Universal revealed the backstory and shared a first look inside Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters, one of the original haunted houses at Halloween Horror Nights 34.
Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters
Background
Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters was one of the fictional B-movies featured in the Slaughter Sinema 2 house at Halloween Horror Nights 33. We weren’t fans of its inclusion in that house — read our review to find out why.
Here’s how Universal described the Hatchet & Chains house in their announcement:
In this Old West town, all hell is breaking loose. Masses of red-hot lava demons are crawling out of Hell’s Well and trying to possess everyone, melting everything in their path. As you flee from the post office to the bank, the prison to the graveyard, your only hope is Hatchet and Chains with their arsenal of mystical weapons.
Universal says the new house “takes guests along for the ride as Hatchet and Chains face off against a horde of body-snatching demons.”
Hatchet & Chains Backstory
Hatchet and Chains are the names of the house’s main characters. Hatchet is a demon, and Chains is a bounty hunter who can understand demons.
Senior show director Charles Gray said, “Hatchet is the undead. He has the immortality power, but he’s that strong, silent type. And then you’ve got Chains. He’s the voice of the two. He’s gruff, always has a quip, always complaining.”
The two became partners after Chains saved Hatchet’s life, said Gray. “That was like a natural pairing: I saved your life, and now we’re working together. In my head, they’re episodic. Every week there’s gonna be a new adventure.”
The Western story of Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters “is spurred on by the changin’ times,” Universal states. “On the outskirts of a small cowtown, an old woman is bitter about the arrival of a new train station in town. Naturally, she summons a horde of red-hot lava demons from the local Hell’s Well to wreak havoc.”
The demons then possess the townsfolk and plan to board the cattle trains, burning their way across the country. That’s where Hatchet and Chains come in to save the town.
The demon possession is violent. The demons rip open their victims’ mouths and crawl inside their bodies, taking three forms: demon, flesh, and “hodgepodge.”
“When you encounter the demons with human flesh, the flesh is dangling off and malformed,” Gray explained. “In the final third of the adventure, we see that the demon flesh is falling off. So they’re taking metal pieces and clamping them on to hold the flesh together.”
Art supervisor Claudia Guerra, who worked as the house’s lead set dresser, said, “There’s a lot of cool puppet moments, which is super fun. There are different lighting effects with UV tying that ghostly element into it.”
Hatchet & Chains House
When guests enter the house, they are in the town depot. Here, they’ll pass bunk beds and a “gruesome fireplace scene where Chains has already gone to work on a lava demon”. The bounty hunters have rounded up horses to head into town.
“We try to make these spaces look really functional and really authentic,” said scenic designer Dylan Kollath. “There will be windows you can look through, and you’ll get a glimpse of the different parts of the town that you’re gonna see later as you journey through.”
The town settings include the fellowship hall, the Horse-Toothed Saloon (the “house of ill repute” from Slaughter Sinema 2), the undertaker, and the cemetery. As guests journey through, they’ll see signs of the rampaging demons, like deep scratches on the wall and molten cracks under the earth. There are signs of the bounty hunters, too, with hatchets in the walls and chains hanging from the rafters.
“There are trails of blood that you can follow from beginning to end through the scenes,” Gray said. “For the normal fan, they might not even notice it. But if you’re taking a Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour, you’d be like: ‘There’s the blood; oh my gosh, it’s up on the roof. The body’s on the roof!’”
“There’s definitely a lot to see in there,” Guerra said. “We did include a subplot story — pieces that fit the puzzle together between two people we included, so that would be a cool thing for people to notice.”
At one point, a train car appears to pass guests. Kollath explained, “Our video team absolutely went above and beyond to create this. The effect is so cool when people walk into that room and see it for the first time — it really looks like the train car is there and it’s moving.”
Gray teased, “And we have a big surprise — I’m not gonna say what it is — in the finale.”
Halloween Horror Nights 34
Halloween Horror Nights 34 at Universal Studios Florida is on select nights from August 29 through November 2, 2025. Tickets are available online.
In addition to Hatchets & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters, this year’s original houses include Gálkn: Monsters of the North, Grave of the Flesh, Dolls: Let’s Play Dead, and El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. The IP-based houses are WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Terrifier, Fallout, and JASON UN1V3RSE (Friday the 13th).
The event-wide theme is The Conservatory. The scare zones are The Origins of Horror, Masquerade: Dance with Death, Mutations: Toxic Twenties, and The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane. New this year are the Mel’s Die-In Zombies and Club Horror street experiences. Also new is the Haunt-O-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey lagoon show and Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay.
The Tribute Store will be inspired by the Museum of Antiquities, taking over Sahara Traders and the adjacent arcade. Dead Coconut Club in Universal CityWalk will have a witches’ coven theme. Guests will be able to dine at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.
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