Sold out every single night of the spooky season, the pinnacle of any Halloween haunt— Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood—has been frightening parkgoers for 27 years.

Since the amazing 2023 season, I have made the drive with a group of friends I have known for well over eight years. Not only do we celebrate the Halloween season, but we also get to catch up after a year without seeing each other. 

Due to Los Angeles traffic and the closure of multiple lanes on the I-405, we got to the park a little late. However, thanks to preferred parking, we still got in without too much trouble. 

The park entrance, much less crowded than it was in past years, was decorated with the themes that I was so excited to see in the park’s haunted houses or mazes. 

After getting through security, we decided to head straight to the first two houses: Fallout and Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America.

Before we could get to the mazes, however, we were stopped in our tracks by the Carnival of Carnage. A scare zone located in the front of the park on New York Street, you have nowhere to go as clowns (some armed with chainsaws) chase you through the area. 

We got away pretty unscathed, as mostly the clowns were going for people behind us. We headed to the first maze of the night, Fallout.

Fallout

This maze is located where the year-round The Walking Dead attraction used to be until 2020. It’s based on the Amazon Prime series Fallout, which was based off of the video games with the same name.

Walking through the post-apocalyptic setting of the hit series, many of the characters of the show follow you through the story presented in the maze.

My friends and I didn’t find this maze too scary. What I have started to realize is that the maze’s location in the park is generally not very frightening. However, it usually has a very strong and interesting story, and isn’t relying on the scares to be a good maze. 

For example, last year the location was home to the maze based off of A Quiet Place. The maze mostly relied on the actors to portray the horror of living in a silent world.

With that being said, I enjoyed being sucked into the amazing story, and the production design was really well done. A particular highlight was a bear puppet that surprised my group with how enormous it was. 

Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America

After exiting the Fallout maze, we were ready for the next challenge and immediately got in line for the next maze, as its line entrance was located very nearby.

While we were waiting in line, I got to talk to my friends and explain my passion for Halloween and the haunts that major companies put on. 

This is why I love going to Halloween Horror Nights so much. Whenever I go, I get to talk to a group of people that have stories themselves, but also listen to me talk all night. I don’t know how many times I mentioned my passion for scare acting and Halloween that night, but they never complained. 

Halloween season is like my very own therapy. It heals any stress or any worry that has been building up from the months leading up to the season.

Finally, after many steps taken through the queue, we got to the front. We were greeted by the guide of the night, Muerte, the caretaker of the Cemetery of The Lost. Out front of the house, he set up the experience we were about to have with some prerecorded voicelines. 

The concept behind this original house explores many urban legends of Latin America, starting with the 2023 Halloween season’s Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America. This first house of the trilogy was set up impeccably, being my favorite house of that year. 

As the trilogy’s conclusion, Monstruos 3 did an amazing job sending off the series. It included the return of the iconic character Muerte and the return of the Halloween Horror Nights staple La Llorona, the character whose legend is too intense and graphic to share. La Llorona had mazes to her name in 2022, 2012, and 2011. 

Walking into this house was crazy, and not because of the crazy good sets, but because of the crowd of people constantly stopping throughout the house. 

Exploring the events that landed those poor souls in the graveyard, we meet the three ghosts that will haunt us throughout the maze. La Muelona, La Siguanaba, and of course La Llorona are sitting behind every wall in the house. 

The maze had some astonishing scenes. One in particular had a huge La Llorona puppet with moving arms. Running for it as she swung at my group, we were placed into a bedroom. Above us in the room, the huge La Llorona protruded from the ceiling, staring down at us as she stalked her prey.

On a lighter note, the funniest part of this maze was that when we walked by La Muelona, she jumped out from behind a curtain, lights flashing and a loud orchestral stinger playing in our ears. When we walked away, the sound cue and lights kept going off, repeating, as if the character was spamming and pressing her button over and over, not letting the sound finish before starting it again.

If the terrors of the house weren’t enough, the fright wasn’t over after the maze ended. When we exited the last room through the curtains, we were dumped out into the Noche de Brujas scare zone, located on French Street.

The Cooldown

The events of the first two mazes were already a lot, so after getting coffee, we made our way to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to eat dinner at the Three Broomsticks.

