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Universal Brings the Heat for a Killer HHN 35th Anniversary
Halloween Horror Nights 35 has officially unleashed the fog at Universal Studios Florida, and after experiencing everything opening night had to offer, we can confidently say Universal has put together one of the most solid HHN lineups in recent memory. We attended opening night on Friday, August 28, as part of Universal Orlando Resort’s media event, tackling all 10 haunted houses, walking through all four scare zones, catching both shows, and spending plenty of time soaking in the atmosphere around the park.
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The biggest takeaway from our night is simple: there is not a bad house in this lineup. Some absolutely landed higher for us than others, but none of the 10 fall into the dreaded “skip it” category. Starting with the IP houses, Hellraiser takes our number one spot, although the margin at the top is razor thin. This is the Hellraiser house HHN fans have been hoping Universal would eventually create, and it delivers. The gore is there, the characters from the films are there, and the journey through the seemingly endless maze of the Lament Configuration gives the house a wonderfully disorienting quality. It is long, elaborate, nasty in all the right ways, and pretty much everything we wanted after years of hoping Hellraiser would finally get its moment in the fog.
Sitting at number two, but practically tied for first, is Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness. This house is immersive, incredibly well executed, and feels like it was built by people who genuinely loved the material they were working with. The music blends perfectly with the environments instead of simply playing behind them, and the Crazy Train sequence is one of those wonderfully over-the-top HHN moments we will be talking about long after this season ends. You can feel the love poured into this house from beginning to end.
Sinners comes in third for us with a beautifully executed recreation of the film that lets guests essentially walk into its world. If you have already seen and loved the movie, there may be fewer surprises waiting around the corner, but the sets, effects, characters, and familiar scenes make it an impressive tribute that absolutely deserves a walkthrough.
Evil Dead Burn lands at number four, and anyone familiar with this franchise already knows subtlety was never going to be invited to the party. We have been watching Evil Dead movies since the 1980s, and seeing that gloriously excessive gore translated into an HHN house was a blast. It captures the bloody, chaotic spirit of the franchise while giving longtime fans plenty to grin about between scares.
Stranger Things 5 rounds out our IP ranking. It has some fantastic effects and impressive animatronics, but we found ourselves wishing the house incorporated more material from Season 5. In fairness to the HHN creative team, we also think Season 5 is the weakest season of Stranger Things, so they were not exactly working with Hawkins’ strongest hand. It is still a very good house and absolutely worth experiencing, which says a lot about just how stacked this year’s lineup is.
The original houses might be even tougher to rank. Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control takes our number one spot, and this house absolutely floored us. The sets are incredible, the story is compelling, the characters are everywhere, and the animatronics add another layer to an already ridiculously detailed experience. This is not a house you walk through once and declare yourself finished with. There is so much happening that multiple trips through the chaos feel almost mandatory if you want to catch everything.
Cybergoria comes in second and lived up to the massive expectations we had going into the event. The effects and characters are fantastic, but the scare actors are what really send this one into overdrive. They come at you relentlessly, with scares waiting around seemingly every turn. Between the lighting, sound design, effects, and aggressive pacing, Cybergoria is INTENSE. Guests who do not enjoy sensory-heavy haunted houses may want to take that into consideration, but for us it is one of the most exciting original concepts in the park.
INVASION: Alien Abduction takes third and ended up being one of our biggest surprises of the night. We expected to enjoy this one, but not nearly as much as we did. The environments are excellent, particularly the upstairs portion where the floor actually trembles beneath your feet, adding another physical layer to the alien-abduction chaos happening around you. Anyone who grew up loving UFO stories, alien encounters, or classic science-fiction horror should have a great time here.
H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! sits at number four, but honestly, our second, third, and fourth original houses are nearly tied and separated mostly by personal preference. Bloodengutz brings exactly the kind of ridiculous, campy Halloween insanity we hoped it would, and seeing the Pumpkin Lord return to Halloween Horror Nights was a huge highlight. It is funny, weird, spooky, and unmistakably Bloodengutz.
MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals rounds out our originals, but once again, fifth place does not mean bad. Far from it. We really enjoyed the theming, landed some excellent scares, and thought the house was extremely well done. MADLANDS simply has the unfortunate job of competing against an absurdly strong collection of original houses this year.
Outside the houses, HHN 35 keeps swinging. Nightmare Fuel: Blood Noir is a welcome reset for the Nightmare Fuel storyline, putting the Fuel Girls front and center as sexy vampire hunters in a show loaded with action, energy, stunts, and attitude. It is intense, loud, sexy, and pretty much everything Nightmare Fuel should be. Over on the lagoon, Stranger Things: Return to Hawkins gives the franchise its own 11-minute nighttime spectacular. Yes, 11 minutes. We see what you did there, Universal. Fans of Stranger Things should really enjoy this one, which plays as an energetic homage to the series and gives guests a different way to spend some time in Hawkins between houses.
The four scare zones are also incredibly strong this year. Fortnitemares might have surprised us more than any other zone. We were initially curious how Fortnite would translate into Halloween Horror Nights, but Universal absolutely made it work. The Battle Bus is here, something we were not convinced Orlando would actually get, the entire area feels immersive, and the storm effects are an especially cool touch that helps sell the world around you. Longtime HHN fans are going to have a field day inside Sideshow of Decay, which brings a collection of former icons and familiar faces back into the fog including The Caretaker, Cindy Caine, Sinist3r and Surr3eal, with Dr. Oddfellow also making appearances.
Infernal Carnival of Nightmares provides a great welcome into the event, with Jack and Oddfellow appearing throughout the night and immediately setting the tone for the anniversary celebration. Downtown Clowntown is reportedly the largest scare zone HHN has ever created, and it feels enormous. We loved seeing Jack, Chance, and Eddie holding court on the stage across from Revenge of the Mummy, while Art the Clown brings his own twisted holiday cheer to a Christmas-themed stage inspired by Terrifier 3. It is chaotic, colorful, creepy, and packed with characters, exactly what an anniversary-year clown zone should be.
Club Horror once again brings the vibes and remains one of our favorite places to slow things down, grab a drink, and enjoy the atmosphere for a few minutes before plunging back into the fog. Mel’s Die-In: Zombies also returns, and we are glad it did. The zombies turn the area around Mel’s into a fun street experience that feels perfectly at home during Halloween Horror Nights.
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Even with the iconic entrance medallion replaced by scrim this year while maintenance on Universal Studios Florida’s arch continues, HHN 35 still feels like the anniversary celebration we were hoping for. Universal brought the heat with 10 houses we would happily experience again, four strong scare zones, two excellent shows, returning icons, surprise characters, killer atmosphere, and enough details hidden throughout the event to make repeat visits feel almost mandatory. Halloween Horror Nights 35 is a very, very solid year, and if opening night was any indication, we are going to be spending plenty more evenings in the fog before this season ends.
A huge thank you to Universal Orlando for inviting us out once again to experience opening night. We will definitely be seeing everyone back in the fog this season!
