Halloween Horror Nights 2025: Art the Clown rules the roost as Five Nights at Freddy’s joins the fun
The City of Angels has become a city of demons as Universal Studios Hollywood plays host to some of cinema’s foulest creations, just in time for spooky season
By Darren Scott
Halloween Horror Nights returns once more this month and the annual event, which sees four global Universal theme parks turn to scream parks by night, has again somehow managed to surpass even their own high benchmark.
That’s in part down to a set of five well-known franchise properties that appear as haunted houses in both Hollywood, LA, and their east coast counterpart, Universal Studios Orlando.
Amazon’s apocalyptic series Fallout and Blumhouse movie Five Nights At Freddy’s – both based on wildly popular games – bring new fanbases to HHN, as does WWE: The Horror’s Of The Wyatt Sicks. If you think that wrestling doesn’t belong in a horror event, you have to experience how brilliant this haunted house actually is. You don’t even need to be a fan of wrestling, it just works.
Serial slashers new and old complete the quintet with the return of Friday The 13th as Jason Universe – a relentless gauntlet of attacking Voorhees’s from across multiple movies – and the HHN debut of new horror icon, Art the Clown, in Terrifier.
“The rise of creepy yet camp Art in the pantheon of horror is unparalleled”
All of these would be the stars of any regular HHN year, but the rise of creepy yet camp Art in the pantheon of horror is unparalleled. It’s been years – possibly decades – since a horror character has been this popular.
With that in mind, it’s a stroke of genius that various versions of Art are freely roaming both theme parks, popping up where you’d least expect him. In a diner, browsing the stores – even appearing in the opening scare-amony at Hollywood. The fact it’s been hugely successful is unsurprising, with the resulting video clips of guest interactions all over TikTok and Instagram.
The Terrifier house is the largest on both coasts, collecting “the best” of Art’s, erm, inventive kills across all three movies. It’s the goriest house that HHN has ever done, and certainly not for the faint-hearted or those with a weak stomach. Oh, and you’ll get soaking wet in numerous scenes where you’re sprayed with either fake bleach or fake blood. Fun!
In Hollywood you can take a trip on the Terror Tram: Enter The Blumhouse and come face-to-face – and sometimes we mean that quite literally – with some of the studio’s most iconic characters. Yes, you can get a meet and greet with M3GAN along the way and yes, of course she’s holding a machete.
Ever wanted to see The Grabber on ice? You got it! To tie in with the upcoming Black Phone 2 – which some are already lauding as the horror film of the year – he glides out of nowhere, covered in frost.
“Who wouldn’t stop to pose with Anthony Perkins lookalike?”
The Terror Tram is exclusive to Hollywood and is extensive, with multiple scares and, obviously, a killer dance routine from M3GAN. And while he’s not part of the Blumhouse legacy, it would be rude for Norman Bates not to pop out of his iconic Psycho house and say hello, given that it’s on your route. And hey, who wouldn’t stop to pose with an Anthony Perkins lookalike? Just don’t let the knife put you off…
For those seeking even more Blumhouse, you can also check out water-based stunt show, The Purge: Dangerous Waters.
But it’s not all based on films – the original content houses are firing on all cylinders across both coasts. Hollywood has murderous scarecrows with new music by Slash, the culmination of their Monstruos trilogy with The Ghosts Of Latin America – featuring some truly jaw-dropping scenes – while Orlando welcome you to your own grave in a sinister cemetery and invite you into a haunted country manor for El Artista: A Spanish Haunting.
This house – described by some as “The Haunted Mansion for adults” – is a thing of absolute gothic beauty, with the Universal production team building an incredible facade before filling the manor with Pepper’s ghost effects, moving statues and flying gargoyles overhead. It’s simply stunning and deserves to be a permanent attraction.
But if you want to go back to the camp – and we’d never dream of judging! – Hollywood’s scarezone Murder Of Crowz has giant crow people following you around and generally pestering you, while Noche de Brujas has a bunch of evil, cackling witches hunting you. Yes, we know that sounds like an average night out for many of you…
Orlando’s scare zones include a vampire masquerade ball, a wicked witch turning children into cats – love that for her – zombies on roller-skates at a diner and new area Club Horror, which offers more of a dance vibe for guests. And yes, Art the Clown has been known to take to the DJ booth. There really is no escaping him!
With live entertainment, bespoke food and drink, exclusive merchandise and, of course, roaming chainsaw hordes, there’s never been a better time to add an HHN ticket to your theme park experience. Yes, there are scares but it’s all such frightful fun that you’d be mad to miss out on something that’s around for such a limited time.
All of this is just a fraction of what both US parks are offering as part of Halloween Horror Nights, in an event which feels like it’s been ramped up a year ahead of anniversary celebrations in 2026. Goodness knows how they’re going to top it, but we’re absolutely here for the challenge they’ve set themselves. Halloween’s never been more popular, and with a production like HHN it’s not hard to see why.
Halloween Horror Nights is at Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood until 2 November. Visit halloweenhorrornights.com. Flights and package deals are available from virginatlantic.com. Ticket deals at attractiontickets.com and LA info at discoverlosangeles.com.