Before heading to the next haunted attraction, we went on the best dark ride in the park: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Sadly, the line was as long as the average wait for a maze, so we decided to do the single rider path.

The single rider path made the wait much shorter, as we only waited around five minutes. Unfortunately, it temporarily split up my group. I was lucky enough to get on the ride with one of my friends, but the rest of them weren’t so lucky.

However, it was worth it. Although its technology is beginning to seem dated, the ride is always immersive and great.

Poltergeist

And so the long walk begins. Whether you have been this year, where the walk leads you to the Terrifier and Poltergeist houses, or last year when it took you to Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and Insidious: The Further, you know of the long walk that I am talking about.

For those who don’t know, the walk is how to get to the H Lot. The H Lot is a backstage area that can be reached by going through the park and past Hogsmeade. Also known as the Curious George Garage parking lot tents, the H Lot is home to two mazes every year and thousands of people make the walk every night.

My friends and I made the trek right after going on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It was a long walk, but it was so worth it, because we got to some of the best mazes this year. 

Immediately after getting to the H-Lot, we got in line for Poltergeist, not knowing it would be our longest wait of the night.

For the next hour, we would chat and play little phone games like Imposter, which I won many times, outsmarting everyone and gaining the trust of my friends, only to destroy it when the imposter was revealed. At least I only heard “I will never trust you ever again” once during the games.

Finally, it was our turn to enter the Freeling House. The maze, based on the 1982 movie Poltergeist directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, has been at Halloween Horror Nights before in 2018. 

Returning for its second year, the accompanying house was great, in my top three this year! Just walking into the first room, my group was sucked into the world of the movie. 

In that room, the character Carol Anne is in the iconic poster pose, opening a portal so the spirits can communicate to her through a static TV. The famous line “They’re here” can be heard as you exit the room.

I knew I would love this maze when the Poltergeist clown doll, on a platform above us, reached down and just missed my face, surprising and scaring me into the next room.

This room was home to the late Reverend Henry Kane in his “The Beast” form as he guards the door to Carol Anne’s room. The huge animatronic roared and snarled at us as we walked by it, protecting the door with its life, or lack thereof. 

The Longer Walk

Getting out of the Poltergeist maze, we were all looking forward to getting onto the Terrifier maze next. However, the posted wait time for the 6-minute attraction was well over two hours, and we decided to come back before the night ended. 

After the long walk back to the Wizarding World, we had an even longer trek on our hands. Luckily, most of our time was spent on escalators. Still, that doesn’t excuse the fact that we had to walk all through Hogsmeade, all the way to the entrance of the Lower Lot, and down four steep escalators to finally make it to the ground level. 

Home of four haunted houses and three year-round rides, the Lower Lot was full of people. On our way down the escalators, my group made a game plan because we had a good feeling that the Lower Lot would be packed.

The plan was to hit the shorter line first, which was only fifteen minutes and was the WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks house. Don’t think we weren’t surprised to see a house based on WWE too. Then we would get in line for Jason Universe and move from there.

WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks

We stuck to the plan like glue–it was a perfect plan. Then we got hit with a 25-minute wait for the WWE maze. 

Still, the wait was very fun because halfway through the line, a roaming Art the Clown from the Terrifier films came up behind a couple of my friends, banged his saw against something, and scared them so well that they jumped.

That is the fun part of Halloween Horror Nights this year. Multiple Art the Clowns are roaming around the entire park, so nowhere is safe. You could be eating inside a restaurant or just browsing in one of the shops, and all of a sudden Art is behind you honking a bicycle-style bugle horn.

Once the line finally ended, we entered the house based on a story made by the WWE. All of us had low expectations for this maze, and none of us knew any of the characters inside the house. The only person we recognized was the John Cena actor that was outside rocking in a chair on the porch of the facade. (There was no one in the chair.)

Best joke of the year aside, the house was so good that all of us came out of the house screaming. My friend Miles and I were so excited that the house was actually scary that we were yelling with joy.

The best scare was during the first half of the maze, when we were stopped by all the groups of people in front of us in the house. Miles and I were laughing at a voiceover line that sounded funny, when the barn wall next to us opened up and Mercy the Buzzard on stilts yelled “RUN” as they jumped out toward us. 

