Carowinds (Charlotte, NC) is bringing its hit haunted attraction, The Conjuring: Beyond Fear, back months early. The interactive SCREAMium experience that debuted during SCarowinds last fall will return during a new Scream Break event running April 3 – 12, 2026, as part of the park’s spring break programming.
It marks the first time Carowinds has hosted Scream Break, a spring haunt event that has run at other Six Flags parks since 2023. At Carowinds, the event’s centerpiece will be The Conjuring: Beyond Fear, the 20-minute walkthrough experience built by Plague Productions in partnership with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences.
What is The Conjuring: Beyond Fear?
The Conjuring: Beyond Fear puts groups of eight to ten guests inside scenes from the Warner Bros. horror franchise, where they interact with live actors, secure cursed artifacts, and work to lock Annabelle back in her box before, as the park puts it, “supernatural chaos is unleashed.” The experience spans more than a dozen rooms across its 20-minute runtime and plays more like an interactive live theater piece than a traditional haunt maze. Guests crawl on the floor, throw holy water at demonic entities, and one member of each group carries the Annabelle doll throughout nearly the entire experience.
In a review last September, Blake Taylor of Attractions Magazine called it “the most fun I’ve had in a theme park in a long time” and “the best experience Scarowinds has ever crafted,” noting that it doesn’t fit neatly into existing categories. It’s not a haunted house in the traditional sense, and while it’s sometimes compared to escape rooms, there are no puzzles to solve. Taylor described it as a new type of theme park attraction altogether.
Building The Conjuring: Beyond Fear
The experience originally debuted in fall 2025 as the headline addition to SCarowinds’ 25th anniversary season, where it operated as a separately ticketed premium experience priced between $15 and $25 per night. The same attraction also launched at Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Canada’s Wonderland during their respective Halloween events. Jon Cooke, owner of Plague Productions, said on LinkedIn that the company built all four installations in three months, crediting Six Flags leadership and Warner Bros. for “trusting and allowing us to run wild.”
“Our special events continue to grow in popularity, because they create so much value for our guests,” said Brian Oerding, park manager at Carowinds. “Guests want more opportunities to visit throughout the year, more reasons to return, and this year’s lineup is a direct result of that feedback. We’re adding enhanced experiences across every season.”
The Conjuring: Beyond Fear During Scream Break
According to the park’s event page, the spring version of The Conjuring: Beyond Fear will operate daily from 2:00 PM to park close during the Scream Break window. It remains a separately purchased experience on top of park admission.
SCarowinds Returns in the Fall
The Conjuring: Beyond Fear will also be part of SCarowinds when the event returns on select dates from September 11 – November 1, 2026. The Carolinas’ largest Halloween event will once again feature scare zones, hundreds of monsters, themed food, and haunted mazes, accessible with a Haunted Attraction Pass.
The family-friendly daytime counterpart, Tricks and Treats, runs on select dates from September 12 – November 1, 2026.
Event dates and ticketing
Scream Break runs April 3 through 12 during Carowinds’ spring break celebration. The Conjuring: Beyond Fear is an extra-charge attraction and is not included with park admission. SCarowinds returns on select dates from September 11 through November 1, with haunted mazes accessible via a Haunted Attraction Pass.
Access to the park’s broader 2026 event lineup is included with a Gold Season Pass, currently on sale for $89.
What This Means for the Industry (Analysis)
The decision to bring The Conjuring: Beyond Fear back for spring is a clear signal of how well the experience performed during its debut. The reception was strong across the board, with Taylor’s review at Attractions Magazine reflecting a broader consensus that the attraction represented something genuinely new for a regional park Halloween event. The 20-minute runtime, interactive format, and production quality set it apart from a standard haunt maze, and guests showed they were willing to pay a premium for that kind of experience on top of regular admission.
That willingness to pay matters for Six Flags parks, whose per-cap spending is much lower than Disney’s and Universal’s, and who often face criticism for quality. The Conjuring: Beyond Fear operates as an upcharge attraction, separate from both park admission and the Haunted Attraction Pass required for SCarowinds’ other mazes, and that alternative revenue model allows for higher build quality and immersion than standard mazes can justify. The fact that Carowinds is now extending it into a second seasonal window suggests the return on that investment has been strong enough to warrant additional operating periods.
If guests continue to show demand for higher-quality experiences at Six Flags parks, it opens the door for the company to further adjust its Halloween model. Plague Productions’ ability to build all four Conjuring installations across the country in three months suggests the infrastructure is already in place to scale it.
