The leaves are turning brown, pumpkin-spiced lattes are in your hand, and haunted houses are here. Halloween means so much, but for some, it’s time for a haunted corn maze or a scare zone. San Diego offers a variety of haunted attractions to get your adrenaline pumping while staying in the Halloween spirit, each offering a different experience. Whether you want to go on a whole haunted experience with corn mazes and bus rides or be able to go on rollercoasters next to the bay- there’s something for you.

One of the most popular events among Cathedral Students is Scream Zone located at Del Mar Fairgrounds. This event typically has fair food and drinks, mazes, and scare zones that include free-roaming scare actors. But when you look at the Scream Zone’s website, nothing shows up. It’s a static-looking gray background with no text. Other times while looking on safari, the website says “The Scream Zone ghouls, zombies, and creeps are on a temporary vacation for the 2024 season…”

What does this mean for Scream Zone in the future? For CCHS students, the Scream Zone is one of, if not, the most popular events. “It better be back next year,” said sophomore Ambra Manzari after hearing about the event taking a break. The end of the vacation statement says, “Head to Balboa Park to get your screams on at The Haunted Trail. See you in 2025 at The Scream Zone!” The website doesn’t have a direct reason for the absence of its event this year, but this means that there is another event for CCHS students.

At the Haunted Trail, you get to experience two haunts in one. First, you go into “The Experiment.” It’s a 3,500-square-foot maze that has a twisted fairytale theme. You must go through this house before you can go through “The Haunted Trail.”The haunted trail is a mile-long corn maze with fog, monsters, and even a “ghoul bus.” 

This experience seems over the top, but it’s the best of the best. It was named one of the top 10 Haunted attractions in America in 2019 by CNN and is listed as a premiere haunted attraction by the America Haunts Association. Even though there are only two main attractions at Haunted Trails, they have an amazing reputation. 

There’s another competitor for the best attraction in San Diego, and that is SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream. According to their website, it was voted the best theme park Halloween event in the nation for 2023. A ticket includes rides, mazes, and other theme park perks. While at the park you can go on rides, dance to music, and go through tons of different mazes.

After I experienced Howl-O-Scream for myself, however, I found some catches. First of all, more than half the park is blocked off, meaning you are limited to certain attractions in the park. The attractions available to ride, however, are some of the most popular in the park. Going from ride to ride just turned into walking in circles because of how small the Howl-O-Scream park is. 

 Then you go through the “scare zones” which not only had a very limited amount of scare actors but weren’t scary at all. Once you go into a house or a maze, you are extremely underwhelmed. I normally get scared fairly easily, but I wasn’t scared before, during, or after any of the mazes.

The mazes were big spaces with a lot of empty areas and small amounts of scare actors. Sure, they could be understaffed, but for a whole theme park with world-record-setting attractions, it was hard to be impressed. Not to mention the fact that some of the theming and decorations were basic and unoriginal. 

Still, depending on how much you want to be spooked, all of these attractions provide a fun, thrilling experience you can have with friends. Having multiple local attractions makes it easy to find something to get you into the Halloween spirit.  Whether you want straight adrenaline and jump scares, or rides in the dark, there is something for everyone.