Misc
Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 2025: Every House Ranked
Do you smell that? That unmistakable blend of fake fog, delicious fried food, and hard-working scare actor sweat? That can only mean one thing: nature is healing, because Halloween Horror Nights is back at Universal Studios Orlando for its 34th edition!
This year, the ever-popular event runs on select nights through November 2, so you’ve got plenty of time to gather your scream squad and head back into the fog. And with ten brand-new haunted houses, four sinister scare zones, a sexy stage spectacular, the return of the lagoon show, and the sudden appearance of zombie servers outside Mel’s Die-In, you certainly won’t find yourself short of things to do.
The Houses of Halloween Horror Nights 2025, RANKED
Whether this is your first time visiting Halloween Horror Nights or your 34th year of attendance, it’s important to have at least a vague plan of attack once you get through the gates. Are you going to prioritize the big IPs with the longest lines to ensure you don’t miss out, or try to fit in as many original houses as you can while you wait for a 100-minute wait time to drop elsewhere? And if you’ve only got an hour left, should you try to do one more house or snag a seat at Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay?
There’s no one right answer—it all depends on what you want to get out of your Halloween Horror Nights experience! But if you’re looking for a little guidance about which houses are totally unmissable and which ones are an if-the-line-goes-down option, let our Halloween Horror Nights 34 house ranking be your guide.
10. Fallout
Let me caveat this bottom ranking by saying that fans of Amazon Prime’s Fallout will have a lot of fun seeing the series recreated in loving detail by the talented team at Halloween Horror Nights. I’d count myself among them: I binged the first season in a week before setting foot in the house and appreciated it all the more for it. It’s also a great appetite-whetter ahead of season two, premiering this December. But Fallout is not, at its core, a scary show, and that inevitably translates to an unscary house.
There’s still plenty to love here. You’ll experience Bunker 33 under seige, wander the irradiated wasteland, meet familiar characters like Lucy, Maximus, and my baby boy The Ghoul, and keep your eyes peeled for some fun easter eggs. But it’s hard not to walk away with the sense that the HHN team had to navigate some tight guardrails in terms of what they could show, how much they could alter, and which lines of dialogue they could use. However, I’ve heard that additional scare moments have been added since my visit at the start of the season, so I look forward to experiencing them when I return in late September—possibly after scarfing down some of the surprisingly delicious Yum Yum Deviled “Eggs” at the tie-in food booth.
9. Five Nights at Freddy’s
I’m fully aware that I’m getting into controversial territory early, so let’s rip the band-aid off: Halloween Horror Nights’ Five Nights at Freddy’s house didn’t work for me. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the look of the animatronics—built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which also created the animatronics for the film, they simply could not be more accurate. Unfortunately, the design of the house means that the appearances of these killer mascots are both heavily signalled and create massive bottlenecks as guests drag their feet waiting for the animatronics to light up and do something creepy.
Other than Mr. Cupcake, the no-doubt very expensive animatronics are also limited in their movements and set far back from grabby hands, further restricting their ability to startle and scare. A few dead kids and a fairly convincing stand-in for Josh Hutcherson are on hand to fill the popping-out-from-the-shadows quota, but don’t expect Freddy Fazbear and friends to get up in your face. It’s a fantastically detailed house, and the opening scene alone (featuring the animatronics singing cheerfully on stage in the restaurant before glitching out) is a delight to walk through. But with wait times regularly hitting the three-hour mark and beyond, this is likely a one-and-done for all but the most dedicated Fazbear fanatics.
8. The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks
Wrestling fans: don’t pummel me. Based on my interactions with other guests exiting The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks, I feel confident in saying that this house is both a treat for WWE viewers and a touching tribute to the late Bray Wyatt, who developed the characters the house is based on and is represented inside by a still-glowing lantern. As someone who has never watched a single wrestling match in her life, though, I’ll confess that I was mostly confused, so take this ranking with a grain of salt.
