Thank God the newer houses are stealing attendance from Circo. That line always took forever.
Howl-O-Scream 2018
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
Is that the witch from Illuminights as the jester?
Does that mean it's no longer inside Circo??? Unless I'm not remembering a second witch puppet. (Which could be the case, because I'm not looking up that show to try and remember correctly) But I mean, if it is, I'm glad if they removed it, cause that scare didn't work because you have to look up and to the right in order to get it, and most people missed it.
Any word on the control lab experience where you pay and scare someone? Just curious if anyone is actually doing this. What about any of the escape rooms.
Control Lab was up and running tonight. It looked like there were scares setup in three houses and one on the Festa/San Marco bridge. No idea as to cost.
We will be evaluating the Escape Rooms on Sunday.
We will be evaluating the Escape Rooms on Sunday.
I was there yesterday and honestly left disappointed by most of the mazes. The only maze that stood out to me was Dystopia. The scares were abundant and plentiful with that one. Other than that no other maze came close.
Having now been through all of the houses and scare zones, I feel it reasonable to provide an initial review. I anticipate things will change between now and Halloween, but these are my impressions from the first two days of the event.
I was a little disappointed in the houses overall this year. Most of the actors seemed to be trying their best, but they honestly weren’t given a lot to work with in many cases. So, from best to worst:
1. Lumberhack. This maze continues to lead the pack for me year after year. I regret the loss of the unique physical scares, and I wish they would go back to telling the story. That said, the actors continue to deliver some of the best performances in the park. They get in your way — dangerously close — wielding “weapons” and threatening you as you pass. You really get the sense that you have stumbled into some Deliverance scenario. They do they best job by far, delivering non-startle scares.
2. The Vault: XX. It probably says a lot about the event as a whole that this house is my number two. In addition to finding the concept itself lazy, I thought the implementation was weak. The rooms that I could identify all seemed strangely recent, like Catacombs. I was also confused by the inclusion of Mr. Carver. While he was an icon, he never had a dedicated house. I realized that I didn’t know if the Vault was supposed to hold the old mazes or the old icons or both. If BGW really wanted to dedicate a single-year house to HOS, they should have been willing to recreate rooms from much older events. Relying on whatever was immediately available in storage set this house up to fail. That said, it was well staffed with enthusiastic actors last night. In fact, the one Sea Dog Cemetery room was fantastic. The actor was just as engaged as I remember the staff being in the original maze.
3. Demented Dimensions. I love creepy fun houses, so I am predisposed to enjoy this series of surrealistic nightmare vignettes. This maze is very well designed and I especially love the Alice in Wonderland room. Unfortunately, however, it suffered from poor staffing last night. It kind of reminded me of Deadline in fact: a lovely set with no actors to be found. My experience was further ruined by other guests. The group in front of us came to a compete halt for no discernible reason, and stood there for about 2 minutes. BGW needs to find a way to address the systemic problem of people holding up the lines through their houses.
4. Dystopia. I think this is a great concept, which has been very poorly implemented. Based on the mind control room and resistance room, my impression is that is meant to be some kind of totalitarian 1984/Handmaid’s Tale universe. It seems to start with your being processed through a facility to turn you into a mindless citizen of an oppressive regime. Once you have been brainwashed, however, there is no follow through. Where is the state-sponsored propaganda? Where are the resistance? There are so many amazing things they could have done. Instead, it devolved into KD’s Lockdown. Brainwashed citizens of an authoritarian state do not need to be shouted at my angry guards with clubs to do things. They should be happy sheep, who “know” that their government knows what is best for them. They should be constantly inundated by media and Big Brother. This house should have been fantastic, in my opinion. Instead BGW seems to have dialed it in. On the up side, it was fairly well staffed and the actors clearly were trying their best with their poorly-conceived roles.
