When you think of SeaWorld, you most likely think of orcas, school trips to the aquarium, or eating chicken fingers while contemplating the ethics of marine mammal captivity. But this Halloween, the theme park franchise wants to make SeaWorld synonymous with something else entirely: BookTok smut.
On September 11, SeaWorld Orlando officially opened its annual Howl-O-Scream event, an after-hours Halloween-themed immersive experience featuring various “scare zones” in the park. Scattered between the more expected spooky fare, such as a haunted “Woodrot Hollow” forest and an I Know What You Did Last Summer–themed haunted house is Just One More Chapter, a BookTok-inspired zone featuring the hunky tortured bad boys of romantasy lore.
In videos posted by Orlando-based influencers who got an early look at the park, young men with masks, floppy hair, and painted-on abs gallivant around wearing black denim, loitering next to brick walls, beckoning to park attendees, and gifting them with roses. And on Instagram, influencers posed around a central set piece, an oversized book open to a chapter called “The Cathedral,” emblazoned with the slogan “Good Girls Go for the Bad Boys.”
Some of the TikToks from the scare zone went viral, garnering mixed reactions. ” The fact that the event took place at SeaWorld, an amusement park franchise that is perhaps most closely associated with a harrowing documentary about an orca, also lent to the absurdity.
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