SeaWorld San Diego’s upcoming Howl-O-Scream will have five haunted houses after all. 

When the park originally announced the lineup for its 2023 event, it included only four haunted houses, including the 3D-enhanced Circus of the Damned. Missing from the lineup was Simon’s Slaughterhouse, which had previously been featured at both the 2021 and 2022 editions. 

SeaWorld revealed on Wednesday that Simon’s Slaughterhouse would be back for the 2023 event, which kicks off on Sept. 29. 

Alongside the houses and scare zones, San Diego’s Howl-O-Scream will also feature what the park is calling “Vile Vignettes.” The press release suggests these will be more personal experiences with scare actors throughout the park, separate from the scare zones. 

Sirens scare zone at SeaWorld San Diego’s Howl-O-Scream (Theme Park Tribune)

For example, one such vignette, dubbed “Misfortune,” is described by SeaWorld’s press release as, “Guests brave enough to step into this fortune teller’s tent can find out, but they might not like what they hear as she spins tales of woe and anguish.”

Another of the vignettes is called “Simon’s Meat Market,” and is described as, “On the way to Simon’s Slaughterhouse, guests will find a crooked auctioneer wielding what’s left of Simon’s latest victims.” SeaWorld had previously announced Simon’s Meat Market as one of the event’s five scare zones, but that appears to have been replaced by a new experience called Clown Gauntlet. 

Outside of houses and scare zones, the event will offer two stage shows: the “Opening Scaremony” that kicks off each night of Howl-O-Scream, and “Call of the Siren,” which SeaWorld hypes as a “wickedly mesmerizing hip hop dance performance.”

While the number of houses and scare zones are back to the same numbers seen at 2022’s Howl-O-Scream, the 2023 edition will still run for fewer nights.

The event takes over SeaWorld San Diego on select nights from Sept. 29 through Halloween – opening nearly two weeks later than it did last year. The event requires separate tickets than those used to attend the park during the day and is not intended for children.