I wouldn’t call it the worst house (Monster Manor) but it is a close second.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg Howl-O-Scream 2026
- Thread starter horsesboy
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Looks like the budget for the house went into paying off the BGW Insiders Facebook admins to say good stuff about it
Anaconda looked a lot like Death Water Bayou, but not nearly as colorful and pretty. The scenic design was way too monotonous. I seriously don’t know how Sony approved the maze. That said, it’s far from the worst house I have seen at BGW.
At least it was thematically consistent, and all of the scare actors were telling a story which is sort of rare compared to some other mazes in the park. To be fair, though, all of the scare actors tonight seemed like they were really into their roles and telling a story.
By the way, I passed by the troll several times and he wasn’t moving or making any noise, but maybe they’ll work on that. The set that they built for him looks awesome though and I definitely wasn’t expecting that.
At least it was thematically consistent, and all of the scare actors were telling a story which is sort of rare compared to some other mazes in the park. To be fair, though, all of the scare actors tonight seemed like they were really into their roles and telling a story.
By the way, I passed by the troll several times and he wasn’t moving or making any noise, but maybe they’ll work on that. The set that they built for him looks awesome though and I definitely wasn’t expecting that.
@CastleOSullivan I really wonder if we went through the same attraction.
Anaconda was nothing but “Help me!” and “Watch out!”
I don’t really remember… any story at all? They could have easily made the exact same attraction without the Anaconda name, and little to nobody would have thought the attraction was based on a movie.
The troll was awesome, though! I forgot to mention that. Truly a decorative highlight in Williamsburg this year.
Anaconda was nothing but “Help me!” and “Watch out!”
I don’t really remember… any story at all? They could have easily made the exact same attraction without the Anaconda name, and little to nobody would have thought the attraction was based on a movie.
The troll was awesome, though! I forgot to mention that. Truly a decorative highlight in Williamsburg this year.
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Anaconda house walkthrough begins at 18:40. Oof. “It’s in there”, “Don’t go in there”, “Watch out for the snake”, “look out/watch out for that snake”. Standing in the corner saying help or don’t go in there? It breaks basic rules for building a haunt. I won’t burden the thread with my ranting complaints, but oh my god.
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Went through it twice last night once before dark and once after sunset to see if it improved. It didn't really. That said the second time had a preshow that gave you a story. It's a documentary film frew went out into the Amazon to film snakesvand hadn't been heard from since then and you are being sent out to search for them. That said the house doesn't really flow well with this story other then a lot of people screaming help and save me.
The Anaconda house doesn't even follow the most basic aspect of the story line. GOING INTO THE JUNGLE! They even have a "pre show" that says we're going into the jungle to rescue a film crew. Jungles are dense and steamy and dark. I'm pretty sure at one point in the house we helped them do laundry and grabbed a snack somewhere near the conex boxes. I feel so bad for any actor in that house, they were trying so hard but there is nothing to work with in there. The giant snake head was cool but that's it. Whomever was responsible for that atrocity reminds me of the Nothing, as it tried to steal the magic and joy from all who entered.
Overall the park looked amazing for an opening weekend. It felt like this was the most prepared the park has been in years. Clown town was fantastic and the changes to the rooms made it feel disorienting at times.
Once again the number one failure for me at this event... FOG! Where the fuck was the fog? There's maybe 6 fog machines in the entire park and they only spray fog every 10 minutes? It's embarrassing and someone should feel shame for hating ambience at a haunt event. More fog!
Overall the park looked amazing for an opening weekend. It felt like this was the most prepared the park has been in years. Clown town was fantastic and the changes to the rooms made it feel disorienting at times.
Once again the number one failure for me at this event... FOG! Where the fuck was the fog? There's maybe 6 fog machines in the entire park and they only spray fog every 10 minutes? It's embarrassing and someone should feel shame for hating ambience at a haunt event. More fog!
I don’t want to dunk on Busch or make it seem like I’m hating in bad faith. It just pains me to see what they give the people of this area.
I have some questions and comments about this event…and I will be fair and say all of this comes from watching videos of last night. I will actually visit the event in October.
1. There’s a clear lack of knowledge about how to design a haunted attraction. I’ve finally settled on that conclusion after years of visiting and now seeing this years houses. Most of these houses are spaces and then actors stand in corners or behind props for scares. That’s fine. But not every single room. There are almost no “boo holes” in the houses. You can’t make flat walls and empty rooms scary.
2. Does anyone know the price of a facility like Haunt or SCarowinds uses for a house? And I am more so referring to ones like Bayou and Paranormal Inc. are in. Those medium sized metal buildings, not sure of their proper names. Anyways! This event needs some….desperately. And I refuse to believe they’re too expensive for BGW to invest in some. As far as a location? Bulldoze whatever funky plot of land Anaconda sits on you can easily fit 1 possibly 2.