The scare was so memorable that weeks later, Miles and I still mention it to anyone who asks about our Halloween Horror Nights visit. 

Jason Universe

The aftermath of the WWE maze had the majority of my group in surprise and excitement because we hadn’t thought it would be a good house. Because of that, the 45-minute wait for Jason Universe felt like only five.

The maze was dark and the man with the hockey mask was at every corner, jumping out of the bushes with his machete and preying on everyone who dared to travel to Camp Crystal Lake. 

A lot of people must have wanted to go to Camp Crystal Lake, because my group and all the people in front of us made the maze feel overcrowded. It felt like we were still in a line while walking through a lot of the mazes, bumping into each other and other groups ahead of us. 

This is a great time to mention the biggest problem with Halloween Horror Nights: crowds. This was never a problem when I went to Six Flags’ Fright Fest, but the crowds at Universal Studios Hollywood were not just a problem during the mazes. Walking through crowded areas of the park felt like being at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. 

The crowds aren’t just bad for the park goers, but the actors are affected too. The characters in the scare zones can never get off a good scare because with so many people, and them trying not to touch anyone, they can only really stand in place. Characters like Art the Clown are also getting surrounded by fans following him around all night. And don’t even get me started on the TikTokers at Halloween Horror Nights.

Still, Jason Universe was described online as one of the best of this year, and although it wasn’t anywhere near the best, it was still a very good maze. 

Set in the camp and various cabins, the set design brings us into the world of Jason Voorhees.

It was so cool to see some of Jason’s iconic kills in this house. The highlight was in the woods. There, a helpless driver was stuck in a parked red car as Jason circled them. I watched as Jason took his machete and stabbed through the roof of the car, barely missing the driver of the car as they dodged it. 

What the house lacked in scares, it made up for in story. The iconic Friday the 13th franchise shines as a house at Halloween Horror Nights, but loses out to intellectual properties that were turned into much better houses than Jason Universe.

Scarecrow: Music by Slash

If you can’t tell by the title of the maze, this house easily had the best soundtrack of the year. Walking through the maze, you could only really hear the music, which was fine by me and my group.

We were waiting in line, listening to the soundtrack made by the great musician Slash, looking up at the amazing facade of the house. 

The creative team did an exemplary job at making nature look as if it is reclaiming itself. Vines and plants crawling around the front of the farmhouse and an ominous and decaying scarecrow were the perfect set up for a great house.

The house was solid, but only one scene was especially memorable. The cornfield “outside,” where I was scared by a character in a ghillie suit jumping from a bush, was the only scene I remember from the house. 

In the same cornfield, you can see one of the ginormous crows that stalk the Decision Hub in the Murder of Crowz scare zone.

The house Scarecrow: The Reaping was used in Halloween Horror Nights 2022 and was highlighted by many as one of the best houses of the year. Compared to this year, the maze is still very strong and has some good scares, but isn’t as good as its peers.

There could have been some really creative scares, but the second installation of the house used a lot of the basic sound effects and curtain scares where the character would be hiding behind curtains that try to blend into the wall. 

Raised a little above the ground level, the sound and light cues begin and the character bursts out of the curtains and reaches down toward you.

The Decision

Exiting Scarecrow: Music by Slash, the exit path had us walk through the soundstage that is home to the Five Nights at Freddy’s haunted house and queue. Walking through this soundstage at one in the morning gave my group the big decision: Did we get into the over two-hour line for Five Nights at Freddy’s, or did we walk all the way back to Terrifier and wait for an hour?

The park closed at two, and we had an hour to get into a line. Because of Universal Studios rules, as long as you are in line for a haunted house or ride when either it closes or the park does, you are able to experience it.

After many back and forths, with half of the group wanting to go to Terrifier and the other half wanting to go to Five Nights at Freddy’s, the choice was made.

Terrifier

Because of a lot of criticism online, we chose to skip the Five Nights at Freddy’s maze and head all the way back up to the H Lot for Terrifier.

Due to its budget, compared to Universal Studios Orlando, the Five Nights at Freddy’s maze is lacking many animatronics and is considered overall as not scary and more of a walkthrough experience that fans of the game series and movie would enjoy more than horror lovers. 

