The Howl-O-Scream Halloween-season after-hours ticketed event returned to SeaWorld San Diego for its second year this past Friday night, bringing with it two spooky new haunted houses and some additional entertainment offerings for guests to enjoy.
I had the opportunity to attend the opening-night media event and walked away with a positive impression of the direction things are headed at SeaWorld San Diego’s Howl-O-Scream. Last year I said this event would take five years to get to the point for which it’s worth venturing down from the Los Angeles area, but (while it’s not quite there yet) this season’s event made some significant strides toward feeling complete.
Watch Opening Scaremony – Howl-O-Scream 2022 at SeaWorld San Diego:
As with 2021, this year’s Howl-O-Scream event began with an “Opening Scaremony” near the park’s entrance, during which we met a number of the scare-actors in character, visited the nearby themed bars, plus got a good look at some of SeaWorld San Diego’s Halloween decorations while there was still some light left outside. On the “Carnival of Chaos” stage a variety of fun entertainment offerings were scheduled to entertain guests throughout the evening.
Around the corner in the “Shop of Horrors” gift shop, visitors could pick up souvenirs with which to remember their visit to SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream.
Once I began venturing deeper into the park itself, I found myself surrounded by a frightening number of ghouls and goblins as I traveled through Howl-O-Scream’s six Scare Zones and two “scAREAs”– Clown Gauntlet, Deadly Toys, The Hauntings, La Llorona, The Graveyard, Sea of Souls, Carnival of Chaos, and Vampire Underground. The latter even featured a vampire dance party and another themed bar, but the highlight for me was the demonic doll highlighted in the Twitter video below, who seemed to eerily glide along the ground.
As far as the haunted houses themselves go, there were three returning options from last year– “Nightmare Experiment” (think the hospital from hell), “Simon’s Slaughterhouse” (similar to the Red Barn from Knott’s Scary Farm past), and “Death Water Bayou” (with a New Orleans theme)– plus two new examples: “Circus of the Damned” (self-explanatory with lots of creepy clowns, though it does offer a tiny speakeasy bar within the maze with a secret password needed to get in) and “Area 64: Alien Outbreak” (this was probably my favorite of the houses this year, old or new). Like I mentioned in 2021, these haunted houses do have something of a prefabricated feel to them, and I wish SeaWorld would embrace its roots and put together more aquatic-themed mazes to fit the park’s name and overall ambience. “Death Water Bayou” was a good start last year, but instead the park chose to go down a more generic Halloween route instead of exploring those possibilities.
The big live show at Howl-O-Scream San Diego is no longer “Vampire Circus”– now it’s an atmospheric, otherworldly stage play with lots of cool stunts and memorable effects called “Darkness Falls.” I enjoyed this performance, as it feels a little more outside-the-box than the rest of what I saw on Friday night, but some elements may prove too risque for families attending the event– though in general I would say Howl-O-Scream is intended for adults, teenagers, and maybe some older kids.
Watch "Darkness Falls" FULL live show during Howl-O-Scream 2022 at SeaWorld San Diego:
Howl-O-Scream runs on select dates from now through Monday, October 31st. For additional information and to purchase advance tickets to the event, be sure to visit SeaWorld’s official website.