Howl-O-Scream 2018

[wombat96]

FrostBite used all that remained of what was used in Bitten, originating from Masquerage, but the Werewolf "Terror-tory" now seems to refer to a designated scare zone with an attraction and/or bar. Axe Alley and Sideshow Square have watered the definition down so much that I wonder how they will handle extra scares.

Very good point here as the park with the addition of Sideshow Square has unoffically begun the creation of scare zones along with Terror-Tories. For example, the parks website states the description of these pathways scares as both.

TERROR-TORIES
SCARE ZONES
Immerse yourself in a world of terror as you make your way through our scare zones.

Again, another description that utilizes the term scare zone.

When night falls, the creatures come out as you find yourself engulfed in one of six frightening worlds. Dare to survive these immersive and themed scare zones.

I think the park is acknowledging areas that  have bars, themed shops, or party zones as Terror-Tories. For example, last year Demon Street had a D.J. and a bar whereas Sideshow Square was reminiscent of a scare zone with solely actors and props. The park seems to be throwing a curve ball by claiming there will be three new bars along with the two existing ones, Demon Drinks and the Inoculation Station. This means one Terror-Tory will be without one this year. I imagine that Open Casket will simply be re-themed and be the designated bar for Vampire Point. With the loss of the Pirate Barrgh, I expect a new bar to go into this spot in Italy along with the addition of a scare zone to tie it together.

I found it interesting that this year the park will return Demon Drinks and isn't returning Demon Drinks. Although, I have heard a rumor around the park that there will be a nostalgia 20 years scare zone or house for this year similar to something Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando would do. This is a rumor and I would take this with a grain of salt, being that an anniversary house or scare zone would be reflecting past years and would likely only last one year, due to the need for portable props in the RPT, could we see a 20th anniversary house replace Catacombs? Out of all of the locations this seems like the most likely candidate since it has to be put up very quickly and taken down very quickly due to Christmas Town. An anniversary house would only require props from previous years in storage and since it would be taken down it wouldn't have to be put up again the following year and could easily be replaced by another house. Again, this is just entirely a rumor that I heard that the park is doing an anniversary house and has been on my train of thought as to where it would go.

Also, many people in the thread have mentioned that the park should return Werewolf Reserve as it would be very cost-effective with the surplus of werewolf and ghillie suits sitting in entertainment storage. In 2009 the park even did a Werewolf scare-zone in Germany followed up with Hunted also utilizing the costumes. With the park now doing more "scare-zone" esque areas and this being the 20th anniversary I think quite possibly the most memorable scare zone could make it's return. Keep in mind, this is all speculation and rumors, only seventeen more days until the first release.

 

[Nicole]

I wonder if there is anyone left in marketing who knows what the original concept behind the Terror-Tories was.

Perhaps people are reading too much into the descriptions. Terror-Tories may merely be the BGW term for Scare Zones at this point.

 

[belsaas]

I wonder if there is anyone left in marketing who knows what the original concept behind the Terror-Tories was.

Perhaps people are reading too much into the descriptions.  Terror-Tories may merely be the BGW term for Scare Zones at this point.

I've always thought of them as synonyms, but I've only started going to the parks since 2014. Would you mind explaining the difference? Some light googling didn't turn up much.

 

[Nicole]

I had to do some searching, because they were introduced in 2013.

I found a post with the official description from the park.

I also found Zachary's description in a BGWFans post.

As I understood it, essentially, the concept was supposed to be fully-immersive, interactive areas. Ripper Row may have been the purest form. The emphasis was not originally on traditional scares, but rather on putting the guests inside of a creepy show (I guess). It was all supposed to be heavily themed and dependent on the actors engaging guests. It was theater more than haunt.

 

[BenWilkerson]

Park President, Kevin Lembke told Attraction Chasers “You might see some old-school things coming back that haven’t been around in a few years.“ With Christmas Town having a new train ride, I feel like this screams "train ride" for Howl-O-Scream. Every event runs off of the previous one as far as scenery so I wouldn't be surprised.

Then again, I think I heard something a while back about the park recycling both Catacombs and Unearthed to make something new, but also familiar. That may be my wishful thinking about that last part, though. I love a good throwback.

What he said could also be referring to scare everywhere that Busch keeps hinting at in their media as well. This could be the year a lot of old stuff comes back, which would be awesome!

If we do have scare is everywhere, I fell like it would be in conjunction with the Terror-Tories due to the fact that they are pushing two new scare zones to be announced during the monthly announcements. I think if they pair the scare is everywhere with the Terror-Tories we could have an extremely successful event given that areas are properly staffed.

 

[Coaster Takes]

The best character the event has ever seen was the walking bush in lorikeet. No competition.

 

[Coaster Takes]

Did anyone see those props in between the drachen Fire station and maintenance bay? I’m going to go around again to get pictures.

 

[Zachary]

The other day all that Thomas, Kyle, and I saw back there were odds and ends from past and current HOS attractions (notably, Ripper Row).

That said, Drachen Fire's station building is actively being gutted right now. Considering that datapoint, it's totally believable that props and set pieces from Bitten could be sitting outside the building as well.

 

[wombat96]

The other day all that Thomas, Kyle, and I saw back there were odds and ends from past and current HOS attractions (notably, Ripper Row).

Was the facade that covered up the spot that is now home to Union Snacks visible? This is a very nerdy question, but that hasn't been used since 2013 at least to my knowledge and if it was out that could lead to a mildly interesting find.

 

[Zachary]

Nope. Just the wooden framework structures that go over the paths in Banbury.

 

[Coaster Takes]

Nope. Just the wooden framework structures that go over the paths in Banbury.

That’s precisly what I saw. That seems like a weird place to hold them though, right?

