Howl-O-Scream 2024

Attraction Lineup​

Haunted Houses​

1. Clown Town [New] (Festhaus Parking Lot)
2. Monster Manor [New] (Germany Event Pavilion)
3. Lost Mines: Bloodstone [Updated] (Beneath Escape from Pompeii)
4. Death Water Bayou: Morte [Updated] (Behind Roman Rapids)
5. KILLarney DIEner: Condemned [Updated] (Killarney Simulator Building)

Terror-Tories​

1. The Bash [New] (Aquitaine)
2. Stalker Street [New] (New France)
3. Fest-Evil [Returning] (Festa Italia)
4. Gorgon Gardens [Returning] (Da Vinci's Garden of Inventions)
5. Scary Tale Road [Returning] (Rhinefield)
6. Ripper Row [Returning] (Banbury Cross)

Shows​

1. Fiends: The FREAKquel [New] (Abbey Stone Theatre)
2. Monster Stomp on Ripper Row [Returning] (Globe Theatre)
3. Phantoms of the Festhaus [Returning] (Das Festhaus)
4. Skeletones [Returning] (Il Teatro di San Marco)

Official Website​

Howl-O-Scream: Virginia Halloween Event | Busch Gardens Williamsburg

The spirit of Halloween is unleashed at Howl-O-Scream! Find haunted houses, escape rooms, scare zones, live shows & roller coasters if you dare.

buschgardens.com

 

[TLancaster]

Just scanned into park and first two impressions:
-Some crew was still actively working on putting together the fountain decorations right at the entrance because that was not finished yet.
-As soon as you go past the fountain, you are immediately greeted by a big building permit attached to the giant wood archway structure.

Hopefully the rest of the night is a little more polished, but so far it is definitely obvious that they are scrambling all the way to the last minute to get things ready.

 

[Coolguy15]

Just scanned into park and first two impressions:
-Some crew was still actively working on putting together the fountain decorations right at the entrance because that was not finished yet.
-As soon as you go past the fountain, you are immediately greeted by a big building permit attached to the giant wood archway structure.

Hopefully the rest of the night is a little more polished, but so far it is definitely obvious that they are scrambling all the way to the last minute to get things ready.

My dad actually thought that the building permit was for decoration when we first came in

 

[tursiops]

Just scanned into park and first two impressions:
-Some crew was still actively working on putting together the fountain decorations right at the entrance because that was not finished yet.
-As soon as you go past the fountain, you are immediately greeted by a big building permit attached to the giant wood archway structure.

Hopefully the rest of the night is a little more polished, but so far it is definitely obvious that they are scrambling all the way to the last minute to get things ready.

To be fair, the JCC permitting process is pretty scary!

 

[horsesboy]

I am very concerned about staffing levels based on the houses I have been through. Seeing a fairly well know high up manager in entertainment working as a scare actor only raises my concerns that BGW does not have the event staffing they need. Especially concerning given that they are this badly staffed running one house short tonight.

 

[RollyCoaster]

Yeah… initial impressions are not good at all.

Crossing my fingers for Fiends at 7:30 though.

 

[horsesboy]

Howl-O-Scream is proof positive that BGW is eco friendly as everything is recycled and reused.

 

[sotomexx]

I am very concerned about staffing levels based on the houses I have been through. Seeing a fairly well know high up manager in entertainment working as a scare actor only raises my concerns that BGW does not have the event staffing they need. Especially concerning given that they are this badly staffed running one house short tonight.

Howl-O-Scream is proof positive that BGW is eco friendly as everything is recycled and reused.

Well now that they’ve removed the 5% surcharge, the only logical move to satisfy the shareholders is to slash personnel and the decorations budget by 20%

 

[Coolguy15]

I'm going to go ahead and write my review from last night. Everything will be marked on a scale of one to ten, starting with the houses.

Monster Manor - 7/10. I loved the older refrences and the tight crawlspace which I've never seen before at Busch Gardens. Also, about that crawlspace, it is, at most, 3 feet tall. It is a physical challenge especially if you're tall, and you may hit your head. (like my dad). There are also long hallways with literally zero actors.

Death Water Bayou: Morte - 5/10. A decent amount of actors, but it's essentially a copy of all the other versions, minus the cool swamp-emulating room, which was the best part, in my opinion.

Lost Mines: Bloodstone - 8/10. I liked this one. It had a very generous amount of actors, and they did make some changes referencing the "Bloodstone" in the maze itself.

Killarney Diner: Condemned - 6.5/10. Literally the exact same recycled house from last year. Still good, but it's starting to get old.

