Ranking Our Favorite 2024 Halloween Horror Nights Houses By Intensity
It’s never too early to start planning your trip to the scariest event of “spooky season”. We braved the fog and screams to give you the ultimate guide to have the best experience at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando. Here’s our rankings of all 10 haunted houses ranging from least to most scary.
Halloween Horror Nights is happening on select nights now through November 3. This year marks the 33rd event and Universal went all out this year. You can brave through 10 haunted houses, 5 scare zones, a live show, and all kinds of themed snacks. This years “theme” introduces 2 monsters in the Duality of Fear scare zone: Sinister and Surreal. Sinister represents physical pain and torture and Surreal embodies emotional pain and mental anguish. There’s also a whole scare zone dedicated to Blumhouse and the Swamp of the Undead.
My favorite highlight of this years Halloween Horror Nights is the Stay-Puft S’more at the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire kiosk. If you haven’t seen a sneak peek of this viral treat yet, it’s a shareable s’more with a huge Stay-puft marshmallow. The marshmallow’s are toasted right in front of you and tastes like it came straight from a campfire. Don’t be spooked by the long line as it goes by pretty quickly and is totally worth it!
From bloody walls to complete darkness, here’s our rankings of all 10 Halloween Horror Nights Haunted Houses from least to most terrifying:
10. Goblin’s Feast
Enter the goblin village where a feast is being prepared for goblins, orcs, hobgoblins and witches. Soon you’ll realize it’s not just any feast, you’re the main course. This house has some spectacular goblin creatures but compared to some effects in the other houses, it can seem a little sillier than intended.
9. The Museum of Deadly Exhibits
This is a new house from The Museum of International Folklore. In this house, the Rotting Stone is loose and decaying everything in its path. This house is really more fun to look at the details than it is for a jump scare.
8. Slaughter Sinema 2
Admittedly this was one of my favorite houses this year, but not because it’s level of intensity. This is a “sequel” house from the 2018 Slaughter Sinema experience. Guests will jump into the worlds of some B-movies in each room. From Mardi Gras Murders to a huge animatronic shark (no, not from Jaws), there’s so many ideas and films thrown into this house. My all time favorite room? The stripper mummy.
7. Major Sweets Candy Factory
This house was created from a scare zone in 2022 and now Major Sweets and Miss Treats has their own house. For some, chaperoning a field trip is enough to send them running to the hills. But if you’re brave enough to walkthrough this not-so-sweet candy factory, where they turn children into killers, then this might be one of your favorites. I wouldn’t categorize this house as scary but delightfully weird. The best part is the Guest Activated Trigger, where you can push a giant red button to enact a response from the house.
6. Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
Universal Monsters is always one of my favorite houses at Halloween Horror Nights. And this year is a play on women’s wrongs, meaning every monster in this house are all female! Choose sides in an epic battle between Van Helsing’s daughter, Saskia Van Helsing and Bride of Frankenstein vs Dracula’s daughter and other iconic characters.
5. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the Ghostbusters house, it was one of my favorites this year. But it wasn’t getting me with any jump scares. However, the house is so detailed in themes from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (complete with a Dan Aykroyd look-a-like) which is what made it one of my favorites to walk through. As you enter the house through Ray’s Occult Books you feel like you’re instantly transported to the Ghostbusters universe. You may even want to do 2 walk throughs to make sure you don’t miss the little details!
4. Triplets of Terror
We love a house that focuses on the little details and themes which is what made Triplets of Terror one of our favorites, plus it’ll actually get your heart-rate going too. This house follows the Barmy triplets—Junior, Melody, and Harmony—who killed their family at their 9th birthday party on March 3rd and celebrate the event with a new massacre every decade. When you walk up to the Barmy house, you’ll see the address 3324. Which is an easter egg to the story of the house and of course, the 33rd year of Halloween Horror Nights. Normally I’d rather see a house featuring an iconic slasher like Michael Meyers, Ghostface, or Jason. But this is actually the first original slasher characters Universal has made for HHN, which is pretty cool.
3. Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America
Now we get into the top 3. In this house we meet Tlahuelpuchi, a wicked monster who sucks the blood from infants, which is one of the opening scenes in the house. You’ll also meet other wicked monsters from Latin American cultures like La Lechuza and El Silbón. Even if you aren’t well versed in these Latin American creatures, there are definitely a few jump scares in this house that will sneak up on you.
2. A Quiet Place
Being a huge fan of the “A Quiet Place” films, I was so excited to walk through this house. Even though the movies are centered around being silent, you’ll hear many screams when walking through this house at HHN. The pitch-black darkness and eerie throaty clicks from the Death Angels will have you suspenseful around every corner. You’ll follow the Abbott family through the first 2 sections of the house and some familiar scenes from A Quiet Place: Day One. One of the coolest details in this house is even some of the scare actors were taught some American Sign Language. But if you’re unfamiliar or just focused on surviving you may miss it!
1. Insidious: The Further
Don’t be surprised when you see an insanely long wait time for this house. And trust me when I say it’s WORTH IT! You enter The Further through the giant red door before you’re met with creatures like Red Face Demon and the Bride in Black in places where you least expect it. In other houses, it’s easy to guess or tell where the scare actor will jump out. But in Insidious: The Further, there are many well-hidden boo holes and scare zones. This is one of the longer houses so prepared to be on edge.
