Halloween Horror Nights: What to Expect at Universal After Epic Universe

Although the temperatures were hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the season of scares has kicked off in Central Florida with last week’s grand opening of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida. I joined the media night event and experienced all 10 haunted houses—half of which are based on popular franchises such as Terrifier, Fallout, and Five Nights At Freddy’s—to examine how the spooky travels event holds up, especially just months after the much-touted new Epic Universe theme park opened at the same Universal Orlando Resort. 

Epic Universe, the first major theme park to open in the U.S. in 24 years and which cost an estimated $7 billion to build (and was covered extensively by this author for Den of Geek), has just celebrated its first summer in operation. And as reported by the Orlando Sentinel, it debuted during a very hot summer, indeed, which saw the travel industry take a hit, not least of all because of sociopolitical challenges. Nonetheless, Epic has so far enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reception. With the new park raising the stakes on what theme experiences can be, it seems like there is added pressure on Halloween Horror Nights to deliver, and keep the momentum going for Universal Orlando (especially after HHN 2024 felt a little lackluster). 

It is a pleasure to thus report that the Halloween-themed event, now in its 34th year, arrives with an overall strong slate that balances thrills in haunts featuring recognizable intellectual property, as well as original concept houses designed by Universal Orlando’s creative development team. 

Best Fresh Blood and Original Concepts

“El Artista: A Spanish Haunting” leads this list because it exemplifies why HHN is at the top of the game as far as haunted house events go. The creative team knows how to make movies and TV shows exist in the real world, but they excel when introducing entirely new ideas. Such is the case with “El Artista,” a stunning original concept revolving around Sergio Navarro, an artist who moves to a cursed manor in the middle of the woods seeking inspiration but instead encounters evil spirits that compel him to paint disturbing images which then come to life. 

Set in 19th Century Spain, the house feels like it lives adjacent to a Guillermo del Toro film as we enter the vine-covered Gothic facade of  “La Casa Creacíon” and encounter paintings (e.g. a family portrait ; a woman in a sun hat sitting by a fountain) that all seem just a little “off,” with a sense of macabre lingering about them. The artist Navarro appears in a state of madness as spirits pierce the veil to freak the hell out of housegoers. Moving deeper into the elaborately-designed house, we venture through catacombs and are taunted by decaying monsters from on the paintings, and a large gargoyle demon that very effectively startled me. 

“El Artista” is something of a flagship house for this year, and lends itself as the setting of sorts to “The Conservatory,” the overarching theme of HHN 2025. Similar to another favorite of mine, “Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake” from 2022, this is the kind of haunt I just wanted to linger in to soak up the incredible art and design. The world of “El Artista” is fully realized, as if it was taken from a pre-existing film. 

Of HHN 2025’s other original concept houses—“Dolls: Let’s Play Dead,” “Gálkn: Monsters of the North,” “Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters,” “Grave of Flesh”—it was a dilemma coming up with a runner-up to “El Artista.” “Hatchet and Chains” is a spin-off from last year’s B-movie montage house “Slaughter Sinema 2,” and is a blast to walk through with its unending amount of demons being slayed by supernatural bounty hunters. “Gálkn” takes visitors into an icy northern village where beasts from Norse folklore terrorize the townsfolk in what feels like one of the bloodiest houses at the event. 

But I think it’s “Dolls” that I’d want to revisit the most following “El Artista.” The storyline of the house is visitors are shrunk to the size of a doll to witness the “unnatural creations of a twisted little girl,” and encounter “burnt fashion dolls, toys she’s melded together and undead horrors in her dollhouse.” It kind of feels like an extended horror-movie approach to Sid from Toy Story having to really reckon with his toy mutilations on their level. Between the dolls with melted faces, and the baby-doll chasing me saying “Mamaaaaa,” and the large rat-demon-thing, navigating this dollhouse of horror was a freaky-fun trip. 

What could be better? “Grave of Flesh” is a conceptually interesting house that poses the question of “what happens to us when we die?” It turns out that you’re hunted in the afterlife by monsters. The setup, where we are led to experience our own burial, is very promising, but the story doesn’t quite land. 

Best Franchise House of Familiar Horrors

Halloween Horror Nights has long leaned into houses focusing on existing movies and television shows, and the trend continues this year with Terrifier, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Fallout (from the Amazon Prime Video series), and Jason Universe (from the Friday the 13th franchise). Interestingly HHN has also collaborated with WWE for The Horrors of Wyatt Sicks, a house inspired by the creations of professional wrestler Bray Wyatt, who died in 2023. 