Despite my ignorance, I was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm that the scare actors brought to The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks. It’s clear that there are wrestling fans lurking both within the maze and behind the scenes, all fully committed to making this a house to remember for those in the know. It helps that many of the scare actors are also huge. A hulking horror lunging out of the dark is scary even if you have no idea who they’re supposed to be.
7. Jason Universe
Speaking of big dudes lunging out of the darkness, the Jason Universe house at Halloween Horror Nights is chock full of them. If you’re at all familiar with the never-ending legal entanglements surrounding the Friday the 13th franchise, it will come as no surprise that the iconic date is conspicuously absent from the marketing around this one. Those constraints carry over into the content of the house as well.
Rather than a recreation of any particular movie or scene, Jason Universe offers a whirlwind tour through a world almost entirely populated by different incarnations of Jason Voorhees, all intent on introducing you to the business end of a machete. Pamela makes a brief appearance, but this is the Jason show through and through, culminating in a race through an admittedly pulse-pounding corridor of Jasons before you can leave. It’s a good time, if not a particularly unique one. The fact that we don’t eventually end up in space was also a miss in my semi-serious opinion.
6. Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters
Slaughter Sinema 2 was my second-favorite house at Halloween Horror Nights 2024, so my interest was thoroughly piqued when HHN announced that one of the fictional films within would be getting the full house treatment for the 2025 event. While I would have personally preferred to see the neon-drenched musical stylings of Heavy Metal Hell Rockers or the grindhouse-inspired sleaze of Mummy Strippers: Unwrapped, Hatchet & Chains was a solid choice.
A tale of two bounty hunters—one who can understand demons, the other a demon himself—Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters sees the titular duo facing off against lava demons that like to get all up in people’s bodies. This leads to a few neat scares involving hands bursting from mouths, as well as some especially cool demon horses. The story is also easy to follow, communicated from the jump by a scare actor restlessly pacing a porch set as guests filter inside. This house is a quick walk-through, though, and some ideas are better realized than others, with a video-based train effect standing out as particularly jarring amidst the practical effects.
5. Grave of Flesh
There have been no shortage of graveyard set pieces in Halloween Horror Nights’ houses over the years, but HHN 34’s Grave of Flesh finds a way to keep this familiar location fresh. After entering through the gates of the graveyard, you’ll find yourself plummeting into your own grave (be sure to look up to see the unsettling sight of a freshly dug hole complete with tombstone looming above your head as you pass). But as you’ll know if you’ve ridden Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride on the other side of the park, death is only the beginning, baby. Now in the underworld, you’ll have to dodge flesh-eating creatures as you step into the cavernous depths of eternity. Good luck with that.
It’s always fun to see if your character “survives” a house at Halloween Horror Nights, so it’s a novel twist to start out dead and go from there. Grave of Flesh also hides some toothy horrors among its cadre of scare actors, and the sound design will leave you feeling suitably hunted. The sets can get a touch repetitive, but the ghoulish lighting hides a lot of sins.
4. El Artista: A Spanish Haunting
I’m just going to say it: I might be a little bit obsessed with scenic designer Dylan Kollath. HHN 31’s Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake was one of my favorite houses of all time, and the moment I stepped into El Artista: A Spanish Haunting, I knew the same designer was behind it. Like that previous house, El Artista features a staggeringly beautiful facade, winding sets that allow you to see aspects of this haunted world from different angles, and some jaw-droppingly cool wirework from a scare actor. I won’t mince words: this is a gorgeous house, and it’s unsurprising that the overarching motif for this year’s event stemmed from its crumbling walls.
So why isn’t El Artista higher on this list? As much as I love and want to live inside it, I can’t deny that the plotline of this house can get a little lost as you venture deeper inside. Set in 19th-century Spain, El Artista centers on Sergio Navarro, a tortured artist whose attempts to find inspiration within the isolated La Casa Creación manor ultimately spiral into madness as his art forms a gateway for something evil to enter our world. It might be worth giving the relevant Discover Universal Blog entry a quick read while you’re in line to get the most from this house, but there’s plenty of beauty to gawk at even if you find yourself struggling to follow the story to its grim conclusion.
