This trip was hosted. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Universal Orlando began celebrating Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. That’s more than three decades of trying to outdo the blood, gore, screams and scares from the year before.
After attending opening night of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event, I can assure you it is one of the bloodiest, goriest, most gruesome to date. I screamed in terror more times than I can count.
This year, every house was one I couldn’t wait to experience again. But, I loved them for different reasons. To help you prepare for your visit, I’ve ranked them based on how scary, disgusting and fun they each were (because the best houses are a combination of all three).
What is Halloween Horror Nights?
Halloween Horror Nights takes place each year at Universal Orlando’s Universal Studios Florida park and at Universal Studios Hollywood. Both events are similar, but the lineup of haunted houses, scare zones and live shows differ between the two locations.
This year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando features five haunted houses based on popular movies, video games and streaming shows and five original houses dreamt up by Universal’s twisted (and possibly tormented) creative team.
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This separately-ticketed event usually runs from late August through early November, so there is plenty of time to plan a visit with your “scream squad.”
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What are the best and worst houses at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights this year?
Here’s the thing, which house is “best” and which is “worst” is totally subjective and I would argue is not the best way to describe each house.
We all visit HHN for different reasons. Some people love seeing their favorite pop culture properties come to life, while others want to test just how much blood and guts they can handle before they have to look away.
Rather than ranking the houses from best to worst, I’ve assigned scores between 1 and 10 for how scary, gory, fun and smelly each house is so you have a good idea of what you are walking into before you cross each terrifying threshold.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Scary: 5 out of 10
- Gory: 2 out of 10
- Fun: 10 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: Felt the most like walking through my TV screen and into a movie
Five Nights at Freddy’s is based on the hit video game and 2023 film of the same name. I recommend watching the film before you visit so you are familiar with the characters, but it follows the story of a security guard working the night shift at a defunct pizza place similar to Chuck E. Cheese.
Unfortunately, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is haunted by possessed animatronics in search of their next victim. It doesn’t take much to make me scream and I did plenty of it in this house, but it wasn’t particularly gory or terrifying because most of the scares come from the animatronic puppets.
Universal collaborated with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to build the Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, Chica and Cupcake puppets – some as big as eight feet tall – who are trying to murder you throughout the house. For fans of Five Nights at Freddy’s, like myself, getting to basically walk into the restaurant and become a character in the film was one of the highlights of my night.
El Artista: A Spanish Haunting
- Scary: 6 out of 10
- Gory: 4 out of 10
- Fun: 5 out of 10
- Smelly: 2 out of 10 (because they were good smells)
- Trophy: The best use of possessed inanimate objects
Each year, there is a HHN house that is as beautiful as it is horrifying. This year, that house is El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. The facade is a late-1800s Spanish colonial manor with stained glass windows and from late 1800 overgrowth stained glass windows and archways associated with Gothic architecture.
SheBuysTravel Tip: If you think you smell flowers when you enter the conservatory, you’re right. Universal pumped in floral smells to fully immerse you in the experience.
The house comes to life as you walk through each room. I never thought I’d be scared of wisteria, journal pages or sculptures, but I was when they were trying to attack me! The deeper you venture into the manor, the more evil it becomes.
The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks
- Scary: 7 out of 10
- Gory: 7 out of 10
- Fun: 6 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: The most likely to make you tear up
After experiencing The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks, it jumped toward the top of my list, even though I had low expectations because it is based on WWE characters I am not very familiar with. It helped that I read up on the story of The Wyatt Sicks before my visit and I recommend you do the same.
This house was both scary and oddly emotional because The Wyatt Sicks, a real-life wrestling faction, formed as a tribute to the late Bray Wyatt, a wrestler who died in 2023. The house acts as a tribute to Bray Wyatt, with terrifying rooms featuring the group’s alter-egos, Uncle Howdy, Ramblin Rabbit, Mercy the Buzzard, Abby the Witch and Huskus the Pig.
Terrifier
- Scary: 10 out of 10
- Gory: 12 out of 10
- Fun: 7 out of 10
- Smelly: 10 out of 10
- Trophy: The most likely to make you laugh and scream at the same time
I know enough about myself and the “Terrifier” films to know that I would not enjoy the off-the-charts blood and guts the franchise thrives on. But that doesn’t mean I disliked this house. Yes, it was as disgusting, wet and smelly (they really do pump disgusting smells into the house) as Universal claims, but it was also oddly hilarious.
Art the Clown – the murderous antagonist of the “Terrifier” movies – is beyond demented, but he just has so much fun doing it that you can’t help but laugh in between screams. If you want an idea of just how gory this house is, it has the most dead bodies of any HHN house ever created.
As you near the end of the house, you can choose to venture down a “dry path” or a “wet path.” If you choose the latter, you will definitely get wet (luckily, it’s only water) and you’ll be treated to one final jump scare from the film’s heroine that you don’t get on the dry path.
