23 October 2026
INTRODUCTION
The Howl is back for 2026! Found at Mead Open Farm in Billington, near Leighton Buzzard, the scream park is celebrating its 10th year, having been voted Best Scream Park UK. It is home to 8 attractions, with live entertainment, street food and a bar to keep you entertained around them too.
The event is running on selected dates until 31st October 2026, with gates opening at 6pm, the haunts from 6:30pm and the park closing at 11pm. With 8 attractions to get through, plus everything else going on around the farm, you will want to plan your night to make sure you fit it all in.
New for 2026 is Ding Dong Die, joining returning attractions Shriek Easy, RED, Howl Valley High, Noxious Alley, Full Moon Manor, The Shed and Squealers Yard. With all 8 offering something different, there is plenty of variety across the lineup for this year.
Standard tickets start from £32, with fast track options available and an Unlimited ticket from £62, plus free on-site parking. Please note, The Howl is a cashless site and under 12s are not admitted.
Take a look at what the 2026 season has to offer…
KEY INFO
Location – Leighton Buzzard
Operational Dates – Selected dates from 9th oct – 31st Oct
Opening Time – 6:00pm
Closing Time – 11pm
Cost – From £32.75
Attraction Count – 7 mazes
Time Spent – the whole night
Top Tip – do not forget to watch the entertainment as there is plenty of it!
THE OVERALL EVENT…
WOO – Event Info | WOO – Vareity & Quality | BOO – Side Shows
The Howl is an event we’ve had the privilege to see for many years, from a small scare scream park to the stage it’s at now, selling out on many nights and becoming a bigger, better and scarier night out. Each year they release the howl just a little more and new for 2026, they’ve updated some scenes across a few of the mazes and added a brand new show, Ding Dong Die. Hosted by Malcolm Crudd who has many of his own catchphrases. If you’re lucky to see him before his headline show, you might even be invited to be a contestant. With his sidekick dead Tracy, it’s a fun, silly show with great prizes as a little extra incentive.
The variety The Howl can offer has just grown a little more each time. With the new gameshow in addition to the circus, they now have 2 full shows for you to enjoy during your night out. With a live band, 2 DJ stations and then 7 different mazes, it combines to a fantastic full night out this Halloween. The quality has been kept, with everything new they are building is top quality, with older attractions getting uplifts and amendments to bring them to the standard of everything else. The weakest part of The Howl has to be the side show offering as there is very little outside of the mazes and shows. There is no funfair rides, shock chairs or anything as a side attraction. We would love for the event to grow with its size and start offering something like this compared to its competitors.
The event has plenty of details prior and during your visit to make sure you get the most of your night. The website is up to date, simple to use and clear. The app on the night worked, with updated queue times that seemed as accurate as they could be. There was show times displayed across the park and everything was labelled as best possible, so we have no complaints here.
Shriek Easy
WOO – Storytelling
Shriek Easy was the brand new maze for 2025 and it continues to have a fantastic and solid storyline. It starts before you step inside the maze, with a codeword provided which is needed very early on in the maze to get into the speakeasy establishment. Throughout, the story continues with a mixture of stop scenes and segments, which we love.
BOO – actor performance
The gangsters inside have done well in presenting the story and getting scares however, with how big the cast was, they could have done a lot more. It seemed the cast was a little lost on the night, with there being more large gatherings and clumps of them, not getting the best out of each group. We’ve seen this cast be a lot better this year and therefore, it just felt on the weaker side this season.
WOO – Concept
To have a maze based in the 1920s and using an older concept and done well, is fantastic to see. An old style gangster / speakeasy style attraction is certainly more unique than the traditional themes used in mazes.
RED
WOO – Actor Performance
RED has been around for a fair few seasons now and this year it seems they’ve found a cast which is ready to create true terror. They were creepy, intense and the right level of chaos when roaming around the forest. With their creepy cloaks and costumes, they managed to be a true standout for this year.
BOO – Audio
The audio inside RED just didn’t seem as impactful as other mazes we have done this year. Even across The Howl, it just felt weak and had very minimal impact.
WOO – Actor Utilisation
They’ve managed to get the right amount of creatures inside and how the maze is designed, they can cover quite a large space. The first half of the maze, there was about 4/5 actors but how they moved about and got in the right spots was perfection.
Howl Valley High
WOO – Costume & Makeup
As they have many different roles in a school, from the students, the jocks, prom king and queen and the teachers, they have plenty of costumes and they all are crystal clear and fit those characters but also have the horror overlay to them which they obviously need.
BOO – Lighting & SFX
Compared to other attractions, it just feels there is very limited special effects inside. There were no animatronics or squeeze cushions. It just felt limited and with the space and crazy casts they have had in here, some special effects would go a long way. The lighting is standard with nothing over the top with it, which does its job but some flickering lights and creating some tension in some scenes with it would be fun to see.
WOO – Actor performance
The high school students are always full of energy and once again, have performed very well. They are ready to get up close, get impactful scares and even climb the walls to get up high and be in even creepier positions. With so many different roles they can play, each scene they fit those roles of an American high school and we love how it pieces together, with the cast being the highlight.
