Inspiration Attractions
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Blake Taylor
Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights is one of the world’s best-known Halloween events, and for good reason. The creative team spares no expense in crafting a horrifically delightful season of scares every autumn. It’s a must-do if you’re visiting during the spookiest time of year. While Halloween Horror Nights also takes place at Universal Studios Hollywood in California and many aspects of the event are similar, there are also a few key differences. Here, we’re talking exclusively about Orlando’s version of the event.
Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) requires special tickets and takes place after regular daytime operations cease at Universal Studios Florida, one of the two theme parks at Universal Orlando Resort. HHN happens most nights from early September through late October. The event includes haunted houses, scare zones, and live shows — and it’s not for the faint of heart or young children! If it’s your first time at HHN, or you’re a returning guest wanting to make the most of your homecoming, we’ve got your back.
10 haunted houses bring horror to life
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The main draws of Halloween Horror Nights are its 10 unique haunted houses. In these experiences, guests walk through narrow corridors, where performers (or “scareactors,” as they’re called) wait to frighten guests from the shadows. You wait in line to experience haunted houses, the same as you would for a ride. Each haunted house at HHN has a theme. Some are based on favorite horror franchises such as “Stranger Things,” “Beetlejuice,” or “Us,” to name a few from previous years. Other houses are rooted in an original story developed just for the event and not tied to any existing intellectual property. Designers build the houses with a level of quality equal to movie sets, the architecture meticulously crafted by skilled artists. They’d be a sight to take in if it weren’t for all the jump scares!
The houses are located in various soundstages, warehouses, and tent facilities both throughout the park and occasionally in backstage areas normally inaccessible to guests. Universal typically begins announcing the year’s lineup of houses in late spring and continues to tease new reveals one by one as the event grows closer. Look up which houses are featured — and their locations — before your trip and prioritize your top picks.
5 scare zones create a chilling atmosphere
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Outdoor scare zones complement the haunted houses by spilling the horror into the walkways, promenades, and plazas of Universal Studios Florida. Like the houses, each scare zone has a theme of its own, and no two scare zones are alike. Themes from the past have included a haunted carnival, a dystopian alien future, and a field of bloodthirsty scarecrows.
Unlike the houses, scare zones happen in large, open-air spaces that anyone can casually walk through. Scare zones aren’t formal attractions that guests wait in line to experience, but rather areas of the park that you’ll pass through on your way to your next house or ride. While scare zones are definitely worth seeking out in and of themselves, they’re more about setting the atmosphere rather than conveying a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
While houses have a strict no-photography policy, scare zones are prime locations for some killer HHN photo-ops. Performers roam about, some waiting to scare an unsuspecting guest. It’s perfectly fine to ask for a picture — just be prepared for them to answer in character as their horrific persona!
Halloween Horror Nights entertainment goes all out
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In addition to appreciating the huge troupe of performers who entertain all night long in houses and scare zones, Halloween Horror Nights guests can enjoy live productions during the event. One takes place in the amphitheater between Diagon Alley and Men In Black Alien Attack (the venue formerly home to Fear Factor Live back in the day). Titled “Nightmare Fuel” in recent years but always a new variation of what came before, this electrifying revue blasts rock music while professional dancers move sensually and the crowd of guests cheers uproariously. Illusions and fire effects are also part of the proceedings. It’s an intense, hyper-sensory production that unashamedly plays to its adult audience.
A second show makes use of the park’s impressive lagoon infrastructure in a display of mesmerizing fountains and projections. The lagoon show is a nice change of pace if you need a break from haunted houses, the water utterly transfixing as it dances.
The show in the amphitheater happens several times each night and draws packed-out crowds. We’ve been turned away before because the space was filled to capacity, even before showtime. If seeing the show is a priority for you, plan to arrive at least 20 minutes prior. Meanwhile, the lagoon show also hosts several performances but is in less demand than the amphitheater production.
Munch on spooky treats
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Specialty food kiosks throughout the park serve creative cuisine and concoctions inspired by the themes of the event’s haunted houses. These items are only available during Halloween Horror Nights; the food booths are closed during Universal Studios Florida’s daytime operating hours. The menus seem to expand more and more each year, so it’s a good idea to research menus before your visit to make sure you don’t miss anything you’d like to sink your teeth into.
One of the signature bites of HHN? Pizza fries. They’re a thing, and they’re exactly what they sound like: French fries topped with melted cheese and pepperonis. While admittedly not having much to do with Halloween, pizza fries are inadvertently as synonymous with HHN as popcorn is with the movie theater. Did you even go to HHN if you didn’t eat pizza fries? No. No, you did not.
If you happen to miss out on the treats during HHN itself or have a hankering for something spooky during the day, stop by the Tribute Store, open during regular park hours. The shop takes on a Halloween theme each autumn with a limited selection of Halloween merchandise and bakery items.
