SeaWorld Orlando used fashion to strike fear on Thursday, promoting its upcoming Howl-O-Scream event.

Fierce was a keyword as characters from the Halloween fright fest strutted down the runway in their Howl-O-Scream finest. A blood-splattered fisherman, a shirtless vampire, a Victorian widow, a lost-soul nurse and others from the underworld — sometimes punctuated with a shriek or with a walking-dead style gait — were seen.

Howie Bleeds, a character from Butcher’s Block Tavern, emcees the SeaWorld Howl-O-Scream Fashion Show, on Thursday. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

Their moves were narrated by Howie Bleeds, a character from Butcher’s Block Tavern, one of the themed Howl-O-Scream bars. (“This bar is nothing but delicious flesh-smelling fun,” he explained.)

It was a place where a character — compared with a skunk ape or Bigfoot — from the swampy Woodrot Hollow scare zone can share space with a “working girl” from the Blood Light District scare zone.

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Making his in-person debut was Havoc, the event’s icon, a man with a skull for a head and piercing red eyes.

“Havoc actually has always lived in the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens [Tampa Bay] Howl-O-Scream logo,” Kyle Smith, production manager of the event, said Thursday. “So if you’re familiar with our logo, that skull face, he has now come out of the logo and into your nightmares, and he is here to absolutely create havoc and chaos in all of his destruction.”

 

Havoc during the SeaWorld Howl-O-Scream Fashion Show, on Thursday. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

The fashion show was a one-time early morning event presented for members of the media, influencers, students and invited guests in the park’s Nautilus Theater.

SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream is an intense occasion, dark and unnerving. It’s the fifth year for the event at the Orlando theme park.

“Every year, we do try to get bigger and bigger and bigger,” Smith said. Howl-O-Scream will have five haunted houses, three of them completely new to the event. There are also six scare zones, two live shows and themed bar experiences.

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The scare opportunities have been ramped up by design within the houses, Smith said.

“In, specifically, a brand-new house called the Collector’s Curse, every single scare-actor spot inside this house is not just built for one type of scare. Every scare-actor’s spot is built to be able to scare the guests two to three different ways,” he said.

“Every single time you go through the house, you could get a different scare in a different spot, which is super cool,” Smith said.

The Black Widow from the Widow’s Nest Haunted House walks the runway during the SeaWorld Howl-O-Scream Fashion Show, on Thursday. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

A new Howl-O-Scream show is titled “Throttle,” and members of its cast performed in the lead-up to Thursday’s fashion show.

“‘Throttle’ is going to be a type of show that the guest is not going to anticipate,” Smith said. “It is completely immersive, where the performers take over the entire space. They’re going through the audience. They hop right on the bar tops, right in front of you.”

Also in the “Throttle” mix: live stunts and motorcycles, Smith said.

Howl-O-Scream begins its 28-evening run on Sept. 5. It’s an after-hours, extra-ticket event. SeaWorld sells multi-night and one-night admission to the event.

The park continues its lighter, daytime Halloween programming called Spooktacular, which is included with regular SeaWorld admission and begins Saturday, running through Nov. 2.

For tickets and more information, go to seaworldorlando.com.

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