Reviews, rankings, and videos for all haunted houses at Halloween Horror Nights 2024 (Orlando)
It’s time for our annual ranking of all 10 haunted houses at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights!
Halloween Horror Nights are back
We were invited by Universal Orlando to attend a special media night experience and go through all 10 haunted houses at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights 33. This is our ranking of all the best and worst haunted houses at Universal Studios Florida!
This list reflects our individual experience and preferences based on the first night of the event, so your rankings might differ based on which scares you encounter, your familiarity with the house themes, and your personal preferences.
We’re including spoiler-free notes about each house as well as some fun Easter eggs! We’re also giving you the food-based code name each haunted house used during construction, as the designers hid a nod to these names in each house, so have fun finding them.
Dive into our rankings to see which houses thrilled us the most and find out where your favorite ended up! You can find our videos of each haunted house below or on our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/AttractionsMagazine. (Note: Guests are ordinarily not allowed to film or photograph inside haunted houses.)
#10: ‘A Quiet Place’
Official description
Silence your screams if you want to survive the terrifying, post-apocalyptic world. Like the Abbott family, you must keep quiet as you travel from the farmhouse to the woods, to the foundry. As soon as you make a sound, monstrous creatures who can hear the slightest noise, will hunt you down and silence you for good.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Cookies
Easter Egg
Notice the items in the store window that haven’t been looted yet. The iconic spaceship toy from the movie is there, as well as various other noisy foods and items which would have been dangerous in a world where silence is golden.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation:
Set during the events of “A Quiet Place” and “A Quiet Place Part II,” this house does not include content from the newest film, “A Quiet Place: Day One.” The experience was surprisingly dark throughout, with many locations hard to see. The movie’s main tension is built around the absolute silence and inability to make a sound, which is hard to recreate in an Halloween Horror Nights haunted house.
Set in modern day, none of the locales from the movie are particularly memorable or interesting in the house. The lack of iconic moments and some less-engaging scares contribute to an overall mixed impression. Performers in the house are using actual American Sign Language, which is really pretty cool, but unless you can understand the signs, this fact may not resonate with most guests. Fans of the movie may find more here to love, but ultimately, “A Quiet Place” is a disappointing place.
#9: ‘Goblin’s Feast’
Official description
Enter a goblin village, where a feast is being prepared for goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, and witches. And you’re the main course.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Sundae (look for a gross sundae in the house)
Easter Egg
You can follow the lineage of the Goblin King Pusnubber through various paintings and lines of dialogue through the house.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
“Goblin’s Feast” is themed around a goblin harvest where various goblin factions submit their best offerings for the feast, namely the choicest cuts of human flesh. The house has an interesting transition between guests first being welcomed to the feast and then realizing they are intended to be part of it.
While the house features some impressive scenery, the scares can feel repetitive. While there is supposed to be a variety of different types of goblinoid creatures in the house, it starts to feel really the same throughout. During our experience, at least one cool moment was ruined by either a lack of a puppeteer or a malfunction, so your results may vary there. Ultimately, this house is unfortunately forgettable.
#8: ‘Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America’
Official description
¡Ten cuidado! With La Muerte as your guide, try to survive the night with three terrifying legends: Tlahuelpuchi, La Lechuza, and El Silbón.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Flan
Easter Egg
Each of the monsters showcased has a painting showing off the creature before you enter their section. But if you stare long enough, the paintings become see-through, revealing a physical version of the monster behind.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
This house showcases Latin American folklore with a figure called La Muerte telling the stories of three different creatures. The use of stilt walkers and puppetry adds to the eerie atmosphere, and the prevalent smell effects — including a room with a scent reminiscent of, shall we say, bird excrement — contribute to the immersive experience.
“Monstruos” offers a range of effective scares and an engaging representation of Latin American mythological creatures. This house doesn’t rank higher on the list due to the lack of clarity on the monsters, their names, and their particularities. We had an RIP guide, who explained to us several times what each of the creature’s deals were, and I still found myself unclear on them as I went through the house and had to content myself with just enjoying the scares.
#7: ‘Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines’
Official description
Get caught in an epic battle as Saskia Van Helsing and the Bride of Frankenstein go up against Dracula’s daughter and her monstrous mavens.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Doughnuts
Easter Egg
This house, featuring a cast of female monsters and characters, was directed by a woman and features custom music by Emmy-nominated Sara Baron.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
The Universal Classic Monsters house features an ongoing storyline where Saskia Van Helsing teams up with The Bride of Frankenstein to seek revenge against Dracula’s daughter and a band of classic female monsters or female versions of said monsters.
“Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines” has some of the best projections I’ve seen at Horror Nights, maybe ever. The storyline of this house feels a bit too forced for my liking and is pushed forward by narrations from Saskia, which unfortunately take too long for an event which wants to move you through quickly. As such, I found myself often unsure of why we were wherever we were and just spent my time looking for the next scares. Scares being the name of the game, this is mostly fine, but a clear and compelling story we could actually follow would have gone a long way.
#6: ‘The Museum: Deadly Exhibits’
Official description
A folklore museum’s newest exhibit, The Rotting Stone, has released an evil spirit that decays everything. And it’s coming for you.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Baklava
Easter Egg
Many of the signs through out the museum tell real history about various objects, if you can linger long enough to read them.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
“The Museum: Deadly Exhibits” centers around the Rotting Stone, a powerful artifact that causes death and destruction wherever it goes. As the stone begins spreading its rot through the museum, its exhibits, workers, and other inanimate objects come to life to attack the guests.
I was really looking forward to this house, as some of my favorite scares form the past were from innocuous inanimate objects, but unfortunately most of the scares in “The Museum: Deadly Exhibits” came from museum workers or human-shaped exhibits denying me the joy of being startled by an armchair. This house does use people disguised as parts of the walls, which is always effective, and has some potent smell effects — such as weird fishy odors in certain rooms — that add to the overall creepy atmosphere.
