This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads over to the Universal Orlando Resort and checks out the premier haunt event *in the world* Halloween Horror Nights!

It is pretty amazing to watch how much HHN has grown in the past decade, as it now goes far beyond the event in Universal Studios Florida, starting with…

# 6 – Across Universal Orlando Hotels

Many of Universal’s on-site hotels have fun HHN related photo-ops along with exclusive menu items. Let’s check out some of our favorites including this fun Kraken-inspired photo-op at Dockside Inn &  Suites.

A quick peek at the photo-op from the side shows the 3D effect that is created with the props.

Aventura Hotel has a great extraterrestrial theme in it’s lobby, including this photo op that includes vacationers being abducted by being pulled up to a UFO in the sky (which has the same “fidget spinner” design as the hotel itself!)

The hotel’s lobby bar, barVentura has also been taken over by an alien band.

Aventura has three exclusive cocktails that you can get at barVentura and the rooftop Bar 17 Bistro.

Shockingly the Royal Pacific Resort has one of the most mailed in photo-ops at any of the hotels, which is bonkers because RPR is one of the best resorts on property. This “Jungle of Doom” is less that’s cool and more that’s it?

Hard Rock Hotel – which has become my favorite premier hotel at Universal (thanks to the incredible dining at The Kitchen along with their amazing Unleashed program for pets staying onsite) – has a zombie band photo-op. Should also note that both the Hard Rock Hotel AND the Hard Rock Cafe in Citywalk also sell some pretty cool Halloween themed merchandise.

On the other side of the coin is what they have going on over at Portofino Bay Hotel. Besides a photo-op by the lobby, the Thirsty Fish bar on the piazza is completely re-themed to “Dead Man’s Pier.”

We’ve seen some great theming of bars at Cabana Bay and Surfside Inn & Suites, but this is taking it to the next level.

No expense was spared.

The makeover also comes with seasonal menu items.

The only three hotels at Universal that don’t have anything extra going on during HHN season are the three that opened up closest to Epic Universe (Terra Nova, Stella Nova, and Grand Helios Hotel.)

# 5 – Citywalk

Universal Citywalk also has some fun photo-ops with their Halloween Market display.

The lighting elements at night make this area stand out.

The Red Coconut Club has once again been transformed into the Dead Coconut Club, and this year’s theme is “Koven,” a witches college sorority house.

There are a ton of great gags both inside and outside the building. Pay close attention because you’ll see stuff like this broom stand outside (which has several brooms with bicycle locks on them) along with a note…

…a note that reads in the same passive aggressive style many of us write when we are at that age.

Inside there is a whole bunch of wild theming and fun photo-ops like this couch below.

There are notes throughout Koven, all written as if college aged witches are experiencing roommates for the first time.

Rumors and Innuendo suggest there are several Universal Orlando Team Members in this group photo of alumni. I spotted current President and COO of Universal Karen Irwin in the top center, along with Laura Sauls (creative director) to Irwin’s right. Have to say seeing everything in Koven, but especially this photo makes me want to rewatch Revenge of the Nerds and see my Lamba Lamda Lamda boys in action again but I think that movie has been#Me-Too’d out of existence on this mortal plane.

There are so many cool visual elements inside Koven that it’s worth taking a walk through just to experience the theming.

Koven is also a dance club featuring several bars and a menu featuring a whole bunch of new drinks, including the Midnight Grove.

Our beloved Toothsome Chocolate Emporium has its annual HHN season shake called the Vampire’s Kiss.

Not only do you get the Toothsome branded milkshake “mason jar,” but the back also has the Halloween Horror Nights logo. That’s a great touch.

The only milkshake this haunt season with a pair of edible vampire fangs, that’s for sure.

Toothsome changed the game when it came to next level bonkers shakes in the Florida theme park world and its good to see that they are forging ahead with more monstrosities that are mmm mmm good. Toothsome has shakes for people of all ages, lack of common sense and any dietary restrictions, (to the far left of the Vampire’s Kiss below is the vegan friendly Pineapple Upside Down shake.)

They took a while to arrive, but Voodoo Doughnut has some great HHN adjacent offerings including this Frankenstein’s Monster donut. The name of this donut is “It’s Alive” which reminds of the odd named “Frank ‘n Friends Pretzel” at Epic Universe.