3. Dolls: Let’s Play Dead
Chucky may make regular appearances at Halloween Horror Nights, but he’d better keep out of Dolls: Let’s Play Dead, or he might just meet his match in Lyla, a cruel little girl who delights in torturing her toys. Playing cleverly with scale, this house forces guests to see the world through the perspective of the dolls that Lyla has mutilated. You’ll walk past battery packs as tall as you are, peer out of windows of the doll house, and even enter an Easy-Bake Oven that Lyla is using to cook more than muffins. Gulp.
It’s all incredibly immersive and creative, enhanced by video effects that offer flashes of Lyla’s madness as she “plays” with you and the other doomed creatures in this plastic vision of hell. The design of the dolls is equal parts horrifying and heartbreaking, all melted faces and mangled limbs. Keep an eye out for Guest Activated Triggers in this house that reveal hidden secrets and scares. These are usually marked by big red buttons that beg to be smacked, and I spotted at least two.
2. Gálkn: Monsters of the North
Choosing the final order of the top three houses this year was no easy feat. Since I’m fairly certain I caught an actor changeover during my first walk through of Gálkn: Monsters of the North, I have a feeling it may rise to the pinnacle of my personal fondness scale upon revisiting. Even with some scare actors obviously missing, Gálkn proved a memorable house and is sure to be a hit among fellow fans of folk horror.
The story takes place in a remote Nordic village, where a wicked being has risen from the dead and brought its posse of monsters along for the ride. The sets are stunning, and the Wicker Man-inspired effigy that gradually comes into focus as you move through the besieged village is truly a sight to behold. Gálkn also boasts one of the largest puppets that I’ve ever witnessed at Halloween Horror Nights, up there with the big boy at the end of 2019’s Killer Klowns From Outer Space house, and I could marvel at that thing all day. This is the house I’m most excited to check out again, and since it’s located at the very back of the park, the lines are likely to be short at the start of the night as guests flock to the popular IPs just inside the gates.
1. Terrifier
I can already hear my editor laughing as I write this, because I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not a fan of the Terrifier franchise… But damn if it doesn’t make for a great house. Halloween Horror Nights proves to be a match made in heaven (or should that be hell?) for Art the Clown, a character whose exaggerated miming and penchant for extremely graphic gore translate seamlessly into the immersive, gross-out medium of a haunted house.
Based on the trilogy-going-on-quadrilogy from director Damien Leone, the Terrifier house features a variety of familiar kills from across the franchise, along with some original ideas. Art features prominently, of course (both within the house and beyond its walls as he roams freely around the park causing havoc), but you’ll also spot familiar characters like the unfortunate Victoria and the eerie Little Pale Girl. Fair warning: some scenes reportedly feature pungent smells, but since I apparently have no sense of smell (I seem to miss the house scents every year), I can’t comment on that.
What I can comment on is the wetness of the wet path at the end of the house. It’s pretty damn wet—or at least, it was for me. The person directly in front of me escaped with barely a drip on them while I had water dumped on me from above, so the question is, are you feeling lucky, punk? Art will goad you into the bloodbath route as you approach the branch, and I’d recommend you listen to him in this instance, despite the risk. Your bravery will be rewarded with a glimpse of Sienna in her angel armor, a triumphant note to end the carnage on.
Never go alone (or without snacks) at Halloween Horror Nights
Those are my initial rankings for Halloween Horror Nights 34 at Universal Studios Orlando! It’s always interesting to see how houses evolve over the course of the season and what different guests get from them, so don’t be dissuaded from checking out something that you or your scream quad are interested in just because it fell low on this list.
Have fun, wear comfortable shoes, and be sure to grab a Walking Taco before getting into that punishingly long Five Nights at Freddy’s Line—the vegan chorizo version is especially delicious this year!
