Haunted house hacks for Halloween 2021

We asked Ben's teenage daughters and a friend to hit two of the area's major Halloween events and give us the guano on super scares.

• They braved Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream ($74.99 per ticket day of) for three hours Saturday, then let Ben tag along to Scream-A-Geddon ($60 per ticket day of) in Dade City.

Here are their tips for navigating local haunts:

Howl-O-Scream

Overview: The houses were lacking and the lines so long we only got into two in three hours.

Cell Block Zombies

• Review: Good jump scares and lots of actors, but the costumes and rooms were repetitive.
• Highlight: Gross prison toilet with guts in it.
• Gore factor: 🔪🔪🔪🔪
• Fright factor: 👻👻

Death Water Bayou

• Review: Cool decorations and costumes but no jump scares and only lasted about two minutes. Kids play.
• Highlight: Vortex tunnel
• Gore factor: 🔪 out of 5
• Fright factor: 👻 out of 5

Scream-A-Geddon

Overview: Scarier houses than Howl-O-Scream, much shorter lines and less walking between the houses. Well worth the drive. Demon's Revenge

• Review: This was better than all of Howl-O-Scream combined.
• Highlight: My dad ran into a wall and dramatically slid down to the ground, screaming "IT'S A DEAD END."
• Gore factor: 🔪🔪
• Fright Factor: 👻👻👻👻👻

Blood Water Bayou

• Review: This was eight minutes of terror, featuring the classic chain-saw chase.

• Highlight: My dad crawled through some of the house. He said, "I felt like y'all were getting sucked into the green light, so I crawled below it, just in-case."
• Gore Factor: 🔪🔪🔪🔪
• Fright Factor: 👻👻👻👻

Rage 3D

• Review: Lots of flashing lights and very disorienting but not very many jump scares.
• Highlight: A clown jumping out from around the corner and my dad laid down on the ground screaming. A medic came over to see if he was okay.
• Gore Level: 🔪
• Fright Factor: 👻👻👻