We also have the Salty Wolf Man…

…and a Jason Universe donut (there is a HHN house this year with the same name.)

Meanwhile the Be Fair To Florida movement took another hit this season because out at Universal Studios Hollywood their Voodoo Doughnut also has a Vampire option. Did you also know that out at USH Citywalk they just opened a new pizza place that offers 26 different options along with slices to go? Time to remind them that we here in Orlando are the straw that stirs the drink!

Can’t leave Citywalk without heading into Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. and check out their amazing merchandise including Forest running through a graveyard to find Bubba (who, in my head canon, is now a zombie.)

We also have a twist on one of Forest Gump’s most famous lines with this “Spooky is as spooky does” shirt. It features a skeleton Forest captaining the Jenny. Also, a half skeleton of LT Dan at the top of the mast! Just incredible. Five million stars and wins Best Piece of Merchandise for this season.

# 4 – The Merchandise

Speaking of merchandise, HHN 34 itself is filled with some great items this year including a whole bunch of products featuring everyone’s favorite pumpkin, Lil’ Boo.

One of the bigger IPs brought in this year by Universal is Five Nights at Freddy’s. This is a video game/movie franchise that centers around homicidal animatronic characters at a Chuck E. Cheese-like pizza restaurant. I’m imagining the video games are great, because I watched the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie and it fits into my category of Bobby Heenan-inspred “Million dollar body, 10 cent brain” category. Anyway, the concept of a haunted pizza place is just fantastic and these Five Nights at Freddy’s cups that evoke the old red Pizza Hut cups of years past are one of my all time favorite pieces of HHN merchandise.

If you are a Five Nights at Freddy’s fan, there are ton of items available including head bands, plush, and keychains.

I really liked this kid’s shirt featuring the main characters from Five Nights at Freddy’s.

There is even a Loungefly bag.

You can even win Five Nights at Freddy’s plush at the Springfield Skill Games!

In recent years, Universal has been offering items during HHN that are a mash-up of Hello Kitty and the character Chucky from the Child’s Play series of films. This year they added a popcorn bucket into to the mix with the Hello Kitty mash-up character driving a haunted vehicle.

Like all the best theme park popcorn buckets, the container itself is the most impractical way to store popcorn that you could design.

This M3GAN popcorn bucket was actually released earlier this summer at movie theaters nation wide for the release of M3GAN 2.0 back in June.

I don’t think these popcorn buckets did well for movie theaters or Universal, because they were heavily discounted during HHN season. I think there’s a large demographic of people who love the M3GAN films and character and another large demographic of people who like insane popcorn buckets but unfortunately the Venn Diagram of those two demographics don’t overlap with each other much.

The movie franchise Terrifier also made it’s debut at HHN this year with a whole bunch of products, including an Art the Clown themed popcorn bucket. I’m not a big fan of horror films at all, but made an effort to check out the Terrifier films because they have been getting so much buzz. My review? “I am too old for this $#it.” No offense to Terrifier fans, but I don’t get it.

I do appreciate the design of the main character of the Terrifier films, Art the Clown. He translates very well to merchandise, including this keychain.

Whole bunch of Terrifier items are available, including buckets of cotton candy.

Huge fan of ugly Christmas sweaters, and I really liked this Terrifier shirt that is done in the style of those sweaters.

HamiKuma is a character that was created for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Japan and is so popular that they brought merchandise for this zombie teddy bear here to Florida. Pretty crazy how Universal had pretty much zero park-specific characters for 30 years and over the last half decade or so have pulled out some big winners with Earl the Squirrel, Lil’ Boo and HamiKuma.

Mash-ups are pretty much my favorite things in the theme park, so of course I love these Hello Kitty/Bride of Frankenstein pieces of merchanidse.

Also enjoy this Care Bears mash-up with Universal Classic Monsters.

Specific areas of HHN 34 have their own dedicated merchandise, such as this glassware for the Origins of Horror scare zone.

Or this Origins of Horror shirt.

Now one of the most iconic parts of any HHN season is the transformation of Mel’s DRIVE-IN to Mel’s DIE-IN.

