Howl-O-Scream Tampa 2021

Howl-O-Scream Tampa 2021

The gates of Busch Gardens Tampa open once again for their traditional Halloween event, boasting multiple new haunted attractions for the season. These additions and changes bring mostly good results, while there are still aspects of the event that drag it down overall.

Houses

Witch of the Woods- This new house is an interesting indoor/outdoor house that replaces Motel Hell, which was on a downward trajectory throughout its lifespan. Taking place in an abandoned village where followers of the witch attack from all sides, this house knocks it out of the park with its theming. Destroyed buildings and other remnants of civilization are being overgrown by the trees surrounding the area. The crazed residents chase you deeper into the village, leading you to the witch herself, waiting for her next victim. The house tells a great story that allows for the building of palpable tension. The only letdown was that the scares weren’t quite always effective, leading to no great payoff. This certainly could’ve been a timing issue as it did seem like our group was just a couple beats off from the scare for multiple scenes. Despite this, the actors did seem energetic and played their roles well, issuing warnings or eagerly trying to hurry you to the witch. It all makes for a strong debut and could be a classic house if it sticks and around and gets some improvements.

8/10

The Forgotten- Another new house, visitors first head through a cities underground labyrinth of sewers to end up at a vampire club, where the patrons are eager to have you for their next meal. This house features some fantastic scenery changes, as the opening areas see you go through the cold, dark mechanical world of the sewers, where muted colors dominate the landscape, and the land just feels still. This gives way to the neon lights and the pounding beat of electronic music of the club. This harsh transition helps to create the mood that you’ve entered a forbidden location where you instantly know where you shouldn’t be. The use of gore and sightings of other victims help to increase this feeling of unease, all capped off by energetic actors that take good advantage of the cramped corridors. The theme of a vampire club has been used a ton for haunted attractions over the years, and this might be the best take of this idea.

9/10

Cell Block Zombies- Step into a prison where the sentence continues after death. This house leaves a lot to be desired. The sets mostly seem to be repurposed portions of the former Insomnia house with some addition prison scenery. The design is fine, if not a bit too generic. The actors themselves are also fine, but the direction seems to be that guards just scream constantly while the prisoners jump out from such obvious areas that the chances for scares are seemingly nonexistent. For this to replace the incredible Insomnia house is such a disappointment as this is a massive step backwards with another haunted house centered around zombies in some location. Worst house of the year by far.

3/10

The Residence- In 2019, this was honestly an embarrassment of a haunted house. It looked cheap and you would find more scares in cartoons for kids. However, this year The Residence has seen some refurbishment. The biggest advancement is that the actors are a lot more intense, and the scares flow in this house. A difference in lighting helps to make the house feel not as bland as its debut year as well. Make no mistake, this house still is obviously an attempt to replace Unearthed and I wouldn’t be shocked if at least seventy-five percent of the house is recycled material from that superior house. Still, by having driven actors that want the scare helps to drag this house out of its former depths.

5.5/10

Death Water Bayou: Blood Moon- This one hurts. This house used to be the best house of the event and was genuinely one of my favorite houses to visit anywhere. However, the former voodoo theme has been replaced with werewolves and the house has suffered because of it. It is still a good house, but the change in theme has seen some of the more interesting special effects and unique scenes replaced with lacking substitutions. For instance, the funeral procession scene is removed, and finale of the back alleys of New Orleans has been replaced by walking into a trailer park. The actors still put their heart into the performance and the scenery still allows for some good scares. It just feels terrible to see a top tier house become just a good one. It may be time to just replace this house and go for something completely new.

7/10

Scarezones

            Busch Tampa really loves making their scarezones feel like they extend throughout the entire park and there are no truly safe parts of the park. In some ways this works very well, such as having people in bushes along the paths that stretch deep into the darkness. It also works in making it feel like no major area of the park is safe enough for you to relax for too long, or else a horde may descend on you. This approach does have its shortcomings, however. For one, it leads to an uniformity as the set scarezones do have multiple themes but other than some minor props and maybe some audio changes, none of them feel too different from each other. It also doesn’t help that the lighting choice for the scarezones seems to be none. The use of minimal lighting truly makes it feel like the majority of the scarezones are just the same thing. The actors also range from great to merely okay. The desire to create an almost fully continuous opportunity for scares is a noble one, but it would do wonders for Busch Tampa if they would work on making each zone feel distinguishable from one another.

6/10

Overall

            Howl-O-Scream in Tampa is a solid event that can be gotten into for a budget friendly price, especially if you take advantage of the summer deals. Of course it has to deal with being in the shadow of Halloween Horror Nights, but HOS does have a nice niche of providing an entertaining alternative that makes it an entertaining regional theme park event. This year sees a house collection that provides a decent collection of scares and scarezones that stretch throughout the park, leading to screams echoing across the midways. A fun attraction that is certainly worth experiencing, but it is hard not to imagine that it is possible for this event to be so much better and be a true powerhouse.

6.5/10