Being an ’80s kid, I love when HHN features classic horror characters like Universal Monsters, Freddy Krueger, and Leatherface. And the hulking figure of Jason Voorhees is always a blast when he’s jumping out from the shadows in haunts. Jason Universe does not disappoint in this regard, with the house honoring Friday the 13th’s 45th anniversary (and Jason’s return to HHN after 10 years). We walk into settings like Camp Crystal Lake, Jason’s shack in the woods, and Eternal Peace Cemetery, and along the way seem to encounter nearly every iteration of the hockey mask-wearing slasher (yep, even Mrs. Voorhees) as the signature strings of Harry Manfredini’s “ki ki ki, ma ma ma” score sounds. There’s more Jason’s in this house than you can throw a stuffed sleeping bag at, and it’s great. 

And yet, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” takes the cake (or more appropriately, Mr. Cupcake). Based on the movie, which was based on the video games, this house is so impressive due to the combination of animatronics designed by Jim Henson Creature Shop—which also created the animatronics for the movie—as well as puppets and costumed scare-actors. Recognizable characters Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Mr. Cupcake, Foxy, and ghosts ambush us at every turn as we enter Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place, and follow us into scenes like the security surveillance office, and the construction room. Along with the arms of Freddy’s gang swiping at me from behind walls, I was thoroughly startled by Chica right away, and then the scene of Hank being murdered by Bonnie—which is followed by Foxy’s final attack. They all make this a winner. But really, it’s how good these Chuck E. Cheese from hell characters look that led to this being so cool to experience.

What could be better? Fallout was a big disappointment for me. I am not a franchise expert on this, but I’ve played a few of the games and very much enjoyed the TV series. But this felt like it lacked any real scares. It needs more threat from villains, and I only briefly saw The Ghoul twice (mainly in shadows). 

Overall Creepy Champ Best House

It is over-the-top gory, disgusting, an offense to the senses, and even potentially very wet. I think it’s the most intense house they’ve ever done, and suspect it might be too much for some guests. But Terrifier is the best overall house of Halloween Horror Nights 2025.

Set in a parallel universe of sorts of director Damien Leone’s massively successful franchise, this is the murderous funhouse of new horror icon Art the Clown. Throughout the haunt, it seemed as if all of Art’s kills were being recreated—which includes 36 bodies, a record for HHN, according to my guide. Amidst the carnage of Art’s human-headed swan boats, and his unsettling bleachy corpse scene, the action is shocking but perversely fun. And Art is really quite fun to look at, whether he’s wearing his poinsettia glasses or dressed as Santa. The scare actors each nicely mimic the physicality of David Howard Thornton from the movies. 

The so-called “Symphony of Gore” (which does include the smell of bleach, and gag-inducing feces scents) culminates in a choice to opt for the “dry” or “wet” finale that simulates being showered in blood. I did this house twice, testing out both endings, and while the “wet” path wasn’t so bad when I went through, apparently some folks have gotten soaked. 

Honestly, I hope HHN doesn’t go too far in this direction with their houses moving forward, because I’d hate for all the houses to reach this level of gnarly, but I still enjoyed the hell out of Terrifier. It is most certainly one for the hardcore horror fans. Plus, considering the indie-movie roots of the franchise, it’s hard not to be stoked to see it get the HHN treatment. 

Beyond the Haunts

Aside from the 10 haunted houses, HHN offers up four “scare zones” to explore on the streets of Universal Studios Florida, as well as two live shows: Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay and Haunt-O-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey. Unfortunately I was unable to fully enjoy each of the scare zones, but typically these are worth a look. What I did see, “Mutations: Toxic Twenties,” was a fun B-movie-esque scene where a radioactive green goo (courtesy HHN’s evil corporation BuzzCon) transforms 1920s flappers and mobsters into mutated monsters.

Regarding the shows, normally I skip these to take a food and drink break, but I encourage checking them out. Nightmare Fuel is, frankly, a horny horror fest of a spectacle where very attractive—and insanely fit—acrobats, contortionists, and fire performers tell a story about a circus that has descended into hell. Or something. I may have missed part of the plot, but this show highlights how Universal is willing to play to adult guests and let its freaky freak flag fly. Meanwhile Haunt-O-Phonic is a water projection show on the Universal Studios lagoon that channels the spirit of retro Halloween fun with musical numbers that would be right at home with the xylophones of “Spooky, Scary Skeletons” and Disney’s 1929 short, “The Skeleton Dance.”

Universal Orlando has similarly outdone itself this year with its food offerings, which corresponds to the buzzed-about menu at Epic Universe. Traditionally I have not been so impressed with the HHN food, but this year I am challenged to list my favorites. Do not miss the Five Nights at Freddy’s chocolate cupcake that looks like Mr. Cupcake and has a raspberry insert, cannoli cream filling, and mascarpone buttercream icing. Not only does it make for a great Instagram pic, it’s delicious (available at Louie’s Italian Restaurant).
If you’re looking for something tasty that will also fill you up, also at Louie’s is the “Why Not Have Both Pizza & Pasta” pepperoni pizza topped with baked spaghetti, meatballs, and grated parmesan cheese. It works way better than I expected. And over at the Fallout Booth, the “Cram Tots & More”—chili-glazed Spam with cheddar tater tot kegs and scallions—is a savory treat.