[Howl-O-Scream]/First of The 13: #6 The Voodoo Queen [UPDATED!]

So, starting today, Busch Gardens Tampa has begun to unveil their own form of nightmare fuel for their Howl-O-Scream event. Though, I have to say, this was a much quieter way of doing so...and quite a bit more vague in nature than Universal has been doing the past few weeks...

This year's Howl-O-Scream event in Tampa revolves around the theme of "The 13" and according to their site, "On the thirteenth year every century, evil comes out to play. Thirteen evils, to be exact. Come in, they’ve been expecting you."

At first I thought that this might be a play off of the 13 house which inhabited Busch Gardens Williamsburg last year, but turns out they're going a more "Thirteen Ghosts" route...but with a twist. Color me intrigued and curious...

This is definitely going to be one to follow to see just how far they decide to take things. They can definitely go in a lot of directions and I hope that just over the edge of crazy is where they're headed with all of this. Someone's gotta do it, right?

Along with today's announcement, they updated their website with a "Who are the 13?" section. Once it was revealed, the page went live with the newest information and the sixth door was opened.

All in all, this is definitely an interesting take on things and fitting in a lot of ways once ya think about it for a few seconds. (Though we're still not sure why they didn't start on Friday, September 13th.)

So, let's get on with it and meet the sixth evil: The Voodoo Queen. 

Her back story, according to their website, is quite...intriguing:

Desiree Yanes came home one night and found her husband with another woman. Enraged, she ran off and disappeared inside the dark swamplands of Louisiana. There, she crafted voodoo dolls and swore then to torment them…with unspeakably sadistic tortures. The Voodoo Queen continues to hide in the swamps of the bayou and perform her twisted Voodoo rituals for others seeking revenge.

Brave souls can test their fate at the new house, Death Water Bayou, where the #6 Voodoo Queen mystically transforms lost wanderers into her minions of evil with black magic. Here, her night servants roam with a zombie-like hunger and seek to grow her collection. The darkest evils lurk in shadows. Get out before you fall victim to her spell.

Well now, that's not exactly what customers were bargaining for I'm sure and it really does leave a lot of interesting possibilities for theming an attraction or scare zone area as well. What? Not enough for ya? Well, they've got a little video of our Bayou Enchantress as well...


Color me intrigued and I'm definitely curious to see how they'll tie all 13 together in some way or if it'll just be a random melee of terror. The latter is what I'm guessing here and I have to say that I fully approve of the idea as well. It also seems a lot less structured than what Universal is putting out, but in this business there's always more than one way to skin a cat, as it were. Sometimes less is more...

In addition to this, Busch Gardens is also running a bit of a poll to let guests decide what will be included into the all new haunt for 2013, "Death Water Bayou". The haunt, described as:

Brave souls can test their fate at the new house, Death Water Bayou, where the #6 Voodoo Queen mystically transforms lost wanderers into her minions of evil with black magic. Here, her night servants roam with a zombie-like hunger and seek to grow her collection. The darkest evils lurk in shadows. Get out before you fall victim to her spell.

As far as the voting goes? Well, there's a bit on that as well...

Howl-O-Scream fans can vote on 3 key elements of this brand new haunted house over the course of the next 3 weeks.

From July 17-24, vote on the look of the voodoo doll that will be featured multiple times in the house, strewn across a room within the Death Water Bayou house.

The choices are; #1 Ezili: Goddess of love, help, goodwill, health, beauty and fortune, as well as jealousy, vengeance, and discord. #2 Damballah: Often depicted as a serpent and is considered the father of all loa, or VooDoo spirits and finally #3 Zaka: The loa of agriculture.

Something tells me that the most popular is going to Ezili...just a hunch. Either way, you can cast your vote by heading on over to the poll on Facebook!

Which number will be next is anyone's guess at this point, but we're looking forward to the next evil to be unveiled to us in the coming weeks! 

For more information, tickets and other such goodies, head on over to Busch Gardens Tampa's Howl-O-Scream site.