September 28, 2024, 12:55 PM ·
General admission tickets to Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld San Diego start at $40. That significantly undercuts competitors two and three hours up the 5, including Knott’s Scary Farm ($60), Halloween Horror Nights ($77) and Six Flags Fright Fest ($70).For a pair of Andrew Jacksons, you get access to five haunted houses, a handful of scare zones, a monster-themed dance show and three roller coasters (Emperor, Arctic Rescue and Electric Eel). On its face, it’s one of the great values offered by a Halloween theme park event in Southern California. Reality reveals something else. Howl-O-Scream came to SeaWorld San Diego in 2021, and its three haunted houses did not measure up to the competition. Experience has not improved the event. Given the low price of the ticket, less sophisticated sets and costumes are to be expected. But the issues at Howl-O-Scream are more fundamental. Nearly every house features wide-open rooms with minimal set dressing, leaving performers nowhere to hide. This makes the houses a series of poorly-plotted vignettes. You walk into a room, the performer stands still for a long time and then rattles off some potted dialogue. Rinse, repeat. Ranking the five mazes is pointless. They include Circus of the Damned 3D, Nightmare Experiment, Simon’s Slaughterhouse, Deathwater Bayou and Area 64: Alien Outbreak. Of these, Deathwater Bayou is the most atmospheric and interesting, though it suffers from the poor lighting and inconsistent set dressing as the rest of the lineup.Circus of the Damned 3D is the worst offender. Rooms are brightly lit and filled with minimal props. Performers, most of whom are clowns, have no opportunity to startle or scare guests so they must resort to making them uncomfortable. This, as you might expect, offers mixed returns. Nightmare Experiment, on the other hand, offends differently. It is not explicitly an asylum-themed maze, but it is absolutely an asylum-themed maze. We’re talking performers with little direction other than to “act crazy” while wearing straitjackets. It’s disappointing that a relatively new event still relies on such tired tropes.There are undoubtedly guests who will shriek every time a performer looks at or talks to them — and if that’s you, perhaps Howl-O-Scream is a good use of your time and money. But if you’re looking for haunted houses that intend to frighten you at a low price, you’re better off finding a local haunt to support instead of what SeaWorld is offering.Keep in touch and support the siteTo keep up to date with more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider’s weekly newsletter. And to help support Theme Park Insider while saving money on discounted theme park tickets, please follow the ticket icon links on our Theme Park visitors guides.
Replies (0)