Purchasing Halloween Horror Nights tickets, and skipping the lines
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Halloween Horror Nights tickets are completely separate from daytime admission to any Universal Orlando park. If you plan on visiting the parks during the day, you’ll need regular park admission and an HHN ticket. If you have a Universal Orlando Premier Annual Pass, you’re entitled to a free ticket to one night of HHN, but all other versions of Annual Passes do not include HHN privileges. If you plan on visiting HHN more than once, consider a Frequent Fear Pass, granting you HHN admission on multiple nights. Universal usually waits to sell Frequent Fear Passes until closer to the Halloween season, so don’t fret if it’s not available yet.
Lines for haunted houses are notoriously long. You can skip the crowds with an Express Pass, an add-on to your ticket that sends you to the front of the line in minutes. Like admission, the HHN Express Pass is totally separate from the Express Pass offered during the park’s daytime hours. If you only have one shot at experiencing HHN, we say it’s worth it to splurge on an Express Pass.
Alternatively, V.I.P. tours (aptly named R.I.P. tours here) offer a guided evening of skipping lines with zero hassle. Prices for all ticket types fluctuate drastically based on your event date, with pricier tickets on weekends and closer to Halloween. You can check prices and purchase HHN tickets through Universal Orlando’s official website.
Already in the park during the daytime? Check in at a Stay and Scream area
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Since Halloween Horror Nights is a separately-ticketed event, guests without daytime admission to Universal Studios Florida cannot enter until HHN officially starts in the evening. However, HHN ticket-holders who also have daytime admission to the park don’t need to leave the park and re-enter. Instead, check in to a Stay and Scream area, allowing you to scan your HHN ticket and get a head start on waiting in line for houses. While you still won’t actually be able to experience your first haunted house until the event’s official start time at 6:30 p.m., you’ll still have a huge advantage over other guests because you’re already at your first destination and ready to go. Everyone else has to walk from the park entrance all the way to their first house, getting in line behind the Stay and Scream guests.
Once Universal announces houses and locations for the year of your visit, research Stay and Scream areas online or ask a Universal Team Member when you arrive for more information. Then decide which house you’d like to start your evening with and plan your Stay and Scream accordingly.
If you want the advantages of Stay and Scream but can’t justify spending the extra money on a full daytime ticket, we’ve got a hack for you. Purchase a Scream Early pass, granting you admission to Universal Studios Florida starting at 3 p.m. on the day of your HHN ticket.
The lore behind Halloween Horror Nights
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The attractions at Halloween Horror Nights aren’t your typical midway walkthroughs with cheap jump scares. From the haunted houses to each year’s “icon” character, nothing is haphazard. Every experience tells a story. It has characters. It has a beginning, middle, and end. It has plot twists. It has conflict. Each detail contributes to HHN’s decades-long legacy of fictional tales. It’s this commitment to storytelling that has gained the event a loyal fanbase over the years.
Some houses’ plot lines will be easy to pick up on, whether because they connect with a familiar movie or TV show, or because they’re just narratively simple. Other houses’ stories might require more attentiveness or even a second walkthrough to catch the whole idea.
Perhaps all you’re looking for at HHN is a good time and you don’t really care about understanding every little bit of theming. That’s okay! However, if this aspect of the event sounds exciting to you, the HHN fanbase is full of content creators who have posted extensive deep dives on YouTube into the history of HHN lore that you might enjoy. As another way to learn more about the stories of the specific houses you’ll experience, sign up for the Behind the Screams tour. During the day, you’ll experience a lights-on tour of several haunted houses with a Universal Team Member who explains the houses’ narratives and shares how the creative teams brought the spaces to life.
The park’s top rides are open during HHN
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Even though the haunted houses are the main draws of Halloween Horror Nights, a handful of rides are open during the event. These usually include Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Men In Black Alien Attack, Revenge of the Mummy, and Transformers: The Ride 3D.
Wait times for rides during HHN can be difficult to predict. On a Wednesday in September, we enjoyed a nearly empty Diagon Alley and walked right onto the Gringotts ride. Your mileage may vary, with lines being longer on weekends and on dates closer to Halloween. Notably, HHN Express Passes are valid at rides too, not just haunted houses.
If your vacation plans include time at Universal Studios Florida beyond HHN, save the rides for your other visit and focus on the Halloween-exclusive activities. If HHN will be your only time in this park, take advantage of the opportunity to hop on some of those rides — but plan carefully so as to not take away from any of the Halloween goodness!