3. To piggyback off number 1…why are the houses so long? Werewolves especially seems like if some scenes were chopped out and set dressing was redistributed to the other rooms things would be much better.
That’s all I got for now. I’m still hopeful things can flesh out for this event in the coming weeks!
1. There’s a clear lack of knowledge about how to design a haunted attraction. I’ve finally settled on that conclusion after years of visiting and now seeing this years houses. Most of these houses are spaces and then actors stand in corners or behind props for scares. That’s fine. But not every single room. There are almost no “boo holes” in the houses. You can’t make flat walls and empty rooms scary.
2. Does anyone know the price of a facility like Haunt or SCarowinds uses for a house? And I am more so referring to ones like Bayou and Paranormal Inc. are in. Those medium sized metal buildings, not sure of their proper names. Anyways! This event needs some….desperately. And I refuse to believe they’re too expensive for BGW to invest in some. As far as a location? Bulldoze whatever funky plot of land Anaconda sits on you can easily fit 1 possibly 2.
3. To piggyback off number 1…why are the houses so long? Werewolves especially seems like if some scenes were chopped out and set dressing was redistributed to the other rooms things would be much better.
That’s all I got for now. I’m still hopeful things can flesh out for this event in the coming weeks!
Clown town is way to long. Wolves feels a little shorter and more closed in now. And yea honestly not sure why they can't bulldoze the festa house area and build another good size pavilion
In good news I have been told the troll IS fully animated and is not completely setup yet so expect more there in the future.
Ah yes, the bought and paid for industry shills back at it again…
Every house have "boo holes" just most people never film them. Or rarely get lucky enough to catch them in action. I really like the boo windows in the Festa Italia maze best. The have hidden false windows that look like part of the wall and slide up and slam down. No boo required. The pure act of the windows alone slamming down work wonders at scaring people.
Can we please stop sending 500 guests into a haunted house every 3 mins.
We literally witnessed a supervisor ask the house attendant to slow dont guests. And let less into the house. Take a guess what she did next. ........ she sent 500 more.
Not sure if it's still the case but a few years back the head Admin of the group was BGW's head of social media. Need I say more.
It was also very nice to see scare actors in the queue line entrance. Anaconda and werewolves maze could really benefit from this.
Also why does management feel the need to send 500 guests per minute through the haunted houses. Daddy chill. Like wtf. We hate seeing the actors struggle with some many people in the houses at once. Hard to really scare everyone when everyone can see where your hiding because there is no proper spacing. This is one major is we have seen for 5 years now. We love the spacing at kd. Someone really needs to call the fire Marshall on these lifeguards and fine bgw for exceeding the maximum occupancy limit in these haunted houses.
Also why does management feel the need to send 500 guests per minute through the haunted houses. Daddy chill. Like wtf. We hate seeing the actors struggle with some many people in the houses at once. Hard to really scare everyone when everyone can see where your hiding because there is no proper spacing. This is one major is we have seen for 5 years now. We love the spacing at kd. Someone really needs to call the fire Marshall on these lifeguards and fine bgw for exceeding the maximum occupancy limit in these haunted houses.
I was at the park last Monday and it was basically undecorated.
Came back today and damn I'm impressed. Kudos to BGW for turning things around on insanely short notice. Usually around this time, the park is only half decorated, but it looks like they pulled out all the stops this year. There are still a few bare spots here and there (mainly the monsters in Ireland), but everything else looks very impressive.
I'm not doing the event this weekend (it seems there's still teething issues), but I'll be back next weekend to see how the mazes and scare zones hold up
Also Fiends is amazing this year. Idk why BGW's Fiends feels way funnier than Tampa's. They made quite a few edgier jokes than normal, which was nice. Glad to see the park pushing the envelope in the writing department.
Came back today and damn I'm impressed. Kudos to BGW for turning things around on insanely short notice. Usually around this time, the park is only half decorated, but it looks like they pulled out all the stops this year. There are still a few bare spots here and there (mainly the monsters in Ireland), but everything else looks very impressive.
I'm not doing the event this weekend (it seems there's still teething issues), but I'll be back next weekend to see how the mazes and scare zones hold up
Also Fiends is amazing this year. Idk why BGW's Fiends feels way funnier than Tampa's. They made quite a few edgier jokes than normal, which was nice. Glad to see the park pushing the envelope in the writing department.
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I was genuinely impressed on the turn around time on that $5000 joke.
They didn't have to pay
Seriously, this would probably send me into cardiac arrest (from the BGW Insiders group)