5. Circo Sinistro. I really like this maze in general, because it doesn't rely straightforward jump scares. The beginning (up through the Room Roulette) was still creepy and disorienting. It wasn't as effective after that, perhaps because of the lack of staff. The new snake lady room was particularly disappointing. So, while I was initially anxious, by the end I was bored.
6. Frostbite. YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE. In addition to being a famous part of a classic computer game, this phrase aptly describes the latter half of this returning house. While there were a few more actors than last week in the seemingly endless plastic halls, it still felt like a barren wasteland. The beginning had some of the set design from last year, but was nonetheless relatively boring. None of the clever scares or storytelling were there. The maze is capped off by a large, empty, black room near the end. I hope it is just incomplete. Thankfully, the FrostBestos (fake snow) was not falling last night. More importantly, the pre-show is gone daddy gone.
7. Cornered. There is no corn in CORNered. I’m sure there is a good reason that the park decided to replace the maize in the maze with the privacy fence displays from Lowe’s. Maybe they were going with the Vault theme and hearkening back to the first year of Root of All Evil. I can’t imagine, however, that there can be any good excuse for the lack of actors in and among the home improvement garden center aisles. They have literally destroyed one of their most innovative houses.
Moving on the the scare zones... honestly, I’m still not sure what is going on there. There seemed to three roaming guys with chainsaws. Several areas didn’t have any indigenous scare actors at all. Since I don’t actually have much data, I will provide a review with a level of brevity that accurately reflects the the level of staffing I found. From best to worst:
1. Garden of Souls: Lovely. Beautiful costumes. Cleverly tied in with Vault.
2. Ripper Row. Unchanged. Great for selfies. Caring Ripper, who consoles scared children.
3. Vampire Point. Red. Three hipster vampires.
4. Fools' Court. No actors. Charming decorations that could be reused for Christmas Town.
5. Axe Alley. Great Viking ship. No actors.
6. Sideshow Square. Should be number one. Sad and empty.
One last thought: I really enjoyed the candied bacon on a stick.
I was a little disappointed in the houses overall this year. Most of the actors seemed to be trying their best, but they honestly weren’t given a lot to work with in many cases. So, from best to worst:
1. Lumberhack. This maze continues to lead the pack for me year after year. I regret the loss of the unique physical scares, and I wish they would go back to telling the story. That said, the actors continue to deliver some of the best performances in the park. They get in your way — dangerously close — wielding “weapons” and threatening you as you pass. You really get the sense that you have stumbled into some Deliverance scenario. They do they best job by far, delivering non-startle scares.
2. The Vault: XX. It probably says a lot about the event as a whole that this house is my number two. In addition to finding the concept itself lazy, I thought the implementation was weak. The rooms that I could identify all seemed strangely recent, like Catacombs. I was also confused by the inclusion of Mr. Carver. While he was an icon, he never had a dedicated house. I realized that I didn’t know if the Vault was supposed to hold the old mazes or the old icons or both. If BGW really wanted to dedicate a single-year house to HOS, they should have been willing to recreate rooms from much older events. Relying on whatever was immediately available in storage set this house up to fail. That said, it was well staffed with enthusiastic actors last night. In fact, the one Sea Dog Cemetery room was fantastic. The actor was just as engaged as I remember the staff being in the original maze.
3. Demented Dimensions. I love creepy fun houses, so I am predisposed to enjoy this series of surrealistic nightmare vignettes. This maze is very well designed and I especially love the Alice in Wonderland room. Unfortunately, however, it suffered from poor staffing last night. It kind of reminded me of Deadline in fact: a lovely set with no actors to be found. My experience was further ruined by other guests. The group in front of us came to a compete halt for no discernible reason, and stood there for about 2 minutes. BGW needs to find a way to address the systemic problem of people holding up the lines through their houses.
