Hi everyone, this year HHN starts on my birthday! I really want to go to Orlando for HHN and Epic Universe. HHN is a tradition for my cousins and I, we have only ever gone to Hollywoods HHN - If you have been to both which one is your favorite, any pros and cons?

How does it work with the parks being divided? are all the houses in one specific park?

I recently published a roundtable talking with some of the most well-informed and passionate HHN experts I know -- they hail from HHN 365, Fear and Beer, and Rush of Fear, among others -- and I got to pick their brains about the most influential intellectual properties Halloween Horror Nights has featured, and about how the role or usage of these franchises may change in the future.

Here's the list I pitched them (which, in all fairness, comes from my book, Horrors Untold):

1. The Walking Dead
2. Halloween
3. American Horror Story
4. Stranger Things
5. Universal Monsters
6. Chucky

It was fun hearing which ones they disagreed with (Chucky!) and, even better, how they seem to think that IPs are here to stay, comprising roughly one-half (or so) of the house lineup each and every year.

I'm curious to hear all your thoughts on the topics, and also this: which properties do you want to see this year or moving forward?

watching the weekend’s grammy performance and a lot of things are very spooky. i wonder if it’s a nod to an upcoming hhn house this year to round out the trilogy in orlando? definitely feels likely to me

Hi everyone, here is something I jotted down just for fun while listening to the Weeknd's latest album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. As of Feb 1, 2025, these are all the connections I made:

Money Room

·        Baby Weeknd: has to do something with the theme of this era. We’ve yet to see what role his younger self plays through music videos & possibly the movie coming out on May 16.

·        Phone: Baby Weeknd is seen holding a phone. I never understood why until I heard “Opening Night”. There are phone sounds heard in that track. Additionally, “Reflections Laughing” has a call/voice message.

·        Mirrors: There are multiple mirrors in this room. This could possible reference “Reflections Laughing”. The  Weeknd in the center is also seen laughing maniacally

·        Hooded Weeknd: This is his outfit for the HUT era, first seen at the Sao Paulo concert.

Club Death

·        Coffin: I personally always thought this was in reference to the “death” of The Weeknd.

Bathroom

·        Take Me Back To LA: The song playing here is a choppy/distorted version of “Take Me Back To LA”, a track featured on HUT. This track has actually been teased way back in 2020. It might have originally been planned for After Hours.

·        Phone sounds: Phone sounds can be heard here. It sounds exactly like the ones heard in “Opening Night”.

·        Bathtub: Baby Weeknd is seen in a bathtub filled with blood. This could be in reference to “Baptized in Fear” (I fell asleep in the tub I was there with paralysis…) and/or “Hurry Up Tomorrow” (Now I’m drowning in the same tub where I learned how to swim with my mother trying to save every ounce of my innocence….). There are also what looks like pieces of flesh around, which could be in reference to the “Red Terror” music video.

Surgery Room

·        Baby Weeknd seen again, this time emerging out of the After Hours/Dawn FM Weeknd body.

Afterlife

·        This is in reference to the overall theme of heaven/afterlife that HUT exhibits.

Finale

·        Moth Monster: Baby Weeknd is stitched together with After Hours and Dawn FM Weeknd on a moth body. This signifies the trilogy of After Hours, Dawn FM, and Hurry Up Tomorrow.

·        Bonus fact, the moth could be in reference to the “How Do I Make You Love Me” music video where there is a giant moth wreaking havoc. At the end of the video, Dawn FM weeknd body falls off and reveals baby Weeknd. In this music video, there are bugs coming out of the mask Dawn FM Weeknd wears. In the promo art, you can see an insect coming out of an eye of Baby Weeknd.

·        Sao Paulo: A distorted and slowed version of “Sao Paulo” is heard as you exit out of the maze.

Façade

·        Paradise: Is in reference to HUT. This trilogy is influenced by Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, making HUT Paradise (After Hours is Inferno and Dawn FM is Purgatory).

·        Orange: Occasionally, the façade glows orange, the color that seems to represent the HUT era. No HUT song would be played in the queue because the album wasn’t out yet, but I remember it would glow orange whenever “Every Angel is Terrifying” would play.

·        Moon: In the moon, you can see an outline of a baby. This is in reference to baby Weeknd.

I'm specifically referring to Orlando, my home HHN, as other locations are different.

So, we all know what we're getting with HHN - five scare-zones, ten houses, at least one live show (and it's a good one), and the Tribute store. There are also some other scattered elements from year-to-year, like last year's HHN bar, but that's the gist of the event (note that I'm not referring to off-park efforts, like the Dead Coconut Club).