An example of how much more expensive the cost of animatronics are in Hollywood versus Orlando is actually in the first scene of the maze when you are in the pizza parlor. In Orlando you are greeted by all three animatronics; Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica. However, in Hollywood you only see Freddy. Curtains cover where Bonnie and Chica are supposed to be on each side of Freddy.

As a result of this, my group chose to go to the Terrifier maze, and thankfully so.

Walking all the way back to the H Lot didn’t seem worth it at first, and some of our group was considering splitting up and going to watch a 4D show of Chainsaw Man, or sitting out of the maze entirely and simply resting on the curb. 

But as we were walking towards the queue entrance, with the sign reading 70 minutes, a cast member, with Art the Clown smiling next to him, started asking the crowd for a group of six. “We need six more people, trust me you won’t regret it!”

Within a heartbeat, I volunteered my group, which was the perfect number.

Art the Clown was very excited to see the group of twelve standing in front of him watching. He was happily tapping his feet and playing with one of his weapons he got from his trash bag he carried around. 

While we watched in confusion, he put down the bat and reached into his bag for what we all assumed was another weapon or maybe something that would squirt us with water or scare us away. But out of the bag came two small pieces of paper.

Art the Clown handed each group of six the papers. When I looked down to read it, I saw it was a one time use express pass for the Terrifier maze.

My entire group immediately got all their lost energy back and after a brief explanation on how we got the pass to the cast member scanning the express tickets, we skipped a 70-minute wait and entered the Terrifier haunted house in only three minutes. 

The facade of the maze was incredibly well done, and fans of the franchise will recognize the funhouse from the ending of Terrifier 2. When we entered right under the facade, condensation from fog machines creating a smoke effect above the funhouse dripped down and splashed onto my head—a taste of the water we were going to encounter in the house.

It was worth it to watch all three Terrifier movies before going through this maze, as many iconic scenes from each film are all throughout the house.

The iconic saw kill from the original Terrifier squirted water at us as Art the Clown reenacted the kill. Many different gory kills and scenes filled the house, most of which I don’t want to explain because of how graphic they were. 

What I can describe is how the smells that were pumped into the maze were so realistic that in every room we entered, at least one person would react to the new smell.

In one room, barrels of bleach covered the walls on each side of us. Art then appeared and began to unload a gun into the room, water getting all over us and the strong smell of bleach filling the room. 

Our group coughed our way to the next room, which wasn’t much better. Art the Clown, in the middle of one of his kills, splashed more bleach our way—getting us even more wet.

When we thought the maze had to end soon, it instead sent us to the bathroom scene, where feces covered every inch of the room. Standing in the corner, Art wrote “Art was here” on the walls with those same feces.

This scene was so gross. Not only did it look very real and disgusting, but it smelled exactly how you might have dreaded it would. 

Finally the maze ended with a walk through mist with Art the Clown at every corner. The entire floor, walls and curtain during this part of the maze were soaked, so as we left, all of our clothes were damp.

Wrap Up

And just like that, our night was over and it was two in the morning. The night flies by when you are having fun and waiting in the world’s longest lines.

We were all a little bummed out that we had to miss the Five Nights at Freddy’s maze, as well as the iconic Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse. The Terror Tram, which has the same theme as last year, drops guests off in the backlot, and the large group of people walk through different sets from past, present and future Blumhouse productions. The highlight of this year’s Terror Tram was the new movie The Black Phone 2. 

We still felt like we got our money’s worth since the Terror Tram has never been too scary and mostly feels like a walkthrough experience, and we only came to the park with general admission tickets. No express or early entrance like other years.

It is safe to say that Halloween Horror Nights is always worth a visit. The amazing intellectual properties and original concepts make a perfect Halloween event.

It is always about the event, the scare factor, and how much fun we have versus how much we spend. But the cost never matters to me. Visiting Halloween Horror Nights every year was only half for the mazes and experience. 

I go to Halloween Horror Nights for quality time with an amazing group of people who all appreciate horror, the actors that put on an amazing show, and time with each other, outside of the Internet. 

And the time I spend with them is always priceless.