water rides were open. And those are closed because in VA it's supposed to be too cold by Oct for water rides. All in all I just came in to say I had a good time at BG yesterday and HOS. Had dinner at Chipotle on the way home because I'm a picky vegetarian if I did eat lunch at the park this season I had a side salad and mozzarella sticks. Sometimes with the $10 voucher and the discount it would be $4.00, sometimes it would be free. LOL at the consistency but you can't complain about either of those prices.

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

My dad went yesterday and said it was insane. He had to leave at 3 to come see my marching band show in Gloucester and he said he was very very glad he did. He was planning on going to HOS after the show but he ended up just going home

 

[anobles4]

Just leaving Howl O Scream. The shows are fantastic. But it is true that the rest of the event falls flat. Scare zones and haunted houses are just uninspired. This forum seems fully disengaged from this event, and I get that.

I’m curious where @Zachary and others think Howl O Scream is going wrong. Park level leadership does so much well… is it just that they are bad/indifferent about special events? Christmas Town feels stale. Mardi Gras is not awesome. The most successful events are the most understated: Summer of Wonder, F&W, and Bierfest fit best with the regular vibe of the park. What would it take to make Howl O Scream great?

 

[Irishlad]

Just leaving Howl O Scream. The shows are fantastic. But it is true that the rest of the event falls flat. Scare zones and haunted houses are just uninspired. This forum seems fully disengaged from this event, and I get that.

I’m curious where @Zachary and others think Howl O Scream is going wrong. Park level leadership does so much well… is it just that they are bad/indifferent about special events? Christmas Town feels stale. Mardi Gras is not awesome. The most successful events are the most understated: Summer of Wonder, F&W, and Bierfest fit best with the regular vibe of the park. What would it take to make Howl O Scream great?

I am almost inclined to believe that the park is letting corporate dictate these special events more in exchange for them dictating other elements of the park. Just my sense! I believe that corporate sees a cash cow and are raking in the money based upon the nostalgia of the event and not the actual current event in its form. What I would give to go back to pre 2013 HOS

 

[Zachary]

I think BGW/United has come to realize that there is a seemingly endless wellspring of inelastic demand for BGW around Halloween and Christmas and these seasons are now seen as chances for profit extraction rather than investment opportunities in distinct, unique products that can draw a more specialized, potentially more profitable audience than the groups currently flooding these events. From the park's point of view (and I do believe this is their view), if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The park makes more during Halloween and Christmas than during any other season now and that's despite nearly a decade of what I would identify as clear decline. And BGW is one of (if not the most) reliably successful park in the chain at this point. Why change anything?

Maybe there is some point at which they'll find the straw that breaks the camel's back and one or both of these events will deteriorate below the minimum quality standard that the average guest is willing to visit for. They just, unfortunately, don't even seem to be close to finding that floor yet though.

I find BGW's Howl-O-Scream to be a straight-up embarrassment at this point. The event has seen minimal investment, creative focus, etc, for years now and, as someone who does remember a different time and as someone who does travel to visit far less attended, far less profitable, but vastly superior events, I can hardly bare to even look at a BGW HOS house without rolling my eyes and feeling genuinely a little insulted by the slop BGW is willing to serve me.

That being said, day after day, normal guests keep crowding in. From the park's point of view, why spend money to do anything differently?

And though it pains me to say this, I do have to acknowledge that part of what enables BGW to consistently provide a better baseline experience than its sister parks—part of what funds incredible renovation projects like Squire's—part of what keeps BGW's parking trams running—part of what keeps us running three railroad stations—part of what allows BGW to dodge upcharging the skyride—part of what keeps the Rhine River Cruise, Celtic Fire, etc intact—part of all of the things that other United properties have cut in search of more pennies for shareholders but that BGW has managed to dodge—is a result of HOS and CMT being treated as cash cows ripe for nothing but profit extraction.

Obviously I believe the park SHOULD do better—and I believe they COULD do better without spending a dime more—but if I'm offered the devil's bargain of "protect more of the main season BGW guest experience from the private equity leeches in exchange for continuously awful seasonal events," I'm taking that deal every time. You can turn a special event around in a season or two. You can never rebuild BGW once it has been drained by the vampires on Wall St.