It all seems a bit rote and too familiar as we careen into 2025. What could USO do to mix things up a bit? I'm not talking about anything that would break the bank or potentially cause guest issues, but juicy morsels that would be surprising to the average jaded HHN veteran. Or are you just fine with the status quo?

I know this seems superfluous for an event that regularly sells out, but injecting some freshness into affairs would, IMO, be beneficial, particularly in the long run.

A houses based on Alice coopers album “along came a spider” would be awesome. It’s a concept album about a serial killer that has an obsession with spiders

I am planning a trip with friends for this fall and I noticed on the website it says "select nights" from Aug 29 - Nov 2. If we start our trip on November 2nd, would it be pretty much guaranteed to be operating on that final day?

I figure they wouldn't list that as the last day if it weren't open, but the select nights wording has me hung up. One person on the trip has never been before and wants a night of HHN, so it's big factor as to when we go.

I made a post a while ago with a custom HHN lineup but this is pretty much it in words. First of Late Night With The Devil in the theatre. I think HHN tried to do this but instead they went with Late Night With CHUCKY. Second of all Hannibal Lecter's Terror Tram. Featuring Leatherface and the Sawyers. Obviously including Norman Bates and the motel. If your a geek like me you'd know all three movies were inspired by notorious serial killer Ed Gein. Also PLEASE BRING BACK JUPITERS CLAIM!!!! Third a really cool area would be titled "Anthology." This would include a scare zone. Maybe like the Trick 'R Treat one in Orlando. Mazes in this area would include Trick 'r Treat, Creepshow, and to expand on these two Halloween (1974), Halloween III, OR Krampus would compliment them well. Fourth I think Scarecrow The Reaping would make a good scare zone. Maybe where Monsterous has been for a few years. Some additional houses that would be cool as honorable mentions are Terrifier, Poltergeist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the house), and The Shining. MORE GORE PLZ!!!

I can’t believe in the almost 35 year history of HHN, only 3 of those years have had houses based off video games. Universal should be aware that they’d draw huge crowds right? I’m pretty sure The Last of Us was the most popular house of 2023 on both coasts. They could even bring back Resident Evil or Silent Hill, seeing as not only are they both extremely popular franchises, but both just got and continue to get games that sell millions of copies.

Here are a few ideas I would have for video game houses for horror nights-

•Persona 3/Persona 3 Reload While not fully a horror game, the imagery and themes alone make it pretty terrifying. Just imagine walking through tartarus, dodging shadows while SEES fights them off.

•Dark Souls/Bloodborne Again not fully horror, but just the imagery alone would make for a cool house. Bloodborne especially.

•Dead by Daylight My dream house, honestly. Imagine you step into the shoes of one of the four chosen survivors, trying to escape killers like The Trapper and The Unknown from hooking you. Universal already has the film rights it seems.

•Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2 Would be really cool seeing Coach, Ellis, Nick, Rochelle, Bill, and the rest of the gang fighting off hordes of zombies in person, while also seeing the special infected as well.

•Five Nights at Freddy’s Universal already has made the film, but it’d be pretty cool if they had a house that was tied closer to the original games.

•Dead Space Can you imagine walking in a cold and dark space station, while Isaac fends off against the Necromorphs as you’re trying to escape?

If you guys have any ideas, post them below!

I love chucky and I didn’t get to go to Halloween horror 2023. I went to 2024 and the only Chucky related things was Chucky’s dive bar and Chucky’s late night. Is there a chance of a Chucky house this year like the one in 2023?

I've been hearing there will be a house focused on one of the scenes from SS2. If you had to pick one of the scenes to make a standalone house, what would you pick and why? I'd pick Blood and Chum!

I went to my first horror nights during the series 1 screamers and had to get them all. Past few years I’ve only really picked up the screamers that looked cool or that I wanted. But I was just curious looking on eBay or anywhere on the internet and there is no prices, past sales, or really anything on the series 1? Are they now impossible to find? What are they going for?

Looking for some valentines gift ideas for the HHN lover since we can’t buy any official HHN stuff throughout the year 😢

Does anyone know what nights premier pass holders can go to hhn? I can't seem to find a list of the non peak nights.