 

[Zachary]

The park has actually stored them there for a while now.

 

[basseyfish]

BRING BACK MASQUERAGE!!! I think that this could easily be done with recycled props.

Masquerage was the best house busch has ever done in my opinion, the fans that snapped was the coolest thing, and it worked scaring people. From what i remember it was pretty gory also. I miss it

 

[Zimmy]

I just remember it being long...

Just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth, gore is gore. I don't find it particularly scary. It is gross, just not scary. I think blood is useful in house, but as an accent, not as the main dish. That's why I didn't really care for Slaughterhouse at KD... That and the heat, it was hot in there.

 

[BGWPinGuy]

Here is a photo from today, you can see the archways and some coffins up against the privacy fence.

 

[Zachary]

I just remember it being long...  

Just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth, gore is gore.  I don't find it particularly scary.  It is gross, just not scary.  I think blood is useful in house, but as an accent, not as the main dish.  That's why I didn't really care for Slaughterhouse at KD...  That and the heat, it was hot in there.

You're remembering the wrong house.

 

[Peej1212]

I just remember it being long...

Just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth, gore is gore. I don't find it particularly scary. It is gross, just not scary. I think blood is useful in house, but as an accent, not as the main dish. That's why I didn't really care for Slaughterhouse at KD... That and the heat, it was hot in there.

I agree with you on that . I think we as a society go way to far with gore. that is why I cant stand movies like saw.... its just gore porn lol. I really like things that are immersive and make you feel like you are really there rather than trying to make me puke but that's just my 2 cents lol.

 

[BGWPinGuy]

Busch just released the first new haunted house! It's called demented dimensions! Which I think is a re-make from Tampa. http://bit.ly/2JYDGT7. It is located in Oktoberfest so does that mean they are putting a house back in drach's queue?

 

[Icer]

My two cents (I'd love some discussion on this) on the upcoming scare zones and houses:

I think the "scare is everywhere" rumor spreading around is bogus. They have such an emphasis on being family friendly now that to put scare actors everywhere would make the park a lot less accessible to all audiences. It also semi defeats the purpose of having so many scare zones this year.

That being said, there is one scare zone left to be announced. Since France was claimed by the jester stuff, we need to speculate where. We can rule out Festa, England, France, Germany, New France. That leaves Oktoberfest (if they decide tyo reduce Vampire point to just Germany, since the actors don't always journey over into Oktoberfest anyway), Ireland, and Italy. But, this also COULD be the train, however it is very unlikely that they would consider it a scare zone and not an "experience" so in my opinion the train is a no go. Also, their social media made a special note of saying that the train will have a cool Christmas Town experience without mentioning Howl, so I highly doubt it. Killarney is out of the question to me since it is going to be themed to Fiends as usual since Fiends is returning with the Innoculation Station. Oktoberfest seems silly to me to add another zone when they can just bum of Vampire Point a little more. The Jack-Hanna reserve area of Ireland is a possibility UNLESS we see a werewolf themed haunted house coming, since I doubt they would double down, and there isn't much else of a theme they can put back in the reserve area since it is so wilderness-y. Italy could also see a new zone, along with a new bar to kinda give a background to the new bar. I think both of these options are possible, and I fear the Italy one is more likely (though along with this would come a new theme) BUT Lembke has said to be on the look out for returning themes so one could hope for the return of the wolves back in the reserve.

As for the houses, it has really surprised me that they put a second house into Darkastle. This tells me they are intentionally trying to conserve space, which is very interesting. There is the old Catacombs space, the Drachen Fire queue houses, Battle for Eire, and the basement of Escape from Pompeii as newly available places. The old Catacombs space I think will go unused, simply because it is such a tight space and they have already brought in a new zone there, they can't do much other than bringing in a matching house there that will be pretty short. Since the queue houses are being gutted, one might assume this means the addition of a house back in that area. However, last year they gave Lumberhack its own huge sign at that entrance, and I doubt they would buy that sign for one season, so I doubt they will put anything back there. That is a lame reason on its own, but I think they are instead gutting in preparation for Madrid, and would not add a house just for one or two seasons back in this area just to remove it for construction of Madrid. I think Battle for Eire would most likely not close since they are still milking it with a bunch of adverts, and that they would be INSANE to close their only dark ride leaving them without a dark ride in the fall for 2 years in a row. They still need stuff to do in the daytime. Escape from Pompeii basement is a no brainer to me, it is a good space that people love and is in its own section of the park almost, and that area of the park needs an attraction to bring guests there (unless they extend the Italy scare zone all the way down there). I see the return of Curse of Pompeii as semi-likely, since we haven't seen most of the props used in that house resurface in many years, and it would bring in a little nostalgia.

In summary, my prediction is seeing new bars in France, Italy, and Germany (just reskins of old ones) matching their respective scare zones, since they have yet to put a bar in effect with no scare zone to go with it. We will see the last new scare zone go in Italy to match the new bar (God knows what they will concoct over there since they cant use pirates unless they want an angry mob), though I wish it would be in the wild reserve. Finally, the last two haunted houses will most likely be in the basement of Pompeii and (sadly) in the former Catacombs space. As of now, there are FOUR houses in Oktoberfest and ONE in Festa. There needs to be more spread, and I think we can be sure to not see any more additions to Oktoberfest as far as houses go.

Apologies for the length

 

[BGWPinGuy]

A new scare zone has also been released: Fool's court -
A new king has taken over the throne at the Royal Palace and he’s a real Joker. Chaos reigns supreme in the Fools’ Court. When the Motley Fools hit the streets, the joke will always be on you. Steer clear of the jesters, who will terrorize you under the lights of this twisted celebration.

Fools' Court™ is located in France.
So this is replacing Demon Street.