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| Shop of Horrors |
For my first real post I thought I would review haunted world of The Dark Side of the Gardens: Zombies Live Here at Busch Gardens Tampa. As a seven year veteran of working haunted attractions this year I decided to take a year off and actually go and play and explore. Below are my initial impressions of the event. I did my best to keep in mind it iI visited the 24th of September (preview weekend) and things won’t be perfect yet.
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| Facade to Ultimate Gamble |
Ultimate Gamble: Vampire Casino (UG).: 8 out of 10 The host at the very front of the line was very helpful and seeing as how it was only 7 o’clock handed us our virtual cue card (I went with my mom who is handicapped). The house itself was fun. I enjoyed the bartender character who gave me one of the best lines of the night (we make the best virgins in town) as well the vampire (I’m assuming owner?) standing out front talking with the crowd. He had the perfect combination of charm and yet slimy. Over all the scares were very well timed, if not slightly cliché with such phrases as ‘come here’ or ‘get out’. The sets were absolutely incredible and I must admit the touches like the “all you can eat buffet” did send me giggling. There was only one place in the house where there was so much fog that my poor mom almost walked right into a wall.
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| Booger himself |
Hillbilly (redneck) Zombies: 8 out of 10 This group met us upon our exit of Ultimate Gamble. They by far were one of the best hordes of the night. While a little too limber for zombies (in my opinion. Then again, I like Romero zombies) they were more than effective. I must admit we spent almost 30 minutes enjoying their performance. This group also gave me my second favorite quote of the night. The zombie dubbed ‘booger’ came up to me sniffing then turned and yelled “hey Ma, come here!” He then turned to me and explained while licking his lips “she’s the one with the teeth.” If it is possible to be both uncomfortable and wrapped in hysterics Booger did his job well. As a whole this group worked well staying together without blocking the path. They seemed the perfect execution of the horde concept.
Employee Zombies: I’m really going to hope that was the group I saw at this point. Honestly it’s hard to tell seeing as how I only saw one or two people in zombie make-up and uniforms while I was waiting in line for Alone.
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| Can you make it through Alone? I did |
Alone: 10 out of 10 There simply aren’t any words for the Alone experience. It is by far the BEST haunted house I have ever had the privilege of experiencing in my 7 years in the haunt community.
Egyptain Zombies: 3 out of 10 There was nothing about this group that said zombie or horde. I must admit, I’m assuming they were meant to be zombies due to the zombie like make up on the Cleopatra look-alike. However there were no scares attempted in the almost 5 minutes I watched them and they were so spread out as to completely lose any horde effect at all.
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| Front of Nightshade |
Nightshade Toys: 5 out of 10 The theming in this house has always been clever and I enjoy the lighting as well as the costumes. However, my trip through was plagued by a total lack of scares. I saw many characters sitting back and waiting to scare. I admit while I don’t appear the easiest target I would have at least liked to see some effort made.
Construction Zombies: 9 out of 10 I only got to watch this group for a few moments but like their hillbilly counterparts they perfectly executed the horde idea. This group also had the zombie concept down perfectly.
Deconstruction: 5 out of 10 Admittedly this is not my favorite house. That aside it’s still a fun little house with good theming. I am going to assume that I hit a valley in this house seeing as how only two actors attempted to scare me (the woman in white in the hallway Dawn, and a very tall gentleman to the left after a doorway and right hand turn heading into the final hallway in the house Dave. He almost succeeded in getting me good from behind).
Family Zombies: 4 out of 10 Again this group was very spread out seeming to have little idea of the horde concept. The make-up and masks are good but I saw a lot of almost accidents with the ‘children’ on bikes. There were very few tries for startle scares and the group as a whole (with the exception of Grandma Zombie with her walker) seemed overcome with lethargy. At one point I thought the wheelchair zombie in the pajamas had fallen asleep.
Street Creeps: 9 out of 10 This by far seems to be the best year yet for the street creeps. They were spread out enough as to be unassuming again without being so spread out as to be out of the view of their manager. I got to see some really excellent scares from this group.
