Howl-O-Scream 2024 Inside All Haunted Houses and More at Busch Gardens [Video]

The annual Howl-O-Scream Halloween haunt event kicked off this month at Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Virginia, where HDN was invited to attend a special VIP media night on Friday the 13th.

The event began with a fittingly frightful cocktail hour, complete with wolf leafage, Black Lagoon dip, blood bag cocktails, syringe jello shots, and other darkly delicious treats, during Busch Gardens Park President Kevin Lembke officially announced a new (were)Wolf-themed roller coaster opening in 2025 and continuing the legacy of the park’s iconic Big Bad Wolf coaster, which howled from 1984 to 2009.

The new attraction will be North America’s longest inverted family coaster, and fans get to vote on its name online now. Lembke promised it will be “highly themed”. Watch the full Wolf coaster announcement here.

At Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Howl-O-Scream returns for its 25th anniversary year with two all-new houses and three “revamped” returning favorites, as well as two brand new terror-tories, in addition to four more returning favorites.

Debuting in 2024, the Doctor is in at the new Monster Manor house (pictured above), where the anatomy of evil has been perfected, and the Doctor is bringing his dark arts into grotesque reality. Within his chilling laboratory, he weaves unspeakable horrors, transforming hapless victims into monstrous creations. Here, the boundaries of humanity are torn apart, and the screams of his abominations echo through the night. Dare to enter and face the horrid results of his twisted experiments?

Also debuting in 2024, the new Clown Town house is where the clowns of Busch Gardens’ Festa Italia village were cast out, having been deemed “too terrifying” for the park. Now, shunned and vengeful, these twisted jesters have forged their own dark domain – CLOWN TOWN. In their eerie enclave, they are the rulers of all, and their whims dictate who will escape… and who will remain trapped in their demented circus… for all eternity

The other three houses are “revamped” returning favorites:

• Death Water Bayou: Morte – The call of the bayou grows darker and more insistent as devilish devotees venture deeper into the spectral swamp. What began as a lure into the murky depths has now become a chilling threshold between our world and the next. The flame of death burns ever brighter from above, and the Voodoo Queen’s desperation for her final sinister sacrifice reaches a horrifying climax.
• Lost Mines: Bloodstone – The mining camp dug deeper into the earth in search of priceless gems.  What they found was something sinister, darker, and eldritch.  These gems are more than shiny baubles; they are the life force of an evil eternal that has been long locked away.  As the miners succumb to the horrors of the ages, will you risk entering the mine in search of survivors?
• KILLarney DInEr: Condemned – The diner has long been boarded up and abandoned, but something is skittering behind the walls. The glory days of the ‘50s are long past, and now the terror of the ‘20s awaits all who enter this decimated domicile. Enter at your own peril, for within these decrepit walls, the echoes of past horrors are very much alive, ready to claim the unsuspecting.

The 2024 scare zone Terror-tories include the new Stalker Street, where sinister scarecrows stalk the deserted streets hunting for their next victims, and the new The Bash, where Howl-O-Scream characters from years past return to mark 25 years of Fears, as well as returning favorites Gorgon Gardens, Fest-Evil, Scary Tale Road, and Ripper Row.

The event takes place at both parks on select dates now through November 2. Tickets are on sale for here.

You can see our exclusive photos (currently updating) and watch our full report from Howl-O-Scream 2024 media night at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, including complete walkthroughs of all five haunted houses and all six scare zone terror-tories, as well as our reviews of each of the houses, a preview of the park’s new 2025 werewolf-themed roller coaster that was announced at the event, and the legendary Loch Ness Monster coaster, below.