Howl-O-Scream Tampa 2022 - Monsters back on the attack

Photo Lisa Toghia

Howl-0-Scream 2022 at Busch Gardens Tampa is a Theme Park Halloween masterpiece and is absolutely one of the must-do haunts this year. In the years that we have been attending this event, there has never been a more consistently excellent collection of houses and scare zones. The scare actors were on point inside and out, and the scares were achieved the good ol’ fashioned way: swarm attacks from every direction. This is not the place to come see high-tech houses with a lot of projections. The investment is instead put into lavishly curated and detailed beautiful environments filled with enthusiastic talent. This is a place to come get those precious jump scares and in abundance.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Gone this year are the Plexiglass partitions and masks; Back are the intense chills in darkened corridors, cautiously peaking around every corner wondering if someone is there ready to pounce.

We were invited to attend the opening media night, and while this event is on our must-see list every year, this year we will be making many more drives from Orlando to visit it.

To begin our journey we quickly grabbed the park map from the QR code on the entrance directory. We had a couple of hours to kill before the event actually started and this gave us the opportunity to plan a path that managed to encircle the entire park twice. This also gave us a unique opportunity to really look at many of the merchandise offerings for 2022, and hats off to the creatives who put together this year’s collection, there are several tee-shirts, a coffee mug, and even a few Tchotchkes that will end up in our home by the end of the season. (Note: We plan to do specific reviews of the food and merch offerings in separate articles as well)

Photo Lisa Toghia

Yes, the event starts while it’s still daylight, and in our case while a healthy Central Florida rain storm passed overhead as well, but don’t think you have to wait for dark to enjoy a few scares. Even in the light of day, the scare actors of Howl-O-Scream are adept at seemingly coming from nowhere to strike. We were very lucky that the storm passed quickly, darkness fell, and under the light of a full moon we could pull out the cameras and document everything.

Photo Lisa Toghia

I think I have mentioned it before, but it has to be stated. This theme park, animal preserve aside, is uniquely perfect for a haunt event. If Scooby and the Gang were hunting monsters for real, this park with its hills, twists and turns, dark corners, and lush vegetation would provide quite the challenge to catching Old Man Withers. The large loop puts you deep in the back of the park where there is no easy way out, and covering it twice made our phone fitness circles ecstatic, our feet and legs – not so much. Remember comfortable shoes. I did see some ladies trying to carry their heels towards the end of the night, and while haunt fashion is important, being able to walk the next day is too.

On the subject of the park and walking, let’s start with the scare zones for this year:

Some of our favorites have been changed. Goodbye to the killer clowns, well sort of, they don’t have a full scare zone anymore. Farewell to the evil trick-or-treating children and killer toys. But don’t despair the new offerings are beautiful and worthy replacements.

New this year is Raven’s mill. It’s a cornfield scare zone that has taken over the covered bridge that carries you from the bottom of the park to the top. This is a fantastic new offering! The central walkway Is normally very busy and they’ve broken it up with plenty of set pieces that offer ample opportunity for the scare actors to utilize in their attack. There are also some that offer great photo opportunities and some scary surprises for the unsuspecting selfie-taker at the same time. Normally this zone is confined to just the bridge itself, but it now extends from the top of the aviary all the way to the bend in the path. Making this a wonderfully long and very treacherous stroll through the corn stalks.

Photo Lisa Toghia

The Shortcut is also new and breathtaking. With its graveyard setting and haunting scare actors. We actually crisscrossed this one several times. It’s really hard to beat faceless killer nuns running around chasing you with knives, and some of the interactions you can have with the characters in this area are amazing.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Voodoo is back and absolutely beautiful. This one actually gave me the chills. The scare actors were totally committed to the slow stalk scare. It’s not often you see a scare zone with a lot of dancing zombies and it was refreshingly fun.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Skeleton Crew is another returning favorite. It’s a little hard to take starving pirates seriously when they are wandering around an open chick-fil-a, but they are a fun crew very committed to both the characters they are playing and getting some really good scares in the very well-lit section of the park.

Photo Lisa Toghia

The junkyard lives up to it’s billing. It’s mad max like psychopaths on the prowl for a kill. I like that they gave it a space out of the main entrance path this year, and I love that they have some rocker sirens out front to lure people in.

