It's that scary time of year again

If you like scary houses and aren’t faint of heart then you should check out your local theme parks for their Halloween Haunted Houses! We went early this year, first weekend in October, to attend the Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens, Tampa. This years’ theme was the Dark Side of the Gardens. They have a Thrills and Chills package, which gives you all day access to the park from Thursday to Friday. We arrived Friday but were too wiped out to stay on Sunday (blame it on the homemade jello shots) and hit a craft show, instead. The Fiends show with Dr Freakenstein and his naughty nurses show was great which we watched while eating our Fright Feast. Then we got early access to the haunted houses.

After dinner on Friday, we went straight to the Zombie Mortuary where at a funeral home you have to witness a funeral in process, only it the funeral was for you. Zombies lived there and feed on fresh flesh and brains of the attendants. Dare to escape! Then we headed down to the circus of Superstition, which in 3-D you experience, first hand, the thirteen superstitions. Go ahead; I dare you to name them all. After escaping with nary a hair missing, we stepped into the Nightshade Toy Factory where the toys you’ve loved and mutilated as a child come alive to do the same to you! You can try your luck at the old Ultimate Gamble Casino but will only find that it was renamed Vampire condemned and if you make it out of its dark tunnels alive, you will have counted your lucky day. Finally take a trip through the Manor of Lenore, Nevermore, and experience a revival of Poe’s famous tales.

In addition, as a last-minute plan we decided to visit Universal Studios, Orlando Halloween Horror Nights, 22, The Walking Dead. In Gothic, the gargoyles come alive in an old church. The costumer and masks were excellent, you couldn’t tell if they were live or store. An elaborate setting of a church, complete with mosaic glass windows and a twenty foot illusionary drop overlooking pews and altar will surely scare the non-practitioner and devout, alike. In Dead End, lightening reveals terrifying faces as you walk through the Hurtford Mansion in which a curse will kill anyone who dare enters. In Silent Hill, fans and non-fans of the television program will enjoy gross psyche-ward scenes, eerie wheelchairs and baby carriage whose occupants have surely turned mad. Alice Cooper’s Welcome to my Nightmare turns goth rocker into a sure nightmare with its inner chambers filled with loud Cooper music and haunted figures, including Alice. The Universal House of Horrors’ showcased classic monsters we grew up with, only with a new twist, for Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature of the Black Lagoons and the Wolf man, In Penn and Teller, Las Vegas is under a nuclear attack for you to witness in 3D.

Much to my regret we did not attend the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach, which I heard, was good.

Hope you liked the review and have a creepy, scary Halloween!