Halloween Horror Nights 2025: A Review
As it happens every year, Universal Orlando’s annual Halloween event, Halloween Horror Nights (or HHN) comes full force once the Florida air gets slightly breezy. I had the privilege of going for the third year in a row and WOW did it exceed my expectations this year! As a lover of all things spooky and Halloween related, I’m a huge fan of HHN. I appreciate the fact that I live in a world where we pay to go somewhere and get scared, you know?
Some things to note before I get started with my review! First and foremost, I did NOT do all 10 of the haunted houses. Not a super big fan of the Terrifier franchise or WWE, so I intentionally skipped those two houses. Secondly, I got one of the “Stay and Scream” admission tickets, meaning I picked up a wristband in the park at 3:00 p.m. so I could get in line for some of the houses earlier than the event actually started (at 6:00 p.m.), which gave me extra time to walk around and experience HHN. Lastly, this will include my personal ranking of each house I went into, based on four different factors: how long I waited for the house, the atmosphere inside of the house, how crowded each house was inside, and (of course) the scares. I found that by using these categories, deciding on a cumulative score from 1-10 for each house became much easier! And although this goes without saying, this is just my opinion! If you’re able to go to Halloween Horror Nights, I encourage you to make your own ranking and experience it how you best see fit! Okay, now on to the review!
Image Courtesy: Instagram
After getting to the park around 3:00 to pick up our wristbands, my horror obsessed friend and I grabbed a bite to eat before getting in line at 5:00 for our first house of the night: Fallout. Based more on the Amazon Prime show than the game, I wasn’t going into this one with too high of hopes. I thought the show was alright, just not really my cup of tea, and I’d heard mixed things about the house. However, I was pleasantly surprised! We waited for about 20 minutes, getting in the house right before 5:30. The set and audio inside of the house was pretty good, and it wasn’t too crowded either! The scares were also pretty good, putting scores for the entire house at a 7.5/10 and 8/10 from my friend and I. Overall, I’d say if you like the show, you’ll enjoy how closely the house sticks to it!
Right after Fallout, we got in line for Galkn: Monsters of the North (around 5:50 p.m.). If there’s one thing that Universal is hit or miss on when it comes to HHN, it’s developing a “cold house” that gets generally positive reviews. With how hot the first few hours of the event can be (gotta love that central Florida October heat!), having a haunted house that’s cold inside is always awesome. Though the theme is usually good, the storyline of the house can fall flat and give it a lower rating. This year though, I thought the cold house was good! We didn’t wait too long, and like the one before, this house had good atmosphere and crowding. There were some scares I missed because I watched them happen to people ahead of me, but some were unexpected and got me. I gave this one an 8.5/10, and my friend gave it an 8/10.
After this, we walked through The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane scare zone and stopped for two of the specialty food and drink items they had: Flamin’ Hot Cheeto birria ramen and the Berry Scary cocktail. Both were absolutely DELICIOUS. I love any kind of berry flavored cocktail, so that automatically got a good review from me! I was nervous the ramen would be really heavy and the flavors wouldn’t go together well, but never in my life have I been happier to be wrong! Sometimes they’ll have food at HHN that’s just super duper bomb, and this is one of those times. Here’s to hoping they bring it back next year!
Image Courtesy: Instagram
For our third and fourth houses, we did Dolls: Let’s Play Dead and Grave of Flesh. This was around an hour after the event had technically started, so the lines for houses became full quickly. Dolls turned out to be better than I anticipated, and Grave of Flesh was pretty good. My only gripe with those two is that they both had very distinct smells throughout the houses. Dolls smelled like burnt plastic (not great), and GOF smelled like dead plants (also not great), so be wary of that! It wasn’t too overbearing though, and scores weren’t affected too much by the smells, with Dolls getting an 8/10 and 6.5/10, and GOF getting a 7/10 and 9/10 (as you can see, this is where our reviews started differentiating from each others!).
As expected, my weather app lied to me and it started raining. At first it was manageable, just a light drizzle! We went on both the Transformers ride and Revenge of the Mummy, happy to be somewhere dry. We stopped at the WWE Firefly Fun House booth and got the Ramblin’ Rabbit Fried Carrot Cake (DELICIOUS. The cake was warm and had a nice spice to it, and the cotton candy was a nice touch), and sat under a window awning as the rain picked up. And damn did it get bad.
Ponchos on, we stood in line during the torrential downpour for our fifth house, El Artista. This was definitely our longest wait, over 1.5 hours. However, we got canned Angry Orchard ciders, and the people in line behind us kept us in good spirits, and I’m happy to report that the house made up for the wait! It wasn’t too crowded, and the sets and costumes were beautiful. The scares DEFINITELY got me too! Just all around a top tier house, earning a 9/10 and 8/10, respectively.
After this, we went inside Louie’s Restaurant, which was decked out in FNAF pizzeria memorabilia. Sitting down after standing in the rain for close to two hours felt amazing. I got the Why Not Have Both Pizza & Pasta, which was a slice of pizza with spaghetti and meatballs on top. Another food option I was worried about being super heavy and greasy, but not as bad as I expected. I was tempted to get the infamous Mr. Cupcake treat too, but I knew neither my friend or I would finish it, so I saved my money to get souvenirs instead. I did get a picture of them though!
Image Courtesy: Instagram
By this point it was 12:15 a.m. and the rain was settling down, but most people had left the park. This meant we waited no more than 20 minutes for our last three houses. Starting the end with Five Nights at Freddy’s, this was by far my absolute favorite of the night! I’m a big fan of the games and 2023 movie, and this house paid perfect homage to its source material. From the puppets they used to the music and (not so scary) scares throughout the house, this one earned itself a perfect 10/10.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
For our second to last house, we decided to do the Friday the 13th/Jason Un1v3rse house, which was by far the scariest of them all. I won’t give any spoilers for it, but there’s a part towards the end of the house where almost every single scare actor got me. Be wary of this! Lastly, we did Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters. Not as scary as I was led to believe, but still worth going through! The last two houses got scores of an 8.5/10 and 6.5/10 from me, and an 8.5/10 and 7/10 from my friend.
After almost 14 hours at Universal (and 21, 517 steps!), we conquered 8 houses, all 4 scare zones, a few food and drink booths, got soaked by the oh so glorious Florida rain, and I traded homemade HHN themed bracelets with lots of people! This might only be my third year going, but it’s no doubt my favorite! I absolutely can’t wait to see how they top this year!
Strike Out (and watch out for Art the Clown when you’re at HHN!),
Kaya O’Rourke
Saint Augustine
Editor: Amia King
Kaya O’Rourke is a writer for Strike Magazine, Saint Augustine. She’s a big fan of film and art houses, curating the perfect Spotify playlist for every occasion, and spending time with her BFFS (her mom and her cats). When she’s not updating her Letterboxd or working on her screenplay, you can reach her on Instagram at @kayaorourke.