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Ah, Urban Legend…the plucky younger sibling franchise to Scream. If this is the first time you realize that it’s a franchise at all, that is totally fair. The cult classic slasher’s only theatrical sequel was a critical and box office flop. The third film, Bloody Mary, was direct-to-video. The film has an interesting comparative pitch to Scream. While Scream is a meta-slasher toying with the rules of horror, Urban Legend has its killer basing its slice-and-dicin’ off of famous urban legends…and then they just basically did a version of Scream 3 for its sequel. It’s a fascinating trilogy, particularly in how the movies connect. In Final Cut, the first film exists as an urban legend itself. Bloody Mary, however, is a complete standalone that could be read as an urban legend within the universe of the first entry.
The Urban Legend Franchise Ranked From Worst to Best
So…how do these three films rank against each other? Are the sequels worth checking out at all? Pull up a chair, relax, and start mixing your Pop-Rocks and soda; this is the worst-to-best ranking of the Urban Legend trilogy.
Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)
Unsurprisingly, the straight-to-video, nearly completely forgotten supernatural entry is last. Directed by Mary Lambert of Pet Sematary acclaim, the movie is a straightforward supernatural horror. Three teen girls say “Bloody Mary” three times into a mirror, and it resurrects a vengeful spirit.
The movie is not terrible by any means. It is just pretty standard, with some good moments of schlocky, 2000s fun. For those that grew up in this era, it can be a goofy little nostalgia trip! The cheesy SFX, hilariously awkward teen acting, and cinematography of a Coke commercial make it a really easy watch. It’s almost like a much bloodier Goosebumps episode! However, for those not fans of this divisive era of TV-horror, it can be a bit of a slog.
The idea of making a movie that feels in-Universe to the first film is clever. However, it is unclear whether that was the exact intention. Despite this critic’s personal, nostalgic love of this film, it is not connected to the franchise at all. Even if this was a masterpiece, this detail makes it hard to put it anything above last place. Sorry Bloody Mary, I still love you.
Urban Legend (1998)
Ready the guillotine. Light up the torches. Find the IP address this article was written on-but let me explain. Yes, it is controversial not to put this one in first place. Still, it is really more of a tie than second placement. This and Final Cut are vastly different, which makes the franchise interesting, nearly incomparable. They each succeed in their own sub-genres…but this one misses the mark.
Urban Legend is a cult classic for a reason. It is completely itself as a late-90s, teen campus-slasher. The movie takes a simple premise, combining it with a likeable cast and a gothic, dark-academia setting. It feels like it was made for slumber parties and sleepovers. A combination of 80s slashers and campfire tales? Amazing. Plus, the soundtrack is killer.
That being said, the mystery, story, and characters are all just okay. The answers to the mystery (spoilers…?) fall in line with I Know What You Did Last Summer, and many films from the 80s. Prom Night, April Fool’s Day, and The Burning all come to mind. If this came out before Scream, this would be number one, for sure. It is probably, technically, the best film of the franchise, if I had to be objective. However, it just doesn’t reach the levels of originality the final film on this list does.
Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)
Urban Legends: Final Cut is fantastic. No, really. It’s great, and one of the most underrated slashers of its time. While Scream picked apart the slasher genre in a meta-horror classic, this movie picks apart the horror film industry. The film has a lot of commentary on toxicity in the industry, and it is matched by an on-brand mystery.
A big issue with movies is finding a decent throughline. Look at the first Urban Legend, for example. The reason the killer kills has nothing to do with urban legends themselves-it is just a creepy MO. However, the killer in Final Cut has a motive rooted in filmmaking itself. The movie stays on brand, delivering on its promise. It is distinctly different from Scream, while still being perfect for fans of that franchise.
Without spoiling, the mystery is great. While the final reveal is somewhat predictable, the twists and turns of the story itself are great. For fans of lost media horror like Red Rooms or Cigarette Burns, the mystery veers into that. One part of the film involves a student film with a mystery splice in the film spool. While the movie is funnier than it is scary, and somewhat outdated at points, it still feels the most rewatchable of all three movies.
