Howl O Scream Celebrates Friday the 13th with Some Hints and Announcements

In honor of today being Friday the 13th, Howl O Scream Tampa has decided to give out some hints and announcements for this years event. Fans of the event followed closely on their twitter and Facebook feeds for each update. Read on for a recap of the announements that took place.

Earlier this month the Facebook page had confirmed that Death Row Vengeance and Deconstruction were not returning for this year. Also for those that had attended the Entertainment Designer Forum, Alone was confirmed by Scott Swenson to be returning for it’s 3rd year. So with that we received our first update around noon.

So if Death Row Vengeance and Reconstruction are going away… what does that leave coming back?

Of course many fans and media outlets made their guesses known. This obviously meant that we would be learning what our returning houses were. The next update was just that the first returning house was announce only 2 hours after the previous question.

So for those of you questioning Ultimate Gamble coming back… how about ”Ultimate Gamble: Condemned”?! Vampires have fallen out of fashion, and the casino has been shuttered. But a brave, curious few may still get inside to explore… with only a flashlight to light your way!

Return of the Casino Revivara! But what is this about only a flashlight? Are we going to have a dark house? Is this going to be like Halloween Horror Nights Orlando’s 2005 house Terror Mines and the 2006 People Under the Stairs. In these houses small groups of people were handed a kind of light and were meant to travel the house together with only the light they were given.

As you read on you find HOS answering fans questions, shedding some light on this clue. (Please pardon the intentional pun.) But, yes they mean actual flashlights. Each party will be handed one flashlight as they head through the once flashy casino. Obviously with only one light to see by for only so many people can mean scares coming from everywhere and anywhere.

The DTF team had nothing but positive things to say about last years house (you can read our review here). This can easily become our most anticipated house for the event already and we are not even half way through…..hmmm. So now to update #3.

Ready for a truly messed-up mash-up? Crazed toymaker, demonic teddies and MUTANTS. Mr. Nightshade is back, but in “Nightshade Toy Factory: Mutation,” a radioactive leak nearby has given the toys the power they need to finally take over…

Ah Nightshade…. This house has become a bit of a fan favorite. Now returning for it’s 4th year.

The new story includes mutations?!!!! As a comic book geek the list of mutated characters quickly flashes through my head for a second or two before I come back to reality. Mutated toys can mean anything. A radio teddy, or a slinky dolly, anything that looks like it belongs from the “evil Sid’s” room from Toy Story. I have a feeling that we may even see those zombie baby dolls that every novelty store seems to feature the last couple of years. Actually I would be a bit disappointed if they weren’t.

So on to update #4. Which mostly rounds up our returning houses. These were no a surprise since 2 out of the 3 had already been confirmed.

Alone, Zombie Mortuary and Nevermore are all returning with little tweaks. So I guess that just leaves the two NEW houses to talk about…

Returning with tweaks? Oh the possibilities. Now our team has not done Alone so we could not even imagine what might change and improve this house. Zombie Mortuary and Nevermore were clearly our top two last year and we couldn’t wait to return to these houses. To know that they will be tweaked and possible improved, oh the inner child is dancing around. Now we move on to the new stuff.

You asked for it, YOU GOT IT! HOS 2012 will once again feature an insane asylum house… BLOOD ASYLUM! From the official BG files: “As lightning rages and thunder crashes outside, ‘The Creature’ escapes from his holding cell in a high-security asylum for the criminally insane. Now this sadistic deviant is running rampant, skinning his former cellmates and turning the mental hospital into his own torture chamber. This serial killer’s bloody playground will drive you out of your mind with fear.”

An asylum! Haunt fans will always have a weakness for an asylum house. There is something about asylums that give you a natural set of the creeps. Adding the excitement of a haunt or haunting and it becomes and irresistible passion. As to how this will differ or not to 2004 Escape from Insanity:Lock down is anyone’s guess. This leads us to the final house.

Who wants CLOWNS?!

NEW HOUSE #2! “Circus of Superstition 3-D” Here’s what I know: You’ve been taught to avoid black cats and sidewalk cracks your whole life, but all those years of bad luck have caught up with you. Crazed circus clowns challenge you to survive thirteen superstitions in their 3-D Tent of Terror, but it will take more than luck to escape this whole new dimension of fear.

3-D clowns! There is no denying that the #1 fear in the world is clowns. Now to make them in 3-D? But what kind of 3-D will we receive? My guess would be chroma depth, which has been quickly gaining popularity in haunts and other attractions over the last few years. The last time Howl O Scream featured a 3-D house was in 2007 with Radiation Alert 3-D. Will the HOS team see the same reaction from their fans that Universal had with Halloween Horror Night fans at last years In Between? I personally hope so.

After the clowns, HOS Insider said he would only give one last nugget. This little thing was an answer that all haunts answer when they have reach a magical number of years of operation….

Last tidbit of the day: A bunch of people have been asking if HOS was going to bring back anything from the past to celebrate big number 13, and the answer is YES! “Faded Memories” will be a new scare zone featuring signature set pieces and props from the classic houses of HOS’s 13-year history, providing the ideal scare situation for some of your favorite HOS characters ever!

That’s right! Howl O Scream is now in it’s 13th year! To know that this will be celebrated in a scare zone makes us giddy. Although the rest of the world may think 13 as an unlucky number, the haunt community considers it a badge of honor. But which character and what props? Only time will tell and HOS fans will appriciate the quick trip to memory lane.

All of our quotes come from Facebook but these announcements were made on both social media platforms. During all the updates and for a short time after HOS Insider answered some fan questions. Below we will list a few points we thought would be of importance.

Firstly on twitter, HOS was asked about the Fright Feast. This is a great upgrade program that features a buffet, special showing of Midnight Hour show and front of the line access for a select amount of time. It was confirmed that this will be returning once again this year.

Next, also mentioned on twitter, was about the theme and websites. HOS Insider revealed that these are still a few weeks out. That our “source” so to speak did not have that information just yet. but this leads me into the next point and a bit of a cryptic message.

While on the Facebook page a fan asked about an icon. in which HOS answered:

Yep! But we’re not going to talk about him today…

Him??? The return of a male icon? This was a comment that was clearly overlooked by many but not our team. It’s clear that a theme has been established if we have a set determination of our icon’s sex. I consider this a nice refresher from the last 4 years. Our last male icon was in 2007, the Death Jockey. The last confirmation that was announced concerning the theme was that clowns were not a part of the theme.

With that we conclude this update. As was mentioned within a few weeks we should be seeing even more updates coming our way.

Howl O Scream Tampa will open on Friday September 21st. It will be open Friday and Saturday for the first week and every Thursday, Friday and Saturday after that till October 27th.