Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s ‘Howl-O-Scream’ opens tonight with new and revamped haunted houses, scare zones and shows

Annual fright fest Howl-O-Scream returns to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this weekend, bringing back popular haunted houses, scare zones and chances to ride roller coasters in the dark.

The event kicks at 7 p.m. on select nights beginning tonight, Friday Sept. 9 through Halloween Oct. 31. On Fridays and Saturdays, the park is open until 1 a.m. On Thursdays and Sundays, it’s open until midnight.

This year’s Howl-O-Scream boasts five houses, eight scare zones and four spooky shows. The new attractions include the Stranglewood Estate house, which is overrun with evil spirits and unhappy ghosts.

Then there’s the new scare zones—Ravens Mill and Beyond the Veil—where you’ll get hunted by evil scarecrows in a cornfield or must escape fairies and orcs in a haunted forest.

Then there’s the new show, 50/50: Choose Your Fate, where the creepy host always wins and you always lose.

Returning favorites include:

• Death Water Bayou: Blood Moon – The Final Phase A swamp swarming with seriously sinister werewolves
• The Residence: Home for the Holidays A Christmas-themed suburban house of horrors
• The Forgotten Vampires. What more do you need?
• Witch of the Woods An eerie, foggy forest lures travelers in, but a cursed witch won’t let you leave
• The Junkyard This is where they chase you with chainsaws.
• In the Shadows Woods full of monsters of legend.
• Skeleton Crew Shipwrecked zombie pirates.
• The Shortcut A cemetery full of zombies.
• Voodoo Self-explanatory, but this one connects to the bayou house of werewolves.
• Hidden Scare Zone & Roaming Hordes Trust no dark corner or plant, there are scare actors roaming all over the park.

Standard single-night tickets for Howl-O-Scream start at $44.99. Busch Gardens also offers day and night tickets to experience the theme park and stick around for the scares starting at $124.99.

If can’t get enough frights, the park has unlimited Howl-O-Scream admission passes starting at $124.99-$139.99 (the lower price excludes Saturdays).

Howl-O-Scream upgrades include behind-the-scenes and VIP tours, skip the line passes and reserved seating for shows.

If you’d like a little less scares during your evening at Howl-O-Scream, the park offers a “No Boo” necklace that’s supposed to ward off monsters in the scare zones. It does not guarantee you won’t get scared at all, and it doesn’t work inside the haunted houses.

More information, tickets and upgrades can be found at buschgardens.com.

This article appears in Sep 8-14, 2022.