However this year’s Mel’s became an actual scare zone for the event, including zombie carhops.

This was just a fantastic addition to HHN.

Even better? We got our first ever Mel’s DIE-IN merchandise line!

A whole bunch of items are available including shirts, bags, and magnets.

The UOAP passholder button has a deep cut for HHN 34 fans…

…as it references the codenames for some of the haunted houses that are in the event.

# 3 – The Food

Throughout Universal Studios Florida you’re going to find HHN-related snacks and items, even at places like the Today Café.

Louie’s Pizza has been “transformed” into Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place for HHN featuring several unique items on the menu.

Items like the Why Not Have Both Pizza & Pasta are exactly why we created the HHN Food Hall of Fame. A slice of Pepperoni pizza with baked spaghetti & meatballs and grated parmesan cheese is exactly what I’m talking about.

What’s truly fantastic over the last several years is the level of theming and creativity that goes into the outdoor kitchens and their menus. Many of the HHN houses have dedicated outdoor kitchens, including one featuring items from the Terrififer films.

The work put into these areas is just fantastic, way above and beyond what you would expect.

Possibly the biggest hit this year is the Death By Cheese Stick.

If you ever wanted a gigantic mozzarella stick, HHN has you covered.

For me the surprise hit was the Twisted Tater Chips, although I may be biased because Twisted Taters themselves would be on my HHN Snack Mt. Rushmore.

Have to plug this amazing piece of artwork by Jess Feldman that features many of the best items you can get at HHN this year.

I am a big fan of the show Fallout on Amazon Prime, but the Fallout Universe is much bigger because of the video game series the show is based on. The food items made for the Fallout outdoor kitchen were very good, but I’m imagining have even greater appeal to fans of the video game, just as last year’s The Last Of Us outdoor kitchen was for me.

I’m not even sure what this RAD AWAY stuff means in the Fallout Universe, but the presentation itself seems pretty dang cool and – again – I bet for Fallout fans this bag hits like the Fedra Rations container hit for me last year.

Loved me some HHN branded cans. The perfect addition to any Collectible Fridge.

Cheers to the food and drinks of HHN 34, one of the best year’s yet.

# 2 – The Scare Zones

A big part of any HHN are the scare zones that take place throughout the park as they are the first thing you will encounter once entering the event.

The first scare zone you will walk through is The Origins of Horror, and  here you will see some monuments to several of the HHN haunted houses. As a lifelong fan of professional wrestling, you can’t imagine what it was like for me to see the logo of a wrestling company immortalized inside a theme park. Two of the greatest loves of my life combined and right up there with HHN 32’s haunted comic book store.

Another statue features Freddy Fazbear from Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Among the creatures you’ll encounter are stone gargoyles that have come to life.

My favorite scare zone this year is The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane that is located in the Central Park area of USF. The gimmick of the scare zone is that you are walking into a children’s fairy tale about a crazy cat lady that lures children to her house and transforms them into felines.

You’ll see the three page story in the actual scare zone.

Here we have the Cat Lady herself.

The scareactors are dressed up as cats and the area is just WILD because you have all these fun elements that would appeal to cats, like string and balls of yarn.

The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane is a straight up E-Ticket concept and execution. Just fantastic.

Masquerade: Dance with Death takes place in the Hollywood area of the park and the backstory is that you’ve been invited to a Halloween masquerade that ends up being run by vampires.

Stained glass is definitely one of my favorite types of art forms and just can’t get enough of it.

I love that some of the Masquerade scareactors have the stained glass motif built into their character design.

One of the most underrated aspects of HHN is that their makeup and costuming department can get so many scareactors looking as good as they do in the time they have. Between the scare zones and houses there are seemingly a countless amount of scareactors and this isn’t like your local haunt with some goof wearing a Scream mask, these talented guys and gals put in the work.

In the San Francisco area we have Mutations: Toxic Twenties: Trouble.  Backstory here draws on a bit of HHN lore as a BuzzCon truck carrying toxic materials is hit by a local mobster’s getaway car and many residents of the town get infected. The company of BuzzCon made its debut back at HHN 31 in the Bugs: Eaten Alive house (which was one of my personal all time favorite houses.) I absolutely LOVE that HHN continues to build on its history and brings back references and Easter Eggs for fans of the event as compared to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween which pretty much just does the exact same event every single year.

