Fans flee as creepy horror icons and the Universal Catering logo fill a Halloween Horror Nights 2025 themed collage.

Universal Catering to ‘Fans’ Greatest Desires’ with Halloween Horror Nights, New Details Revealed

Jamie Rowland

Published:

Members of the Universal creative team behind Halloween Horror Nights recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the IP-focused houses announced for the events at both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Halloween Horror Nights 2025 logo features bold, pale letters on a sleek black background.

Mike Aiello, senior director of creative development, and Lora Sauls, assistant director of creative development and entertainment, represented Universal Orlando Resort while John Murdy, creative director for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, represented the West Coast.

In the conversation, they reveal that the IP-focused houses have been requested for years. So, they ultimately decided that this is the year to curate and cater to the “fans’ greatest desires.”

Scare Zones

With the addition of more “connective tissue” scare zones this year, Aiello believes that there truly will be something for everyone attending. Where there was previously dead space, Sauls says,

We’re filling in all those locations that had a moment to breathe, to bring a lot more characters, a lot more haunting, effects and lighting to the entire park. The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane scare zone? You’re going through Central Park. We got to expand that scare zone beyond the trees and into the circle, so you’re going to see the cat lady’s house, some cat beds and get some more scares in there. It’s a house moment in the streets.

Fallout House

Three characters in futuristic outfits and a dog stand ready in a desert, like survivors from a Fallout House at Halloween Horror Nights.

The house will be inspired by the first season of the Fallout TV show. Guests will enter Vault 33 and follow Lucy MacLean as she tries to escape a bloody massacre. They will then travel outside the vault, into the Wasteland, dodging attacks from Scavengers, Raiders, and RAD Roaches. They’ll visit locations like the Super Duper Mart, encounter the Ghoul, and meet Maximus in his “massive” T-60 armor.

Universal worked closely with  Amazon Prime Video to create an experience that will really immerse guest into the Fallout world. Teams were given access to assets from the TV series’ universe, including full turnarounds and 3D models of The Ghoul. The masks that will be used in the house are identical to his look in the show.

The experience will rely on connective tissue to jump around “montage” scenes, allowing movement between a variety of locations in the show and game.

In the interview, they did also mention there are small differences between the Hollywood and Orlando versions of the house:

Orlando’s team hypes traveling to Philadelphia and a battle between The Ghoul and life-size T-60s. For the Hollywood house, Murdy says eventgoers will get to experience stepping out into the wasteland with a “big cyclorama to make it feel endless all around you and convey that post-apocalyptic horror.” Fans can also navigate the Ghoul’s graveyard and Ghoul-infested Super Duper Mart, alongside an encounter with an irradiated bear, “one of the biggest creatures we’ve ever built — with the clay alone on it, the sculpt weighs over 500 pounds.” 

Terrifier House

A sinister clown in a top hat lurks in darkness, with Halloween Horror Nights 34 and Terrifier House text beside him.

The Terrifier house will feature “an onslaught to your senses” that focuses on both good and bad smells in addition to the “extensive effects that evoke the feeling of being ‘showered’ in a ‘symphony of blood.'” Sauls notes the following for Orlando guests, in particular:

Orlando eventgoers should not only prepare but also consider taking the second ending to the house if they want to avoid getting wet. “Our drip lines that we have above your head in houses are typically about 10 to 20 percent. They’re opening those up to 100 percent. They’re over your head and there’s a water blast coming at you from the side, and it’s all doused in red light.” 

Guests will traverse Art the Clown’s Funhouse locations, in addition to the Clown Cafe food court and Art’s bathroom for a sequence that’s “worse than it is in the movie,” according to Murdy. The splatting blood attributed to Art will rain down from “Art’s best kills” from all three Terrifier films.

WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks House

Wyatt Sicks HHN - A group of eerie masked figures promote WWE’s The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks at Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights.

In the interview, Aiello recalls watching the Wyatt Sicks as a WWE live show, and thinking that it looked like a gruesome haunted house on live TV due to the “wreaking havoc and destroying environments” occurring. After making a call to WWE Director of Character Development Rob Fee, an agreement was made to create a house “that recreates the entrance as if you’re walking in the footsteps of the cameraman.” The focus of each house in Orlando and Hollywood will be slightly different. Read the descriptions below to learn more about each house.