Commemorate your visit with exclusive HHN merch
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The merch game is strong at Halloween Horror Nights. Universal starts releasing new HHN merchandise as early as mid-spring, when event tickets go on sale. From T-shirts to hats to holiday ornaments, HHN souvenirs are available in the park and through the resort’s official online store. (Hot Topic also sells HHN items.) They’re the perfect way to bring the horror home with you. We love repping our hat emblazoned with Lil’ Boo the pumpkin, an HHN fan-favorite character, even when it’s not spooky season.
You’ll find an abundance of HHN merch at the Tribute Store (which is also open during the park’s regular daytime hours), but you might spot items in other places throughout Universal Orlando, too. It’s also worth stopping by the All Hallows Eve Boutique at Islands of Adventure, the neighboring theme park to Universal Studios Florida. The store is that park’s Halloween headquarters year-round and stocks its share of HHN merch.
No costumes allowed
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Halloween Horror Nights isn’t a “Halloween party” in the sense that most people probably think of that phrase. While the atmosphere is definitely — and spectacularly — themed for the occasion, there’s no trick-or-treating, or really anything typically associated with a family-friendly Halloween event. Those looking for a way to celebrate the holiday with children are better off checking out Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party over at Magic Kingdom. In fact, Universal recommends that no guest under age 13 attend HHN due to the adult nature of the event.
Another guideline prohibits something else commonly tied to Halloween festivities: wearing costumes. Universal does not allow guests to wear costumes, including costume masks, at HHN. The no-costume rule is for the best. It keeps guests from being confused for performers, and in any case, it would be cumbersome to walk through the narrow passageways of haunted houses in a convoluted wardrobe. Leave the dressing up to the pros and save that awesome Wednesday Addams fit for your hometown party!
Don’t like being scared? Sit HHN out
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Halloween Horror Nights is unashamedly intense. The event takes its “horror” namesake seriously, essentially creating fully dimensional spaces where the horror genre comes to life and holds nothing back. If you scare easily (in a way you consider nerve-wracking rather than fun) or if horror movies bother you, HHN probably isn’t the event for you.
In recent years, some haunt events at other theme parks (like Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld Orlando, for example) have introduced a “no-scare” necklace, signaling to performers not to scare any guest wearing it. HHN offers no such necklace. While you can easily stay out of haunted houses, it’s virtually impossible to navigate the park during the event without going through any scare zones. Any guest wanting to attend HHN but planning on avoiding any and all horror-related activities won’t find success in their endeavor.
However, there’s still a happy medium. If the idea of HHN sounds really intriguing, but you know attending HHN would be too much for you to handle, consider the Behind the Screams tour. It takes place during the daytime, not during HHN itself, and offers a lights-on peek into the storytelling and creativity behind a few of the haunted houses.
Halloween Horror Nights discounts
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Orlando vacations can get expensive, but luckily Universal has a few options to help make attending Halloween Horror Nights more budget-conscious. If you’re staying at a Universal Orlando hotel for an entire vacation, you might want to take advantage of an HHN ticket and hotel package. The details may vary year to year, but packages typically pair admission to HHN with overnight accommodations and daytime admission to the parks. The longer your vacation, the more money you save. You can check for available packages on Universal’s official website.
If you’re attending multiple nights of HHN, a Frequent Fear Pass might save you some money as opposed to purchasing each night as a separate ticket, depending on how many times you plan on hitting up the horror. Also remember if you’re a Premier Passholder to Universal Orlando, you get one night of free HHN admission as a perk. Power, Preferred, and Premier Passholders can purchase a discounted rate for the R.I.P. Tour.
More horror beyond HHN
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Halloween Horror Nights is Universal Orlando’s signature Halloween event, but it’s not the only spooky thing happening there during autumn. During daytime hours, guests can purchase a map to participate in the Scarecrow Stalk, a scavenger hunt that spans both Universal parks. The HHN Tribute Store at Universal Studios Florida, stocked with souvenirs and tasty treats, is also open during the day in addition to its HHN operations. At Islands of Adventure, guests can find Halloween merchandise year-round at the All Hallows Eve Boutique in the park’s Lost Continent area.
Over at CityWalk horror fans can enjoy spooky libations at the Dead Coconut Club, a seasonal overlay of the Red Coconut Club. Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort also usually hosts a Halloween-themed bar and lounge, accessible to guests regardless of whether or not you’re staying at Cabana Bay overnight.
Want some spooky “Harry Potter” fun? After sundown during the Halloween season, Death Eaters roam The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure. Nearby, Potterheads can also view a Dark Arts show that projection-maps ominous imagery onto Hogwarts during this time of year. While not explicitly Halloween-themed, the somewhat-hidden Knockturn Alley bewitches visitors with spooky vibes year-round. You can discover it in the depths of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida. Lastly, the year-round Horror Makeup Show provides a lighthearted peek behind the curtain of your favorite classic monster movies.