Jason Universe
- Scary: 8 out of 10
- Gory: 5 out of 10
- Fun: 2 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: The most scares per square foot
This house brings you face-to-hockey-mask with one of the most slashers of all time, Jason. If you have a Jason-specific phobia, I cannot recommend this house less. The star of the “Friday the 13th” film franchise is literally lurking around every corner.
In fact, Universal stated that this house has the most scares per square foot of any house in HHN history. This house is relentless. At times, it feels as if Jason is coming at you from every direction at the same time (probably because he is). You’ll visit Camp Crystal Lake and Jason’s decrepit living quarters, giving this house a bit of a nostalgia factor for fans of the films.
Fallout
- Scary: 5 out of 10
- Gory: 5 out of 10
- Fun: 8 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: Will get you the most excited for a second season
Similar to “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the “Fallout” house began as a video game. It then became an Amazon Prime streaming series, and that iteration is what the house is based on. The short version is that “Fallout” follows survivors of a nuclear war. This haunted house recreates the various settings those who survived took to and the dangers they encountered.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Look for an Easter Egg for season two inside this house. There is a new character lurking in the shadows.
I didn’t find this house overly scary, but, as a huge fan of the show, that had more to do with how excited I was to see these characters again. The radioactive creatures and the menacing character known only as “the Ghoul” certainly gave me a fright that had me running toward safety.
Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters
- Scary: 8 out of 10
- Gory: 8 out of 10
- Fun: 6 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: The most likely to make you feel like you’ve been caught in a shootout
I grew up watching westerns on tv with my grandparents. This house is like that but the good guys are a demon and a demon hunter (an unlikely pair, to say the least) and the bad guys are demons who have infiltrated an old western town and are possessing the townspeople by physically entering their mouths. It’s quite an unpleasant process to watch.
Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters was born out of a scene from last year’s Slaughter Sinema 2 house. This year, it got the full house treatment, complete with a demon horse, a train that barrels through the town and a shootout.
Dolls: Let’s Play Dead
- Scary: 5 out of 10
- Gory: 3 out of 10
- Fun: 10 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: The most likely to make you regret how you treated your dolls as a child
If you thought the haircuts you gave your dolls as a child were bad, it’s got nothing on what Lyla, the little girl who inspired this house, does to her play things. As you enter Dolls: Let’s Play Dead, you are shrunk down to the size of a doll to see just how Lyla likes to “play” with her toys. Think melted faces and missing (or extra!) body parts.
SheBuysTravel Tip: There are three guest activated triggers (or GATs) in this house. If you see a big red button, push it to trigger a special effect.
Because most of the scares came from dolls, this house wasn’t gross or terrifying, but it is still unnerving when a multi-headed doll jumps out at you or a doll with a melted face is screaming in pain.
Grave of Flesh
- Scary: 7 out of 10
- Gory: 6 out of 10
- Fun: 3 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: The nightmare you hope isn’t true about what happens when we die
We’ve all wondered what happens to us when we die and after experiencing Grave of Flesh, I sincerely hope what is depicted in this haunted house is not it. As you enter this house, you are walking into the Halmouth Cemetery (you can probably guess what that is meant to sound like). Oh, by the way, it’s your funeral.
After literally walking into your own grave and further into the depths of the underworld, you’ll encounter flesh-eating creatures who survive on the bodies buried in the cemetery..including your own. The tight, underground spaces (with skeletons reaching out of the walls) and hungry demons made this house one of the scariest of the night.
Galkin: Monsters of the North
- Scary: 7 out of 10
- Gory: 6 out of 10
- Fun: 4 out of 10
- Smelly: 0 out of 10
- Trophy: Best use of a giant creature in a haunted house
Galkin: Monsters of the North was one of the houses that surprised me the most this year. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the storytelling, scenery and, of course, scares pushed it much higher on my list than I anticipated.
With its focus on the winged, horned and wolf-like creatures common in Norse mythology, this house had some of the most jaw-dropping beasts of the entire event.
It was equal parts awe-inspiring and frightening and had my favorite finale moment of the night. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say I was happy to run straight out of that house after seeing this creature.
What is the scariest house at HHN 2025?
Hands down, Terrifier was the most, well, terrifying house at Halloween Horror Nights this year. This house knows your limits, and could not care less. Each scene is more gruesome (not to mention wet and stinky) than the last and Art the Clown’s killing methods are truly terrifying (but I applaud his originality).
What’s funny is this house is also a fan favorite this year. Whether or not you like the movies, Art the Clown will wriggle his way deep into your heart with his sadistic-yet-endearing demeanor.
What is the least scary house at HHN 2025?
Though I would say Five Nights at Freddy’s is the least scary of the 10 houses at Halloween Horror Nights this year, it was among my favorite houses of the night, as well as many other guests I spoke with.
SheBuysTravel Tip: If you want to ensure you see all 10 houses in one night, opt for a RIP Tour or purchase the Express ticket add-on so you can skip the standby lines. Regular lines can grow as long as two hours or more for popular houses.
What it lacked in blood and guts, it made up for with fan-service moments from the film and frequent appearances from the large-as-life animatronics who entertained families at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza before they became possessed.
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