Terror-tories:

Ripper Row - 7.5/10. Love this scarezone. Such a good, fun way to either enter or exit the park. A lot of actors who know what they're doing.

Gorgon Gardens - 6.5/10. Solid scarezone here. Not a lot of actors, but they were scaring people, so you've got to give them credit for that.

Scary Tale Road - 8/10. Fun, actor-packed scarezone which actually got me a few times. When I was there last night, they were setting up another light near the fountain.

The Bash - 7/10. It's cool, but there aren't a lot of actors. That's really all I have to say for this one.

Stalker Street - 6.5/10. It's fine, but there aren't a crazy amount of actors.

Fest-Evil - 8.5/10. Fun scarezone with a lot of actors who know how to scare people.

Bonus Review:
Fiends: The Freakquel - 9/10. Isn't it funny how I put the one show that I saw higher than everything else? I'm not lying, but this rivals Celtic Fyre in terms of how much I enjoyed it. This show was fucking hilarious and dirty. VERY topical, making jokes about ChatGPT and other things. But also very adult. Parents, do NOT bring your kids to this. Literally, before the show even started, Igor said, and I quote, "If you have kids right now, what's wrong with you?" If you're an adult wanting to bash on Gen Z and Millenial humor, while laughing your ass off at the same time, this is the perfect show for you. I'm middle Gen Z and I was laughing to the point of crying the whole time. Even my dad, who saw the original Fiends, said that this newer version was better than the original.

 

[Beaumont]

The new characters from twisted fairy tales in Scary Tale Road this year are Pinocchio, Harlequin, Mangiafuoco, and Cinderella's ugly sisters.

 

[cricket]

Today was such an off day that it was hard to rank the houses. There was people cutting in front (inside of the houses), yelling slurs at actors, and sitting down on props inside of houses. For the most part, the upgraded houses were still very nice, but it was difficult to enjoy with these horrible groups behind me. At one point during a house, an actor pretty much held us up to let us get space from the bad group ahead of us.

 

[MrBradferd]

Today was such an off day that it was hard to rank the houses. There was people cutting in front (inside of the houses), yelling slurs at actors, and sitting down on props inside of houses. For the most part, the upgraded houses were still very nice, but it was difficult to enjoy with these horrible groups behind me. At one point during a house, an actor pretty much held us up to let us get space from the bad group ahead of us.

I hate people. Why is it just so hard to function

 

[halloweenfan]

I am very concerned about staffing levels based on the houses I have been through. Seeing a fairly well know high up manager in entertainment working as a scare actor only raises my concerns that BGW does not have the event staffing they need. Especially concerning given that they are this badly staffed running one house short tonight.

I know a few managers who choose to get in costume and act as a scare actor while still also carrying out their role as a manager. They do it because they love scare acting and want to add to the experience, not because they are just lacking actors that badly. The delayed house opening is also not because of a lack of actors, the actors from that house actually joined Jack's witching hour on ambassador preview night.

 

[horsesboy]

I know a few managers who choose to get in costume and act as a scare actor while still also carrying out their role as a manager. They do it because they love scare acting and want to add to the experience, not because they are just lacking actors that badly. The delayed house opening is also not because of a lack of actors, the actors from that house actually joined Jack's witching hour on ambassador preview night.

In this case the higher up was one of a total of FOUR actors I saw in the naze during the walk through. On top of that it was After 7 do plenty of time to have made it from the release to the maze

 

[Beaumont]

Is everyone here enjoying Howl-O-Scream this year?

 

[rollercoastercoaster]

Is everyone here enjoying Howl-O-Scream this year?

Sir, this is Parkfans. No one here enjoys anything about the park

mandatory /s

 

[Zachary]

Is everyone here enjoying Howl-O-Scream this year?

Howl-O-Scream was garbage last night, so no. Downgraded returning houses, the absolute worst new house, one house not even open, mediocre (even by BGW standards) scarezones, notable lack of staffing, and bad, generic, undesirable merch. Only bright points were that Fiends isn't bad and the Jack plush is fantastic. The entire core of the event was horrid though—again, even by BGW standards.

 

[warfelg]

Ok, I apologize in advance for the long windedness of this post, and if it belongs elsewhere please move it.

But without saying "money" what would be something that improves HOS? Is there too many houses? Too big of an event? Is there a need to realign expectations?

The reason I ask to not say "money" is because that's always the easy answer to these questions to tell them to spend more money, so I guess I'm more curious on what people feels could improve the experience with what they have. IMO it really feels like BGT is the "premier" HOS event of the chain while BGW has the "premier" Wine & Food as well as Christmastown, despite those two events having their own issue.