#5: ‘Major Sweets Candy Factory’
Official description
You’re chaperoning a field trip to a candy factory when the free samples transform the kids into candy-coated killers.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Pie
Easter Egg
Look for characters making a return appearance from the Sweet Revenge scare zone including a certain “puking” friend.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
“Major Sweets Candy Factory” serves as a prequel to the “Sweet Revenge”” scare zone from HHN31. Here guests play the role of chaperones for kids on a field trip who go wild inside the candy factory.
I rather like the storyline, which gives guests a role and reason to be in the building aside from “wrong place, wrong time.” The gore and gross-outs are amplified in this house, so those with squeamish stomachs should beware (although if that’s you, I have bad news about the rest of HHN).
“Major Sweets Candy Factory” contains one of my favorite all time Halloween Horror Nights elements called a Guest-Activated Trigger, or GAT: in other words, a big red button just begging guests to push it, which causes an actual response from the house. It’s not too difficult to locate, but definitely worth a push just to see what happens.
#4: ‘Triplets of Terror’
Official description
You’re invited to the Barmy triplets’ birthday celebration. But their kind of party involves recreating the murders of their entire family.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Fudge Cake
Easter Egg
The Barmy House number is 3324, referencing HHN33 and 2024.
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
In “Triplets of Terror,” guests encounter the Barmy triplets — Harmony, Junior, and Melody — who, for the past 40 years, have reenacted their ninth birthday in which they killed the rest of their family. The story progresses with each scene depicting a different birthday, showing the triplets as they age, murdering a new family.
The haunted house features effective jump scares and maintains a strong narrative through-line. A framing device of true crime podcasts discussing the killings and trying to predict the next one enhances the overall experience by depicting the evolving story of the triplets.
#3: ‘Insidious: The Further’
Official description
Don’t get trapped in The Further as terrifying demons try to ensnare you. Enter the Red-Faced Demon’s lair behind The Red Door. And try to keep away from KeyFace, so he can’t lock up your spirit.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Pudding
Easter Egg
If you feel yourself get wet walking through this house, look up. You may be surprised by the source of the spray …
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
Set in the “Insidious” universe, this house doesn’t follow the plot of any given movie, but instead features guests walking through “The Further,” an evil purgatory-like dimension full of lost souls and demons.
Familiarity with the franchise is not necessary to enjoy the “Insidious: The Further” haunted house, though an awareness of the baddies and their place in the world could heighten enjoyment.
This house featured perhaps my favorite scare of the night when an over aggressive bride lunged at me from across hall and just kept coming! This house is notable for its large assortment of “boo doors” assigned to each performer, meaning they can get you multiple times and often from unexpected angles. The simple yet incredibly effective use of mirrors in this house allows scareactors to feel like they are literally appearing out of thin air, playing into the surrealism of the “Insidious” world.
#2: ‘Slaughter Sinema 2’
Official description
It’s time for another horror movie marathon at the Carey Drive-in! Scream through scenes from creature features, grindhouse gore, and more.
Universal Orlando
Codename: Cobbler
Easter Egg
Many of the actors, producers, etc. on the posters in the house reference actual people involved in the creation of Halloween Horror Nights Orlando (such as Lora Souls being a reference to creative director Lora Sauls from Carey, Ohio).
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
“Slaughter Sinema 2” is, as you may guess, a sequel to the original “Slaughter Sinema” haunted house from Halloween Horror Nights 28. Then, as now, the house features fake “movies” for guests to walk through: eight this time around.
Using the framing device of the Carey Drive-In, each transition is marked by movie posters that set up the scenes, immersing guests in the varied movie-themed scares. As a comedy house, this one nails the delivery, providing scares and laughs in equal measure. I was particularly impressed that the house doesn’t linger on movie setups that wouldn’t provide enough material for a full house. Sometimes the joke of the movie is just enough for one single room, and sometimes it rates more, but they never overstay their welcome.
#1: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’
Official description
A bone-chilling new specter has escaped from an ancient artifact, and he’ll stop you cold. The Ghostbusters must team up to save you and the rest of the world from a second Ice Age.
Universal Orlando
Codename: S’mores (of course)
Easter Egg
Look really close at the various mini Stay Puft Marshmallow men to see that some of them actually move!
Halloween Horror Nights rankings explanation
Truly, my unexpected favorite this year. What, I think, will be many people’s most anticipated house, was one I was apprehensive about due to previous houses based on intellectual properties failing to hit the mark. But “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” delivers in spades.
Based on the newest film in the “Ghostbusters” franchise, fans will also recognize nods and cameos from previous “Ghostbusters” films. The set design was wonderful, featuring locales from the movie including the iconic firehouse. Even the lesser known places from the new movie are so lovingly brought to life so guests will quickly understand the context. Impressive costumes, unexpected scares, beautiful set design and construction, and a through line to the house that never falters put “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” at the top of our rankings!
Plan your visit to Halloween Horror Nights … and create your own rankings list!
Halloween Horror Nights 2024 runs select nights through Nov. 3 at Universal Orlando. Ticket options range from single night, frequent fear, guided tours, and more. To purchase tickets or for more information visit UniversalOrlando.com. Note: This event may be too intense for some, and is not recommended for children under the age of 13.
After you have had a chance to go through the houses, or watch all our videos, let us know below which are your favorites.
More Attractions Magazine stories:
Follow us:
Ready for adventure? Our trusted partner Universal Fan Travel will handle the planning so you can focus on the fun. They offer free vacation-planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating epic vacations. Visit Universal Fan Travel for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today.
