Howl-O-Scream returns to SeaWorld San Diego beginning September 11, haunting select nights through October 31. 2026 marks the event’s sixth year with its largest lineup yet: six haunted houses. Guests will confront new scare zones, live performances, and dark speakeasies and themed bars.
Six years. Six haunted houses. Countless screams in 2026
Howl-O-Scream is set to deliver six haunted houses—including two all-new nightmares and four returning favorites:
- Area 64: MOTHERSHIP (ALL-NEW) debuts as an all-new haunted house, designed and built entirely from the ground up by SeaWorld San Diego’s Entertainment team. Serving as the prequel to Area 64: Alien Outbreak, the experience transports guests 30 years before the original story, where negotiations between a secretive government task force and an extraterrestrial species have spiraled into chaos. Guests navigate the wreckage of a crashed alien mothership and government research labs where hybrid experiments have gone horribly wrong, coming face-to-face with a threat from beyond the stars. The attraction features an 80-foot-long, 16-foot-tall mothership façade — the largest show scene by volume ever created for a Howl-O-Scream San Diego haunted house.
- 6th House (ALL-NEW) – This new haunted house will reveal itself from the murky depths of Mission Bay in a few short weeks.
- Circus of the Damned 3D – An evil ringmaster unleashes chaos and confusion in a neon-lit, 3-D clown nightmare as he searches for new performers to restore his cursed circus to its former glory. Guests must navigate the twisted big top, evade his condemned crew, and escape before they become the newest members of his horrifying circus.
- Simon’s Slaughterhouse – Simon the Butcher delivers a gruesome walk through a deranged meat factory. Guests navigate a decrepit meat-packing plant while evading “Simon the Butcher” and his murderous crew, dodging screeching buzz saws, meat hooks, and menacing slaughterhouse blades.
- Deathwater Bayou: Awakening, where a Mardi Gras night in New Orleans takes a dark turn – guests are bewitched and dragged into a cursed bayou, where witches summon an ancient, ravenous deity. With every step, the swamp grows darker and more alive – and escape becomes more unlikely.
- Nightmare Experiment: Sweet DreamzZz, guests are led through a converted asylum now run by a mysterious pharmaceutical company testing a sleep aid with horrifying side effects. From hallucinations to uncontrollable rage, the results are disastrous – and you’re the next test subject!
This event will have more announcements – stay tuned for more news about new scare zones, vignettes, haunts, themed food and bars, hidden speakeasies, and more.