Noxious Alley
WOO – Enjoyment
As one of the more newer attractions at The Howl, Noxious Alley still provides so much fun and enjoyment. The UV clowns inside keep it fun and quirky, with silly puns and just provide the right level of comedy, scares and the unusual.
BOO – Storytelling
Unfortunately out of the introduction video, the story is non-existent across the maze. It just becomes your typical clown maze, which is simple and not story driven. Whilst we understand clown mazes are designed to be a little less story driven, it’ll be great if they could find ways to keep a storyline within it.
WOO – Actor Performance
The clowns were exactly what you want to see in a trippy clown maze. They were silly, they were entertaining but still managed to get a little scare every now and again. A highlight has to be the clown who really wanted you to smell her poo (with a fake poo prop).
The FUll Moon Manor
WOO – Theming
Full Moon Manor is full of theming. From the fantastic introduction scene, into the Hellevevator and then through a full manor of rooms. From the creepy hallways, up into the attic which has a new birthday scene to celebrate The Howl’s 10th anniversary and then all the way through to the steam room, which is very difficult to see your way out of that one.
BOO – Concept
Unfortunately the theme is very traditional and not as unique as others. It’s based on a hotel which has some creepy inhabitants inside, which is similar to a haunted house. We would love some uniqueness added to the concept in future versions where possible.
WOO – Enjoyment
With how great the different scenes are, you can get to really enjoy this maze. As a manor house style, you get to walk through a very realistic setting, with a good level of scares, creepiness and Halloween atmosphere to it. We enjoyed the new attic scene which is similar to the previous style but it works well overall.
The Shed
WOO – Actor Performance
The Shed is a very dark and claustrophobic attraction, which allows the creatures inside some great hiding spaces to get jump scare after jump scare. They were lively, loud and creepy, exactly what you’re after from the style of this maze. Using the pathways behind the scenes, they moved quickly to get you time and time again, with one actor able to get multiple scares in the same group in quick succession.
BOO – Audio
This maze where the audio wasn’t as noticeable as it should have been. Whilst it had a little, we wished there was something more prominent and spooky to add another level of fear inside, especially when the creatures already create a lot of noise.
WOO – Actor Utilisation
As the maze is quite tight in spaces, they are able to get alongside you using their actor runs really easily, meaning more scares and a smaller team being able to do so much. It seemed they had the right level of actors in here and they managed to move about quickly.
Squealers Yard
WOO – Actor Performance
Another cast which the whole family was having fun, which then meant we could too. They were able to have something new to add, which was linked to the 10th anniversary, so the pigs had party hats on and they were leading you to the birthday party although, we felt that this was a trap by them. They managed to blend the comedy and scares and work well together to get the best out of every group.
BOO – Concept
Squealers Yard isn’t anything unique or different. It’s your standard hillbilly styled maze in a dark setting. It works the theme and concept well, with many years of experience behind it however, for uniqueness and what it is, it’s one of the oldest mazes here and a refresh might be due on a larger scale.
WOO – Screams
Squealers Yard is their hillbilly style maze and it has also had some minor changes for 2026. They managed to get some good jump scares here across the whole group and it was pretty scary as a whole as they lurked in the dark and tormented us.
The Howl is constantly growing, adapting and becoming a true hub of fear each Halloween. We love how they now have 7 mazes, 2 shows and plenty of other entertainment going on. The roaming characters are fantastic and great fun and the overall atmosphere of the event just ticks so many boxes when visiting a scream park. Even when they grow, standards and quality are not compromised and that’s exciting to see as the way they are going, they are growing to be as big as Tulleys Shocktoberfest!
A huge thank you to the team for inviting us to come experience and explore The Howl. They provided us with 4 complimentary tickets in return for our honest feedback and content. We were granted filming permission, which was conducted without ruining the experiences of others.
The Howl should be on your radar this Halloween, so make sure you get to visiting one of the growing scream parks this season!
@thrillnation Have you braved @The Howl before? 😱 #invite #thehowl #releasethehowl #screampark #leightonbuzzard ♬ Halloween - Hardcore Remix - Tubular Bells
PHOTO GALLERY
Halloween Ratings
book a visit
BOOK DIRECTLY FOR THE BEST PRICES
More REVIEWS & news
Xtreme Scream Park 2026 Review
INTRODUCTION Xtreme Scream Park is back for 2026! Found at Twinlakes Park, the event is home to 7...
Fear Island 2026 Review
INTRODUCTION Fear Island is back for 2026! Found at Fantasy Island in Ingoldmells, near Skegness,...
Clacton Fear 2026 Review
INTRODUCTION Clacton FEAR is brand new for 2026! Taking over the decks of Clacton Pier in...
Thrillnation.net is your ultimate resource for unbiased reviews of thrilling attractions across Europe. You'll find us covering theme parks, escape rooms, water parks and more.
Follow Us
For all of our latest news and up-to-date goings on, make sure you follow us on our social media channels!
WORK WITH US
We can offer a variety of different services from sponsored reviews to video content creation. Get in touch to discuss working with us.
Website lovingly created and managed by INOV8 Marketing