Photo Lisa Toghia

In the Shadows is one of the best integrations into what the park has to offer. It’s a kind of a small scare zone, but it packs a punch with scares coming literally out of the dense landscaping with ferocity. I do miss some of the more obvious urban legend references from last year, but still great for jump scares after dark.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Finally, a dark fairy and ogre offering has been added this year called Beyond the Veil. It’s bright and beautiful and both the set pieces and costumes are beautiful. It’s very bright for scares, but quite a treat. Try talking to some of the fairies, they have their own language and I can’t tell if they were being nice or cursing me with their magic wands.

Photo Lisa Toghia

I mentioned that the clowns lost their scare zone, but they have really moved and taken over the bumper cars. Crash Test Clowns is now a very accurate simulation of the i4 expressway during rush hour. Love this overlay, the clowns seem to be having a great time, and I’m so glad they didn’t disappear completely.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Shows

Only saw two of them. There are 4 this year. But we are looking forward to going back and seeing this year’s version of Fiends and Cirque X-Scream (which we loved last year) and I will write reviews of them as soon as we have.

The Rolling Bones are back and honestly, are a campy delight. This is really one of the highlights for us every year. About halfway back in the park, and usually, about the time we are really ready for a break, we stop into the Dragon Fire Bar and Grill, grab a drink and some food and enjoy this super talented band playing some great spooky season music.

Photo Lisa Toghia

New for this year is 50/50: Choose Your Fate. We saw the first showing mostly because it had a canopy over the seating and a downpour was passing over at the time. I think we might revisit this one later in the season to see if it finds its footing. They seemed to have some technical issues. Still, we liked the concept and hope they will refine the show. Will give it another shot.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Food and Bars

Have really hit their stride this year. There seem to be several new offerings and while it was busy the lines were much shorter than previous years. Thank you Busch Gardens culinary team, fun good food with lots of options. Bunches of specialty Drinks, and more places to get them make for a happy haunt experience.

Photo Lisa Toghia

The 5 Terrifying Houses

The Forgotten was one of our favorite houses that returned from last year. This is a crazy sexy dark. Vampire Lair is festooned with rich old word treasures and modern dark bondage accessories. The vampire queen awaits you. Will you join her army of the undead or end up a rotting drained corpse? Still one of the top of our list.

Photo Lisa Toghia

The Residence is back and reimagined for 2022. This time we are Home for the Holidays. This is the scariest season of all. All the residents are naughty and none of them are nice. Can you make it through the holidays this year? I doubt it. This was wonderful and is on our must see list.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Witch of the Woods is back. This one is just fun and creepy. The forest and village sets are quite elaborate and offer many places for great scares. The witch of the woods and her coven are going to give you two choices, join them or face their wrath.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Death Water Bayou: Blood Moon – The Final Phase (Isn’t that a mouthful) returns and unfortunate for us it was a full moon the night we visited. The werewolves are back in mass and are so hungry they don’t even wait for you to enter the house before attacking. This one is another house that has been around a few years but we still love the richly crafted bayou setting and dark dangerous scare corners.

Photo Lisa Toghia

Finally new for this year Stranglewood Estate is an amazing new house. The house design work is exquisite and the scare actors were absolutely on point in their new funhouse. This is a lavish estate and we find all the murdered inhabitants haunting it’s lush Victorian passages. The ghosts seem to know we won’t make it out alive and will soon join them. That’s what happens when that much evil seeps into the walls. Don’t miss this one, it’s gorgeous, it’s scary, and we hope it is around for many years to come.

Photo Lisa Toghia

I said it at the beginning, and I mean it. I think this is the strongest year for this event. A lot of people draw comparisons between HHN in Orlando and this offering. For those of us who love these and anxiously await them every year, both have their place and unique advantages. We wouldn’t miss either. For us it’s a trek from Orlando, but I will gladly make it many more times this season to enjoy some of the best scares from an amazing cast of really committed scare actors. Thank you Howl-O-Scream for shaking off the last few years of limited scare opportunities and bringing the fun and the chills back for 2022. We absolutely loved it.