Pretty sure a Gargoyle zone or house will be coming to Hollywood. It could be a Gothic sequel or another story but given that immortal masks have a Gargoyle complete set out with a logo, which kinda resembles how they advertised the Lucha masks last year and at the same time frame too, plus add in Murdy talking about how he was researching structures(his bollard vs balustrade twitter comment)… a bollard is a fixed post made to prevent vehicles from passing or made for piers for boats to tie off on. On the other hand a balustrade is used as a decorative railing structure that could be seen on Gothic architecture. So maybe a Gothic related theme or a shipping/pier theme. All this is speculation as of now with supporting material. Look to see more solid spec info coming out around mid February.

Im curious to see what houses you guys are predicting for this year given its the beginning of spec season and were already at a peak, this is my second spec season in a row and i want to know your ideas. Heres what im thinking/wishfully thinking lol:

Terrifier: Self explanatory, a house based on terrifier lol

TLoU pt.II: Yet again, self explanatory lol

Scream? I know its a running joke that scream is cursed, i just kinda threw this in for hokes but it would be a cool slasher for this year. Not a serious addition to my list tho.

Horrors of blumhouse: I think probably either Megan and Wolfman or FNaF and wolfman. I know they didn't work out something that scott was happy with for a FNaF house last year but i think now would have been enough time for them to work out a deal and it would call a huge crowd because the FNaF audience is actually huge as proven by the movies opening box office reports. Also with both megan and wolfman having appearances at the park last year and Megan also having the horde the year prior. Im only thinking megan less because shes been at the park the past two years and audiences could possibly be getting tired of it but idk because i was never a big fan of the megan film anyway.

Ghost: Based on the band, could be the music based house for this year, i don't even really have any other reason to speculate this aside from it would be cool and they've played a couple ghost songs before when filling seats for nightmare fuel.

Monstrous: Idk much about hispanic folk lore but it makes for really cool houses so sign me up! That and the fact that the houses have been pretty popular in the past.

Universal Monsters: Rain of The Creature (Bad name, idk i js came up with it on the spot lol) It would be about creatures escape from Frankenstein castle and his inevitable rain of terror upon the path to get back to black lagoon, i think we're long overdue for creature to have a house.

Hatchet&Chain: A house based on the coolest segment form ss2 last year, but it could also be heavy metal hell 3d and finally bring back the early 3d houses

Im not even close to sure with the next few because they're complete originals (originals that aren uni monsters and ss) so bare that in mind

An Odyssey house: I think it would be cool if there were a horror based approach to the Odyssey because some of that stuff would be terrifying like sirens and polyphemus eating like half of your men. Also they have an opportunity to repurpose the La Lechuza puppet and costumes from last years Monstruos house.

A twisted Christmas Carol house: Lets be honest, a Christmas carol is already kinda a creepy story given its literally based on ghosts. Thats it. Thats my reasoning.

Thats it, half of these are purely based on what would be cool, idk. Ive also heard an idea that we could actually be getting a house based on the poltergeist tv series and thats what the ghost icon meant on the spec map. Idk, i interpreted that as the band ghost but the poltergeist series might make more sense so idk lol.

The last HNN spec map featured a ghost wearing a Santa hat and Christmas lights. Do we have any idea what that meant or if that ghost is still in play? I know speculation maps can shift and change a lot. Insiders have deconfirmed Beetlejuice, so could any other IPs realistically be on the table?

Original Houses:

1. A spin-off of Slaughter Sinema on a children's programming and cartoon channel similar to Cartoon Network and Fox Kids.
2. Scary Tales: The Wizard of Oz
3. Hell's High Sequel
4. Eddie Origin House
5. A house that pays tribute to the early years of HHN
6. Lady Luck House
7. Japanese Urban Legends (Featuring: Kuchisake-onna, Hanako san, Teke Teke, Futakuchi-onna)
8. Tim Burton inspired House
9. Werewolfs Girls VS Vampire Boys
10. Zombie Prom
11. Nostalgia Theme Houses

IPs

1. Thirteen Ghost
2. My Bloody Valentine
3. Gorillaz: Demon Days or D-Side
4. Melanie Martinez: Cry Baby
5. Universal Monsters: The Phantom of The Opera
6. Crymson Peak
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
8. Hellraiser
9. Return of The Living Dead
10. Candyman
11. Ice Nine Kills

Hello! This year I’ll be going to the Florida Universal for horror nights this year, after years of only going to Hollywood! Is there any big differences, other than number of houses, and the size of the park itself?

I’ll be going to Universal, Islands of Adventure, and Epic Universe during my trip as well. Which tickets would be the best to get? I know HHN has its own separate tickets.