4. Dystopia. I think this is a great concept, which has been very poorly implemented. Based on the mind control room and resistance room, my impression is that is meant to be some kind of totalitarian 1984/Handmaid’s Tale universe. It seems to start with your being processed through a facility to turn you into a mindless citizen of an oppressive regime. Once you have been brainwashed, however, there is no follow through. Where is the state-sponsored propaganda? Where are the resistance? There are so many amazing things they could have done. Instead, it devolved into KD’s Lockdown. Brainwashed citizens of an authoritarian state do not need to be shouted at my angry guards with clubs to do things. They should be happy sheep, who “know” that their government knows what is best for them. They should be constantly inundated by media and Big Brother. This house should have been fantastic, in my opinion. Instead BGW seems to have dialed it in. On the up side, it was fairly well staffed and the actors clearly were trying their best with their poorly-conceived roles.
5. Circo Sinistro. I really like this maze in general, because it doesn't rely straightforward jump scares. The beginning (up through the Room Roulette) was still creepy and disorienting. It wasn't as effective after that, perhaps because of the lack of staff. The new snake lady room was particularly disappointing. So, while I was initially anxious, by the end I was bored.
6. Frostbite. YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE. In addition to being a famous part of a classic computer game, this phrase aptly describes the latter half of this returning house. While there were a few more actors than last week in the seemingly endless plastic halls, it still felt like a barren wasteland. The beginning had some of the set design from last year, but was nonetheless relatively boring. None of the clever scares or storytelling were there. The maze is capped off by a large, empty, black room near the end. I hope it is just incomplete. Thankfully, the FrostBestos (fake snow) was not falling last night. More importantly, the pre-show is gone daddy gone.
7. Cornered. There is no corn in CORNered. I’m sure there is a good reason that the park decided to replace the maize in the maze with the privacy fence displays from Lowe’s. Maybe they were going with the Vault theme and hearkening back to the first year of Root of All Evil. I can’t imagine, however, that there can be any good excuse for the lack of actors in and among the home improvement garden center aisles. They have literally destroyed one of their most innovative houses.
Moving on the the scare zones... honestly, I’m still not sure what is going on there. There seemed to three roaming guys with chainsaws. Several areas didn’t have any indigenous scare actors at all. Since I don’t actually have much data, I will provide a review with a level of brevity that accurately reflects the the level of staffing I found. From best to worst:
1. Garden of Souls: Lovely. Beautiful costumes. Cleverly tied in with Vault.
2. Ripper Row. Unchanged. Great for selfies. Caring Ripper, who consoles scared children.
3. Vampire Point. Red. Three hipster vampires.
4. Fools' Court. No actors. Charming decorations that could be reused for Christmas Town.
5. Axe Alley. Great Viking ship. No actors.
6. Sideshow Square. Should be number one. Sad and empty.
One last thought: I really enjoyed the candied bacon on a stick.
Last edited:
This is a problem that I noticed multiple times during the event while reading your guys’ reviews. There seems to be a massive inconsistency with the amount of actors at one place at a time. Earlier in the event, Fools Court, Vampire Point, and Axe Alley all had a plentiful amount of scare actors. I noticed though that as I revisisted each scare zone again, the amount of actors went from 7-8 to 3-0. Vampire point was a great example of this. At around 6:30, it was safe to say that 8 scare actors were around the previous fountain/now casket prop. Went again later, 3 actors throughout the entire area. When the rundown of Circo went up on Twitter, I was shocked as there were multiple rooms without actors. I was sad to see that the snake lady wasn’t actually in her den. I truthfully hope that these inconsistencies will slowly tone down as the event progresses.
I saw a instagram story by BGW and it was a clown with a chainsaw in festa. Do they have clowns with chainsaws in festa? Because that would be badass
There’s a roaming crowd of guys with chainsaws. There’s also supposed to be a roaming crowd of people with the spiky shoes that crack as they drag their feet. Didn’t see them though.
I literally read every part of that but that one part lmao, but thats really cool they are doing something with chainsaws. Does that mean they arnt in demon street? or is it because demon street is gone
