As another Spooky Season comes creeping in, so too does Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. The last few years have been fine, but the 2026 line up is one of the strongest (maybe the strongest?) of the 2020s. In fact, two of the houses feel like they’ll go down as all-timers.
Even though I hit up Horror Nights before I went to Fright Fest, the latter has really helped renew my appreciation for Horror Nights. The production design and IPs that Universal has access to are obviously hard to top, but they do make a difference. Even though the house layouts and ways they try to get a scare at Horror Nights can feel samey year after year, it turns out those design decisions do help with jump scares and the overall atmosphere in the houses. The strobes and the screaming when someone jumps out, the way they get in your face, are all tactics that just work. The training and enthusiasm of the scareactors is also a notch above, and surprise surprise, that too, makes a difference.
That’s not to say that Halloween Horror Nights is perfect, but they have certainly perfected a formula for what works. Sometimes it would be nice if it was slightly less formulaic though. Also, I won’t repeat them, but my usual caveats from 2022 and 2023 still apply.
Let’s get into this year…
In 2026, there are eight houses and five scare zones, plus Terror Tram. A few notes on the overall event before we dive into the houses.
I mentioned it at the top, but this is one of the strongest Horror Nights years in recent memory. Every year there are one or two houses that are firmly in the “Ehhhhh,” category. This year, even the weaker ones are still pretty good!
The scare zones get less prominent every year; 10+ years ago they were scattered across all of the theme park, but recently, they’ve concentrated them into a few areas near the front of the park. I assume this is for crowd flow reasons (because holy shit is it crowded), but it does affect the atmosphere in certain areas.
There’s also a weird reliance on masks for real people’s faces. This happens periodically at Horror Nights depending on the lineup, but it always gives an uncanny valley feeling for those characters. Even if someone isn’t an exact match for a character’s look, I’d prefer to see someone emoting at me. And, they always look a little goofy.
Here are some of the highlights…
Hellraiser
Despite never having seen a Hellraiser movie, I thought this was the best house of the night. You start by entering through a giant Lament Configuration and from then on the Cenobites are after you through our world and theirs. There are a lot of chains and flayed corpses and torture throughout, but in a way that feels different than the way two out of the three of those are usually presented. The layout lets the scares land, and there are a couple of unique ways that the scareactors will come at you from. Everything here just works front to back, and I wouldn’t be disappointed if this made a return to Horror Nights sooner than later.
Sinners
This is easily the most interesting house Horror Nights has done in the time I’ve been going, and certainly the most immersive. It opens with Sammie’s performance of “I Lied to You” where he summons a few spirits from the future who pop up behind scrims when appropriate. Remmick and his vampires are teased here, and then Stack welcomes you. It then backtracks a bit to put you in the woods and build the tension for a second (something unusual for Horror Nights!). Eventually the vampires, complete with glowing eyes thanks to some nifty special effects, start to come after you.
When you get back to Club Juke, Cornbread shows up, and sometimes he attacks you, sometimes he bargains to be invited in. I appreciated that the scene could take multiple paths, and him trying to get in added another bit to the immersive thing this house has going on. Other major scenes play out, but there are two more major set pieces worth talking about. One is the battle inside the club, which takes place across two levels, and features three to five actors fending off or attacking the space. Immediately after, Remmick, on a bungee cord floats down to menace the audience. Horror Nights usually doesn’t feature stunwork, so this was a welcome treat.
This house is light on scares, but everything else is new and interesting for Horror Nights.
KILLceañera
For the last few years, Horror Nights has always featured a house dedicated to monsters and creatures from Latin America folklore. This year, they’ve thrown all of them together after Lola summons La Llorona, El Cucuy, La Lechuza, and more to her quince to get revenge on her bullies. These houses have some of the most unique makeup effects every year, so it’s nice to see them all together here. This one is a good mix of scares and atmosphere, plus it has a few unique kills that are themed to a party.
Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness
For the first time since 2013, Horror Nights has dipped back into the well of heavy metal-focused houses to pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne (coincidentally, that 2013 house featured Black Sabbath). With songs like “Crazy Train” and “Straight to Hell” playing throughout, different versions of Ozzy lead people through environments that draw inspiration from his life and music. There are a lot of different Ozzys here including, conductor Ozzy, mad-scientist Ozzy, vampire Ozzy, and werewolf Ozzy. I don’t really understand the why behind some of them, but it allows for a good mix of designs! This one does suffer from the mask problem I mentioned earlier and even the more human versions of Ozzy are masks that don’t give the scareactors a chance to emote. Overall, it’s a strong concept, and one that’s not so reliant on popular IP.
Terror Tram starring Art the Clown
Terror Tram can be hit or miss, and this year’s version lands on hit thanks to Art’s inclusion. Whether you’re into Terrifier or not, Art brings a pop to Terror Tram because his various incarnations are kind of responsive to the crowds. It’s nothing major, but they do break the fourth wall to do things other than scaring the audience. The light interaction is more than you normally see at Horror Nights, so it’s a fun twist on one of the event’s mainstays.
One Final Scary Thought...
Horror Nights rarely breaks from the formula they’ve perfected, but this year they did and are better for it. By moving away from their norm, even just a little bit, it opens up new ways to make the event thrilling. Sinners and Terror Tram are not major innovations or complete departures, and yet they manage to make the event feel fresh. Even on the more standard haunted house side, Hellraiser feels like it’s bringing new ideas and takes on the formula to the table. Hopefully this signals a willingness from Halloween Horror Nights to keep pushing forward and trying to keep the event as thrilling as it can be.
Halloween Horror Nights runs on select nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, through Nov. 1, tickets start at $79
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