In Orlando, you’ll venture through the derelict and abandoned Firefly Funhouse featuring remnants of The Fiend’s influence, before being surrounded by “imagery of WWE media taken over by Uncle Howdy before you dive into the minds of the Wyatt six.” Scary monsters and characters are promised in various environments, such as Abby’s witch hut, where “she can crawl all around you,” teases Sauls. Human victims are pecked and consumed in Huskus the Pig Boy and Mercy the Buzzard’s realms, alongside Rambling Rabbit’s spiraling tea-party-inspired dimension, where their mouths are sewn shut. That’s along with new characters unique to the house, and a ton of easter eggs for WWE fans within environments that “live and breathe the same level of textures that exist in the ring,” says Aiello.  

Meanwhile, the version located in Hollywood will see some slight differences:

In Hollywood, Murdy’s take is partly inspired by seeing the wrestlers of the early ’70s live, mingled with the creative universe and cinematic storytelling approach of Bray. Fans are greeted by Uncle Howdy at the Wyatt compound, “this Bayou in the middle of a swamp,” and “an environment I’ve never done at Horror Nights with fireflies” that will feature music as part of the entry. Throughout the house, there will be inspirations, set pieces, or more tied to Bray’s rocking chair, the cave Uncle Howdy said he brought the Wyatt Sicks from, the Uncle Howdy sessions, and Bray’s lantern.

JASON UN1V3RSE

A worn hockey mask with red markings evokes Friday the 13th beside "JASON UN1V3RSE" on a dark, textured background.

JASON UN1V3RSE is the new name for the Friday the 13th franchise, and both coasts have worked with Horror Inc. to create houses with distinctive storytelling to celebrate the franchise’s 45th anniversary. The Hollywood version of the house is inspired by tourists who flock to the real-life summer camp that served as the original film’s setting.

Guests will arrive in the present day, where they’ll join a group of content creators working with the fictional company Death Tours, who “made the terrible mistake of breaking into Camp Crystal Lake,” says Murdy. “They’re making videos, and you’re going to see snippets of their videos as you go along.” Drawing material from the first eight films, attendees will see iconic franchise locations like the shack in the woods, the cabins, the graveyard, and barn, alongside appearances from the young Jason who drowned, sackhead Jason, Jason in the hockey mask as well as the “sixth and seventh film’s version of that, where he’s just a rotting corpse with maggots,” says Murdy.

The Orlando house will play off of the new version of Jason created by Greg Nicotero:

That is the entire front half of the experience, which Aiello notes expands on the idea that Jason can be anywhere at any time. “He is relentless. We wanted this to be violent and unyielding, to be the idea that Jason Voorhees appears as a force that is unbelievable. As soon as he’s there, you’re around a corner, and there he is again.” It’s a very claustrophobic experience that exploits Jason’s size and scale as you’re moving through the house.

If the first half is intense, the second half will be brutal, Sauls and Aiello tease, noting that HHN-goers will walk through an oversized Jason hockey mask before they face down a gauntlet of Jasons from across eight films. “Imagine a quick, cut, living montage of every visage of Jason,” says Aiello. “I believe that back half is going to be some of the most intense scares we’ve had.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s House 

Freddy Fazbear waves above a lit Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights sign against a dark background.

Murdy shared that the concept for this year’s house began with Hollywood’s Blumhouse: Behind the Screams experience in 2023. The event highlighted eight-foot-tall animatronics from the film that took the Jim Henson Creature Shop 15 months to build. Realizing that Universal Creative could not complete such a project without the Jim Henson Creature Shop, both Orlando and Hollywood teams brainstormed before presenting blueprints and getting confirmation the it could be done. The task culminated in the creation of the most complicated figure ever designed and used in a Halloween Horror Nights House. Read more about the Five Nights at Freddy’s house creation in our dedicated article.

Poltergeist and Blumhouse 15th Anniversary Terror Tram 

Split image: Left, hands on static TV for "Poltergeist House." Right, "Terror Tram: Blumhouse" at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Offerings unique to Hollywood include a tribute to the 2018 Poltergeist house, based on the 1982 classic. While the house will be similar to the original version, they did “look for the opportunity to increase the scare factors in different places.”

The Terror Tram is also returning, although this year’s version “builds directly on the 2024 Blumhouse-themed experience.” M3GAN will serve as the tram host and lead guests into a living horror film trailer before guests can walk through more experiences themed to The Exorcist: Believer and Purge.

A new scare zone called Chainsaw Clownz has also been announced for Halloween Horror Nights 2025 at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Which Halloween Horror Nights 2025 house are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments and on social media.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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