I feel like BGW's HOS event needs a big reimagining of what it could/should look like. Now, I wouldn't go as far as "take a year off" to reignite the event. But it clearly needs something. But I think it would be great to really take the whole event and turn it back with the haunt fitting the actual theme of the various parts of the park. I feel like doing so can be a really interesting look into something that really causes creatives to work hard. I feel like a lot of complaints from this event over the years is "recycled", "second hand", and "barely changed but presented as new".

I'm not a haunt person so I'm going to do the best I can here but I'll put the area, my concept, and just a general maze idea:
Ireland - "Night of the Banshee". The story is come October every year the Banshee comes out at night, turning once beloved fairies, leprechauns, and other mythical beings turn evil. The idea is in the day, all those beings can be friendly for kids, then at dusk there's a show of the "King Banshee" coming out and the beings turn evil. In the maze with this Scarezone, the good "Queen Fairy" who has the power to save all the mythical beings with the power of the sun.

France - "Indulgence of Marie Antionette". I would dive a little into the history of France and turn this into a historical scare of Marie Antionette has returned from the dead to punish all of those who have forsaken her call of indulgence. Instead of a maze here I feel like it would be better to do a show in the theater.

New France - "Breach in the Wall". Taking from the story of InvadR this one would be a good kinda pull on that lore of "what if the Vikings won" story. This would be a great area for on path scare actors. Do a maze here themed to having to break into the captains quarters of the Viking ship just off shore.

Oktoberfest - "Beasts of the Black Forest". Simple idea here is the Black Forest has taken over the Oktoberfest grounds with beasts, creatures, and evil trees, all lead by King or the forest Ludvig. Outside of Festhaus each night at sundown have a fun show of Ludvig coming out from the ruins of his Kastle (DarKoaster) to take over the festival. Even name a maze here after the scarezone name and basically fit in the stories of the Grimm Brothers into this, except the twist is at the end what you thought would save Oktoberfest, you are running for your life.

Italy area outside of Festa Italia - "Devices of Leonardo DeScarci". Story here would be while Da Vinci creates some amazing contraptions, one night he broke, decided to build his weapons of war, and tried to take over Italy. The scare actors would be Roman soldiers wearing mind control devices designed by Da Vinci himself. And the maze involves the story of Da Vinci testing a persons ability to survive Dante's 7 levels of hell.

Festa Italia - "Kahn's Invasion". Marco Polo thought he was coming back to Italy a champion, but instead Ganges Kahn followed him to invade Italy to make it part of his empire. The main maze here would be in the trench of Roman Rapids and be "Escape to the Catacombs". This is a twist where normally you would want to escape them, but instead here you are running from Kahns army to the catacombs, but is it as safe as you think when the spirits are stirring?

 

[horsesboy]

I would cut down on the number of shows and use that money toward better houses and scare zones.

Actual story lines that are given to both guests and actors would be helpful. I honestly have no idea what story is being told in 2 of the 4 houses that were open this week despite multiple walk through of all of them and only vague ideas on the other two and actors don't seem to know what story they are supposed to be telling.

Better light control Diner is currently the only maze that doesn't bleed outside light which is damaging to the event.

Age limit 13 and over and chaperon policy for teens.

 

[GAcoaster]

Make it a hard ticket event, just like Tampa.

The problem all the parks have when they include the Halloween event with the day ticket is they have to balance "family" and "scary" no matter how many warnings they give. There should be no "no boo" necklaces or anything else like that-- don't want to be scared, have PTSD, don't like jump scares?-- STAY THE FUCK HOME. It's impossible to please anyone when your streetmosphere people have to tone down and take pictures with young kids. Commit to scary-- hard ticket to pay for the extra personnel (Security and scare actors).

My impression is both Kings Dominion and Busch WANT to go to hard ticket Halloween, but each is waiting for the other to announce it first. As long as one offers it "free with regular admission" they are both stuck with these events that try to be all things to all people (unsuccessfully) and end up with lots of "problem crowds" due to cheap ticket prices.

 

[warfelg]

Better light control

So this is an interesting topic to me because of the fact that brawls to break out of what is the right amount of light. Like, too little and you are making it easy for bad actors (guests not BGW ones) to do things. But then too much (enough to see them) is going to ruin the atmosphere.

Would it be reasonable to put in night vision cameras with security at points where they could intervene should something like that happen? Or would it be a further strain on resources that are better set elsewhere.

I honestly don’t know.