For all my 15 years living in Florida, before this past weekend, I had never been to Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens. 

I’ve had my fair share of hot summer days spent aimlessly wandering amusement parks, and I don’t quite enjoy Halloween as much as any other teenager, but the idea of going to a theme park at night time (no lines for roller coasters!) and getting spooked by a bunch of people in costume sounded fun enough, so I figured why not? 

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but the real thing was a lot scarier than I had imagined. I’m not sure if that’s just me being chicken or if these people are just plain good at what they do, but either way, it was enough to make me wish we could end up staying until the park’s closing time of 1:30 a.m.  

There were six scare zones alongside the haunted houses, most of which we didn’t really notice or realize were there until we were inside of them. I enjoyed that aspect of them in that they were unexpected, adding to this year’s theme of “Nowhere to Hide” that the park had been promoting. 

The first scare zone we encountered was Hell on Wheels, right outside of the area where Gwazi used to be and where they had set up two of the haunted houses, Unearthed and Simon’s Slaughterhouse. It seemed to be apocalypse-themed, with workers dressed as zombies wielding various tools like shovels and leaf blowers sneaking up behind us or chasing us throughout the area. 

The freakiest scare zone by far was Deadly Toys, with the name giving away the general theme of it. It was in the area with the Sesame Street themed attractions that’s usually for younger kids. Once the park closed for Howl-O-Scream, it became decorated with decaying-looking toy boxes, soft purple lighting and, most notably, creepy music-box tunes in the background.  

My personal favorite out of all the six haunted houses was Motel Hell. It was the first one we decided to go to, having to venture through a scare zone on the way there (which, by the way, was amazing and had me screaming on its own).  

With the plot of Motel Hell centered around a broken-down Motel Shellburn, the entire setting was really chilling, especially with the scratchy record-player music in the background. The walk through the dimly-lit motel had me on edge the whole time, and the work the employees put into scaring people only added to my enjoyment of the attraction. 

However, out of all the haunted houses they offered, my least favorite was The Black Spot, a smaller one based on the theme of a haunted pirate cove. 

The theme of ghostly pirates attacking the living is already overused often enough, and despite having some cool props and scenery inside the attraction, the scare aspect was lacking, and the entire thing just sort of felt like some weird Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-ish attempt at a horror show. 

The park also had two new haunted house additions this year: Simon’s Slaughterhouse and Insomnia. We decided against doing Simon’s Slaughterhouse due to a lack of time (and both of us being too grossed out to even enter in the new Meat Market scare zone) but ended up doing Insomnia.  

To be expected with a new attraction, the wait for Insomnia was long, but it was definitely worth it. Despite being centered around an overused horror trope — haunted psych wards and hospitals — Busch Gardens found a way to put a really unique spin on the whole concept with stunning prop work and jump scares to match. Hopefully this sets a good example for next year’s new haunted houses.  

One more thing I noticed was that unlike most horror attractions at amusement parks, Busch Gardens actually put effort into scaring park-goers. Often times the staff at other parks or events will just leave it up to the prop work and scenery, but the workers at Howl-O-Scream seemed to really enjoy their jobs. 

During one haunted house in particular — Unearthed, which centered around the story of a now-demon seeking revenge for the death of her children — the friend I was with had noticed one of the workers about to jump out and scare her, and had yelled out, prompting him to yell back that he didn’t even say anything yet. As we continued walking, he jumped out a few seconds later and yelled, “Now I am!”  

Scares like this — and just in general, the unexpected jump-scare factor that somehow never seems to get old — really make the event stand out as opposed to other Halloween events. The gory or chilling prop work does wonders as well, such as having fake body parts on the floor around you or the excessive detail put into some exhibits, like having specifically titled wards in the Insomnia attraction.  

I’d definitely recommend taking the time to visit Busch Gardens while this event is going on. It lasts until Oct. 28, so the time left to go is limited, but it’s worth the trip. Whether you’ve never been before or go every year, Halloween month is a lot more enjoyable with great events like these to indulge in.