News Howl-O-Scream Comes to San Diego
- Thread starter John tibby
- Start date
Thought I'd post the two haunted house videos that SeaWorld San Diego released. First up is Nightmare Experiment:
Next is a house that people who visited Tampa's HOS in 2018 should recognize... get ready for Simon's Slaughterhouse!:
Next is a house that people who visited Tampa's HOS in 2018 should recognize... get ready for Simon's Slaughterhouse!:
is there any reson that this event has been so much worse than any of the others at other seaworld parks
knotts scary farms and horror nights are not that far away
As an SD resident, I can say just about everyone I know around here who attends haunted events goes to HHN and Knotts Scary Farm... If anything, my anecdotal evidence would suggest more locals go to those (and maybe the haunted trail at Balboa) than HOS. Anytime I've gone to HOS with friends, I've been the one informing them that it even exists and then persuading them to come with me. And unfortunately, the event has been so underwhelming in the past that they usually don't want to go again the next year. They'd rather pay more, drive two hours each way, and wait in much longer lines for the OC/LA haunts, and I think that's a perfect illustration of how much room for improvement HOS has.
It looks like this year they're at least adding Monster Stomp, which will hopefully be identical or comparable to the Orlando version; no matter what it'll be an improvement over last year when they just didn't have a stage show at all. But aside from that, everything else looks pretty much unchanged, which is concerning. IMO entire sections of the event needed to be replaced, like the "evil clown" stuff that has no thematic tie-in with SeaWorld despite being the de facto headliner of the event and features the weakest theming and scares.
I have friends that live in Pacific Beach and they love going to HHN and Knott's Scary Farm. When they go up to the LA area for haunt events on the weekends, they also like to hit up places like the Queen Mary's Dark Harbor in Long Beach and some of the smaller haunts like Dark Harvest in Garden Grove.
Took the pass member lights-on tour out of curiosity. Mostly nothing new to be learned from it, but there were a few points I found interesting
- What I gathered from the two lead team members answering questions (I wish I remembered what they said their titles were!) is that the creative team behind HOS seems to be pretty small (or at least very hands-on), and so is their budget. A lot of props and details are being sourced from their own homes and discarded items found around the park.
- Each year, their efforts and resources are mostly poured into upgrading--not necessarily replacing--one maze. This year, it's Area 64: Alien Outbreak.
- Their hope is that next year for the fifth anniversary they'll be able to "refresh" all of the mazes. Not sure if that means replacing or just upgrading.
- There are currently no plans or expectations to ever expand to a full-park event.
- The Circus maze really is as naked as it looks at night. Maybe if all the props from the entire maze were placed into a single room, it would be enough to make that one room look adequately detailed. Other than that it's just bare plywood walls. Incidentally, apparently the maximum number of scare actors to be found in the house is 10.
- Nightmare Experiment is mostly the same as last year. Some new theming has been added outside the entrance as well as a few props here and there in the house itself, and I think(?) it might also now include a third speakeasy. The tour guide pointed out this amusing menu in the cafeteria scene that I'm 99% sure came from Shipwreck Cafe
Don't give Scott Ross any ideas hahaha