I received clarification from Busch Gardens Tampa regarding the “Alone” house I had posted about.

No one touches you in this house. Apparently that was a very well propagated rumor. Apparently the house has a lower hourly capacity than the other houses, so the price is there to off set that. I have a question out to find out what the average time inside the house is.

You can bring up to 3 people into the house with you for a flat fee of $25-$35 (depending on if you purchase in advance or not). If you have 4 people, you can all split that cost. You only get a T Shirt if you go in by yourself and get through the whole maze.

The price doesn’t sound as bad as before. I had originally thought that there was a $25-$35 charge for each person. I still think that the price is a bit high. I’d be able to swallow a $15 price tag much easier. I’m down there far away from my friends up north, so I don’t really know anyone who would want to go through with Harknell and I to take advantage of the full 4 person group. I’m leaning toward skipping this house, but I could change my mind.

I’ll let you know if I find out any more information about it.

Check out the new teaser video:

I’m looking forward to August 26. I’ll be at the event this year, too. HHN is absolutely terrifying. Imagine if someone had a huge budget to use horror film techniques on you in real life. Yeah. Best Evar.

The first time I went here there was one house in particular that was so awesome that my eyes were tearing up by the time I came out the other end. I was a little thankful that the house wasn’t much longer but FULL OF WIN! Out of all of the haunted houses I have been through in my whole life, nothing has ever obliterated me like that before. I’ll be hitting these guys and Tampa’s Howl O Scream in the same week before I come up north to do the New Jersey, VIrginia, Pennsylvania, and maybe Ohio haunts. Every year I save up and do as many as I can. I stop when either I run out of money, time, or pass out. I CANNOT WAIT. THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING ON THE PLANET.

If there is a haunt that you think I should blog about this year – tell me. :)

There is a rather awesome interview with me up on ShrinkGeek. CEO-flavored insanity: An interview with Onezumi

The site for the 2010 Busch Gardens Tampa Howl o Scream is live. Check it out!

They went as far as to create 3 tracks for the band. They will also have “myX” performing live at the event. Here is one of the videos:

From what I can tell the story is that the lead singer, Sylvie, killed her boyfriend in a jealous rage and severed his fingers with a guitar string. Now she goes around doing the same thing to other people. I love the rocker chick thing..but is it scary? I certainly think it’s cool, but I’m not sure about the scare factor. She’s too cute.

I have much love for BGT, but I don’t know what I think about this year’s theme. The icons of the past years were a bit more believable to me because they were supernatural in nature. This seems to be just a tiny human girl that is a celebrity. It’s kind of hard to imagine her being able to be like this without already having gotten caught. I will have to think about this.

Still, the marketing campaign is stunning. You can play around on their website for a long time. Props to BGT for adding new houses and scare zones this year. They will have 8 houses and 5 scare zones. This is the same number as Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights

They kept my two favorite houses: “Deconstruction” and “Nightshade Toys”. They also kept the sorority-themed “DED” and made it into “DEDer: Extreme Rush”. I thought that this house was the weakest last year, so I am excited to see if they have tightened it up. “Alone” and “My X: Revenge Rocks” are the two new additions.

One caveat about the “8 new houses” thing – it is really 7 houses. The new “Alone” house isn’t included with your park admission. If you want to go into “Alone”, they want you to pay an extra $25-$35 fee on top of park admission! There is not that much information on their website about it. I did some googling and it seems that this house is to be an “extreme” house where people can touch you, you may have to touch bugs,and it is a pitch black labyrinth. If you make it out, you get a T Shirt. You can go in alone or with 3 friends, but you only get the T shirt if you go in alone.

EDIT: I received clarification from BGT. No one touches you in this house. You can bring up to 3 people into the house with you for a flat fee of $25-$35 (depending on if you purchase in advance or not). You only get a T Shirt if you go in by yourself and get through the whole maze.

My first reaction to this is WHAT THE HELL. The price for this one house is almost as much as getting into all of Howl O Scream. I am really into the idea of an “extreme house” but the cost is a bit high to jump in on without knowing much about the house in question. There isn’t much information out there about this house.

I’m pretty crazy. I admit that I’ll gladly pay whatever but but only if it seems worth it. The small blurb they have up on their site doesn’t sell it at all to me. They tried to put a cover charge on their new nightclub last year. The week I went it was empty because no one wanted to pay and risk going into something they had never seen before. The following week they lifted the cover charge and it seems the club did better.

I am looking forward to this year’s HoS even though I am not 100% sold on the icon or the up charging. HoS has always been the slightly lower budget event with really strong houses and great atmosphere. In many ways, I think it is the best Halloween event in Florida. However, the price for admission plus the “Alone” house fee brings it up to almost what Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights charges for bigger and more detailed houses. I don’t know what to think about this.

As of today, I’m leaning toward skipping “Alone” unless they do a much better job of telling us what it is. If it isn’t really awesome I can imagine leaving that house very angry. I can’t help it – I went to a lot of Halloween events last year that felt like they ripped me off. None of them were in Florida, but I am sensitized. I’ll let you know if I change my mind – I very well might. :) Howl O Scream kicks ass.

Harknell and I will be on Light Box Podcast tonight at 8PM EST!

Go to http://www.talkshoe.com and search for Light Box podcast.