When people talk about the 1980s’ great horror remakes, they always bring up three titles updating 1950s sci-fi classics. Those would be John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly, and Chuck Russell’s The Blob. It is generally recognized that both the originals and the remakes are pretty great in all three cases. However, when it came time to bring you good folks a ranking for Horror Press’ sci-fi month, one emerged victorious. Now, each franchise has at least three movies. 1958’s The Blob has a sequel (Beware! The Blob, from 1972). And 1982’s The Thing has a prequel (2011’s The Thing). However, The Fly franchise actually has five movies altogether. The extended Fly franchise isn’t talked about as much as it should be, and it’s highly deserving of a ranking. So let’s take a deeper look at this oh-so underrated series.
The Fly Movies Ranked
#5 The Fly II (1989)
The sequel to David Cronenberg’s The Fly gets a bad rap, because it’s not David Cronenberg’s The Fly. In The Fly II, Eric Stoltz plays Seth Brundle’s son, Martin. In the tradition of many a puberty metaphor, his dormant fly DNA triggers a transformation when he reaches sexual maturity. All in all, this movie is actually pretty good. It has a decently emotional narrative centered on the idea of parents passing a disease to their children. It has a bombastic score by Christopher Young. And it’s pretty gooey and gross, in the grand tradition of fun 1980s horror. However, it’s still a bit goofy and repetitive in a way that prevents it from climbing higher up the list. Plus, the only actor from the original 1986 movie who comes back (outside of archive footage) is John Getz. No shade on Getz, but he’s no Jeff Goldblum or Geena Davis.
#4 Curse of the Fly (1965)
On the other hand, Curse of the Fly wields goofiness as its most memorable strength. It gets away with it because it is never ever boring. However, the third Fly movie goes totally off the rails as far as the franchise is concerned. So it’s not going to be that satisfying as the third stepping stone of a larger marathon. It basically forgets that these movies are about scientists accidentally blending their DNA with houseflies. Instead, it expands its scope to a broader “mad science” realm. Primarily, it follows a young woman discovering the sinister secrets harbored by the rich family she hastily married into. It’s part Rebecca, part The Island of Dr. Moreau, and all weird. In a very good way.
#3 Return of the Fly (1959)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The son of the guy from 1958’s The Fly finds himself caught up in the aftermath of his father’s experiment. Unfortunately, the human-fly hybrid stuff here isn’t that interesting. It plays more like a generic 1950s monster movie than any of the other installments. However, that bit only comes in the third act, after an hour of pure mayhem! We’re talking even more experiments gone wrong (a guinea pig is given human hands in one memorably surreal moment). We’re talking juicy family melodrama. We’re talking backstabbing, duplicity, and Vincent Price. Overall, it’s a pretty good time! Also the male lead, Brett Halsey, is a total babe. You know, if that helps.
#2 The Fly (1958)
The Fly could easily have been terrible. It’s quite obviously cheap, and some of its special effects are dodgy. It’s not particularly action-packed, either. It mostly focuses on the investigation of the mysterious death of the brother of François Delambre (Vincent Price). Given that this is a movie called The Fly, you get no points for guessing what happened to him. However, even if you’re several steps ahead of the mystery, it’s still a rock-solid thrill ride. Both in the present and in flashbacks, the movie largely focuses on the dead man’s wife, Helene (Patricia Owens). This allows it to revel in watching her cozy domestic life swiftly unravel, which requires no special effects at all. It’s a hell of a satisfying watch that swivels between nihilistic horror movie and charming 1950s sci-fi romp. And I like both of those things very much!
#1 The Fly (1986)
I sometimes break from tradition with my No. 1 picks, but that will not be the case here. No way, no how! Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly does everything you want a remake to do. First, it amps up the special effects something fierce. His The Fly is a gruesome, gut-churning adventure. It constantly asks, “Could the human body get any grosser?” and always answers that question with a firm yes. However, it also takes the bare-bones plot of the original and adds a huge amount of depth. While both movies follow couples being challenged by the man becoming a fly-human hybrid, the remake’s romance is infinitely richer. The Fly is not only a great remake, but the ultimate auteur horror film. It feels like nothing less than David Cronenberg cracking open his skull and smearing his brain across the camera lens.