Have to give a special shout out to Art the Clown who is sort of a free flowing scareactor that you may find roaming the streets of New York (or even watching the crown before HHN even starts.)

Art has a statue in the Origins of Fear scare zone as a monument to the Terrifier haunted house in the park…

…but the real star of HHN 34 are the Team Members who portray Art around the park. There’s a lot of talented men and women playing characters during the event, but Art is always on another level.

Art’s interactions have gone viral on social media as everyone wants to be the next to have that special “experience” but in my view those type of things should just be seen as something magical when you go through the park, like interacting with the character of Beetlejuice during the daytime at USF. Kudos to the TMs playing Art this year because they have nailed it.

# 1 – The Haunted Houses

Here we are. The main event. The big draw to every HHN… the haunted houses. This year HHN has a total of 10 haunted houses with a mix of popular IP and original creations. As always the amount of work that goes into all of these houses is mind-boggling and this is from top to bottom one of the best years I’ve ever seen.

(NOTE: you can not film/photograph anything inside a house during an HHN event. Many of the pictures you will see below were taking during Unmasking The Horror tours. These tours are given during the day, where small groups of guests are given a “lights on” tour while having a Team Member give a lot of behind the scenes info. In my book this is an absolute MUST DO as you not only get to see a ton of things you will surely miss during the actual event, but you also get a fascinating look at how HHN is put together. To me, Unmasking the Horror is just as invaluable as Disney’s Keys to the Kingdom tour in terms of getting a deeper understanding of the parks we love and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into creating them.

Let’s take a quick look at all the houses using my personal scale of best to “worst.” This list is completely biased as we’ll start off with something I thought I’d never live to see… a house based on professional wrestling characters. The Horrors of the Wyatt’s Sicks is based on the works of Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunto, who passed away in 2023. Bray Wyatt was introduced into the WWE back in the Summer of 2013 and I remember being transfixed by his entrance. I was so mesmerized and in love with the character that I purchased his theme song (which, to put into context, is one of maybe 3-5 songs I have bought in my entire life.)

The amount of creativity that Bray Wyatt brought to the WWE is second to none and the house is a brilliant tribute to his work. The house also had one of the most “WOW” moments of any HHN as WWE Superstar Alexis Bliss had a little fun interacting with guests inside the actual house. This was Universal’s version of Johnny Depp showing up in Disneyland and doing a performance of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

The end of the Wyatt’s Sicks house has a wonderful tribute to the legacy of Bray Wyatt with his rocking chair and lantern. I’m not sure how many people reading this know how many professional wrestlers love the theme parks and visit them regularly, and I imagine that Windham Rotunda is out there somewhere with a huge smile on his face seeing how many guests love this house.

As a struggling artist myself, you can imagine that a house based on an artist would have a lot of appeal to me, and boy does El Artista: A Spanish Haunting come through in spades.

Just a visually stunning experience and the exact type of work Universal Creative can do when they aren’t constrained by IP holders.

Another standout original creation is Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters. These takes place in the old west, one of my favorite settings for any media.

When taking an Unmasking the Horror tour, you’ll get details including stuff like the old timey photos seen below feature some of the artists that designed this house.

The tours also allow you to see details you would never be able to notice during the actual event, such as names on this ledge including several references to previous HHNs including Icons Albert and Cindy Caine, Jack Schmidt, and Dr. Oddfellow. You’ll also some names from characters in previous houses, such as M Barmy (Triplets of Terror)

I mentioned earlier that the Bugs: Eaten Alive from HHN 31 is one of my all time favorite houses, and I’m pretty much alone on that island. Some houses just speak to me more than others, and this year that award goes to Dolls: Let’s Play Dead. I love the gimmick that we have been transformed to toy size and experience the house that way. I love the concept in Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in EPCOT and I love it it here.

Gonna sound like a broken record, but again can’t stress how much everyone reading this should take an Unmasking the Horror tour. This is where you’ll hear details about stuff like this guest activated trigger (GAT) disguised as a doorbell. This can be pressed and plays a doorbell sound.