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| Here's Charlie |
Homeless Zombies: 9 out of 10 This group was another excellent example of zombies. Their make-up (and masks) was excellent and they had a fabulous combination of slow moving with fast swoops, contortion, and disgusting vocalization. They honestly were some of the most vocal in Zombie I heard all night. There was even some in-fighting with the group which added a whole different dynamic. In this group is another zombie in a wheelchair. This one wears a mask that vaguely resembles Charles Manson. He is spectacular and a wonderful example of what a wheelchair character should look like.
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| The "friendly" medical zombie |
Medical Zombies: 5 out of 10 I am going to hope I caught this group at a bad time. With the exception of one who tried to scare me (and posed politely for picture) they were aimless with no attempts at startles.
Sliderz: 8 out of 10 While I enjoy watching the Sliderz this year I walked away slightly confused. Were they zombies or not? One Slider would try and behave like a zombie, but then the others wouldn’t. While there was a lot of shouting and posturing for the few moments I watched the group there was almost no actual sliding.
Bushes: 9 out of 10 The group of camo people near Crown Colony was well hidden and seemed to get plenty of good scares. Always fun to watch.
Death Row Vengeance: 6 out of 10 I love this house and adore the update to add the infected zombies. Once again though I seemed to be in the valley and saw almost no scares. The man in the noose was quite amusing and the ghosts in the cells were rather effective as well.
Cheerleader Zombies: I don’t feel right giving this group a rating seeing as how they passed by marching in formation. The act itself seems a good way to get from point A to point B in a narrow walkway (which we were in) and had the bonus effect of being rather creepy. Their make-up was excellent.
Radioactive Zombies: 5 out of 10 These were my favorite masks of the night. The group itself was rather aimless just meandering along without even walking like a zombie. There was also a lot of bobbing and weaving and trying to scare from the front
White Lady in TBT: 9 out of 10 The effect was amazing. This group recreated the commercial perfectly. I honestly like this White Lady better than the one at the Front Gate. I’m not exactly sure if they were supposed to be trying to startle scare the surrounding guests but it seemed almost unnecessary for they created such an incredible atmosphere.
Loved Midnight Hour in the Desert Grill. I felt the cast was very small but the quality of the characters more than made up for it..
Zombie Mortuary: 10 out of 10 I can’t say enough about how amazing this new house really is. The scenic is incredible (Russo and Romero still sends me to giggling) and the hearse is to die for. I admit I remember watching Dr Paul Bearer when I was younger. The actors have almost perfect timing and the sayings are often very clever yet still get the startle. I couldn’t help but laugh at the coroner saying he knew a dead body when he saw one just to exclaim “my bad” when the body on the table moved.
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| The front of the cue to Nevermore |
Nevermore: 9 out of 10 This house was, by far, my favorite of the night and had it not been so late I would have gone through it several more times. There are interesting touches in this house like the young man speaking from the bell tower or one actor that spoke no English. The movement from room to room and story to story was incredible and I enjoyed the adaptations of Poe’s works. The heartbeat from the tell-tale heart was unexpected as were the actors shouting “guilty” from behind the portraits. The only thing keeping this house from 10 out of 10 is the projection of the cat eyes on the wall prior to The Black Cat had “Replay DVD” or some such nonsense printed above them. I can see this house only getting better as the event wears on and I look forward to seeing the improvement.
I didn’t make it all the way around the park so my apologies to those I missed. I’ll try and catch them next go around.
Over all:
Houses: 8 out of 10
Hordes: 5 out of 10. There are still a lot of dead areas, random overlap, crowding, and way too much spread within the hordes. Overall I find the addition of zones much more effective. With the zones the actors are much more spread out around the park and it seems to be a better use of the actor’s skills and talents.
Overall this is one of the best years Howl-O-Scream has had in quite some time. Make sure you go and check out the dark side of the gardens. There are still two weekends left. For more information and tickets go to Dark Side of the Gardens
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