It’s a spooky girl’s favorite time of the year. Forget the pumpkin spice and give me horror nights. A sweet treat and good scream are all I need. Okay let’s get to it if you love all things spooky and things that go bump in the night attending a theme park’s Halloween event is a great way to get in the spirit. I will be ranking some of this years premier Halloween events.
At the top of the list is of course the most anticipated event of the year: Halloween Horror Nights Orlando. This year HHN has ten haunted houses, five scare zones, and two entertainment offerings. Also this year the event is celebrating its 30th year of fear and for this momentous occasion HHN icons from years past can be found in the park in the 30 Years 30 Fears scare zone and the HHN Icons Captured haunted house. The nine other houses are The Haunting of Hill House based on the Netflix show, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Universal Monsters: the Bride of Frankenstein Lives, Welcome to Scarey: Horror in the Heartlands, Beetlejuice, The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin, Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience, Revenge of the Tooth Fairy, and Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth. I personally cannot wait to go through three houses: Beetlejuice, The wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin, and Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth.
However one thing that is a MUST have are the pizza fries, crispy crinkle cut fries with marinara sauce topped with mozzarella cheese, sausage, and pepperoni. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! The two live shows are Marathon of Mayhem and Halloween Nightmare Fuel. Marathon of Mayhem is a fountain show taking place on the lagoon in the center of the park that uses projections, lasers, and fog to strike fear into the hearts of visitors. Halloween Nightmare Fuel is a new with a variety of entertainment like dancing, fire, pyro, and aerial performers. All of this and more make this event easily the number one event of the season and possibly even the year.
Coming in at a very close second is Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood. While yes, both HHN events are the same company, they have significant differences. For one compared to Orlando it is much smaller with 6 houses, three scare zones, and one entertainment offering. The Haunting of Hill House, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Universal Monsters: the Bride of Frankenstein Lives will also be houses at the Hollywood HHN this year. Some other houses from HHN’s past are returning this year: Halloween 4: the Return of Michael Myers, The Exorcist, and The Curse of Pandora’s Box. I find it very interesting that this event has no original or new houses specifically for HHN Hollywood. However they do have two unique experiences that can not be found in HHN Orlando: The Walking Dead Attraction and Terror Tram: the Ultimate Purge. The Walking Dead is available year-round for regular day guests, but the Terror Tram is usually a back lot tram tour of different sound stages of Universal movies but just for HHN the tram gets taken over as guests are now in the middle of the Purge. One thing I am quite jealous of is their entertainment is the Jabbawockeez and if you don’t know who they are I HIGHLY recommend you look them up. They are an insanely talented break dance group that is easily recognizable by their white masks. Even though this event is much smaller I hope to one day be able to attend in person instead of via YouTube.
Third on my list is Howl-O-Scream which is a relatively newer event compared to HHN and this year it is in two different parks as well Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando. Much like HHN this event also has haunted houses and scare zones. This year at Busch Gardens they have five houses, with three of them being new this year, seven scare zones, and three entertainment offerings. The new houses this year are Witch of the Woods, The Forgotten, and Cell block zombies. The two houses coming back this year are definitely fan favorites from years prior Death Water Bayou and The Residence. Something I find so interesting and cool about this event is they have way more scare zones than houses. I personal am a big fan of scare zones so to see they have seven is really amazing to me and definitely put it far above the SeaWorld event.
In fourth but currently not least is Howl-O-Scream SeaWorld. This is the park’s first scary Halloween event and with that comes some trial and error which is why it is at the bottom of my list. I am sure with time this event will grow and change. For it’s first year they will have four houses and four scare zones. The housees are Water’s Edge Inn,Captain’s Revenge, Dead Vines, and Beneath the Ice. Instead of show they have a unique offering for guests to enjoy, themed bar experiences. I think this is a really cool and unique idea for this event. The names of these bars are: Siren’s Last Call, Longshoremen Tavern, Tormented, and Poison Grotto. I am definitely excited to see this event evolve and grow as time goes on.
Personally I think this is the most creative time of the year. There is something so warm and cozy about the color orange and the smell of cinnamon. It’s the most Spooktacular time of the year!