You’ll also see all the little details and Easter Eggs such as this BuzzCon reference.

While the movie didn’t do anything for me, I really enjoyed the Five Nights at Freddy’s house experience. It helps because it’s not a scary house and I’m part of the demographic that does NOT go to HHN for scares. I imagine I’m in the minority in that area though.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Friday the 13th franchise as I’ve seen all of the movies and most of them are awful, but I just can’t quit them. I also consider the character of Jason is in my personal horror character Hall of Fame and the Jason Universe house is a great tribute to that Icon.

Terrifier movies? For me unwatchable. Terrifier haunted house? For me pretty fun.

I love absolutely everything about the Terrifier Universe…except the actual movies it is based on. This stuff is right up my alley in terms of being next level bonkers in the best way possible.

The Terrifier house also had the unique option of choosing a “dry” path along with a “wet” path. I would consider the wet side much tamer than the dry side but definitely handing out bonus points for having an option.

Fallout is a huge get for HHN as I’ve been hearing about the video game for years and the show on Amazon Prime was much better than I expected it to be. Remember earlier in this article when we mentioned the UOAP button had codenames for several of the haunted houses, all named after flowers? The codename for the Fallout house was Daisy.

For me, Grave of Flesh is elevated because of the details you find out about during a behind-the-scenes tour. For example, the Halmouth Cemetery is a play on words for “Hell” and “Mouth.” The façade for this house signifys you walking into the mouth of hell and your grave.

A scent machine that produces the smell of fresh dirt in the cemetery façade.

Each year the houses at HHN have something hidden in them and this year the gimmick was lizards. These lizards would be impossible to see during the event at night, but are pointed out during the lights-on tours.

Gálkn: Monsters of the North has some absolutely wild puppetry and truly amazing sets. At this point in HHN’s popularity that could definitely be “that’s good enough” and instead go the extra mile.

Honorable Mention – No Scare Lanyard

One of the most “controversial” things for this year’s HHN was the park offering a Deathly Afraid lanyard to guests who wanted to limit the amount of scares when walking through the park. How this was controversial is beyond me but the die-hard HHN fans live in their own reality. Thinking that HHN was only about horror and scares is what kept me away from the event for decades. It was the debut of The Walking Dead which brought me to HHN and I learned it was so much more than what I had imagined. The Deathly Afraid lanyard allows those people on the fence to give it a go and hopefully fall in love with HHN like the rest of us.

Want to be scared? Great, just go to the event. But we live in a world where some people – if not the majority of people – don’t and it helps for them to at least have an option at the park.

You can read a full review of the Deathly Afraid lanyard and its effect during HHN by CLICKING HERE.

Double Secret Honorable Mention – Haunt-o-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey

Back at HHN 31 we got the debut of Ghoulish, a tremendous show using the USF lagoon area and it was wrecked during the season thanks to the effects of Hurricane Ian. It took three  years, but we finally got a replacement show with Haunt-o-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey.

It is so great having a show over the lagoon again, and Haunt-o-Phonic is fast-paced and fun, with multiple levels of projection. If you see it multiple times, be sure to choose a different location and you may spot different elements.

Triple Threat Honorable Mention – Backlot Club

The Backlot Club is both the Best and Worst of Universal Orlando in one. First the bad news. Finding information about the Backlot Club is like trying to file a Freedom of Information Act request and you need go through a whole bunch of steps on the Universal app.

Eventually you can create an account and go through a whole bunch of more steps in order for the opportunity to accomplish a task in order to obtain a prize.

Here’s the good part…the prizes are absolutely AWESOME. Each week a new trading card is offered featuring a scare zone character from HHN 34.

The quality level on these cards is so much higher than it has any right to be. They not only have the appearance of being blood-stained, but have a raised effect on the “blood” so that it really stands out. Just absolutely fantastic and one of the best free collectibles I’ve seen offered in any theme park.

So there you have it: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of HHN 34! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on BlueSky (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

Theme Park Turkeys of the Year Archives

The SATURDAY SIX Celebrates 10 Years of @bioreconstruct

SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Josh easyWDW

SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Ian Barritt

TPEI Tribute to Bret Taggart (AKA @Schmoofy)

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHide and you Potterheads will enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.