We ranked all 10 haunted houses from Halloween Horror Nights 2026 at Universal Orlando, including “Hellraiser,” “Stranger Things Five,” “Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness” and everything in between.
Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) is upon us and with it comes 10 all new fully themed and realized haunted houses full of scares and surprises. Five of them are based on popular horror movies and television shows, while five are completely original, sprung from the twisted minds of the HHN designers.
Each year, we give you the full rundown on the houses and our rankings so you know what not to miss!
As always, we want to give a disclaimer: due to the nature of the haunted houses and how guests go through them, your unique experience will almost certainly vary from ours, based on your timing walking through the house, your familiarity with the franchises, and what scares you the most!
Still, these rankings will help you plan your trip and let you know what to look out for. We thank Universal Orlando for inviting us to attend the first night of HHN 2026.
Now, without further ado, here are our Halloween Horror Nights 35 house rankings, from the houses we think you should prioritize most to those you can save for later:
Must-see: the best houses of 2026
These are the houses we would put at the top of your list. If you’re only able to hit a handful of houses during your visit, start here.
1. Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control
Location: Soundstage 22
Official Description: Horror icons aren’t born. They’re made. Discover the unholy origins of Jack the Clown and enter Dr. Oddfellow’s universe as the two pit chaos versus control in this showdown decades in the making.
Our Review: Jack is back in one of his best installments. I don’t tend to judge a house based on whether or not I get “got,” as I’m generally pretty good at figuring out where and how scares are coming. That said, when a house does “get” me, as it did several times here, it means those scares were genuinely unique and surprising even for a savvy horror fan.
Jack and Dr. Oddfellow Chaos and Control house entrance.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
This house features giant set pieces, a theme we’ve seen throughout HHN 35, and is easily the most colorful and visually different of the houses. It also features a slanted-floor section that we haven’t seen in many years. HHN aficionados will love seeing firsthand some of the deep lore that has only been hinted at over the years, but even casual fans should be able to follow the story without too much trouble.
2. Hellraiser
Location: Sprung Tent 4
Official Description: Enter a realm of pure pain in a haunted house based on the original “Hellraiser” trilogy. You’ll journey through the depths of Hell and bear witness to Pinhead and the Cenobites’ nightmarish rituals. Then hope you don’t get trapped in your own.
Our Review: A truly impressive house that leans hard into the maze-like nature of the Lament Configuration, creating a jaw-dropping scenic element that guests literally walk into. The scares come fast and refuse to let up. The clever design loops back and forth through the building, making this one of the longest houses while also allowing the same scare actors to interact with guests multiple times. That makes the house feel much fuller than it actually is.
Pinhead character in Hellraiser house.
Courtesy of Universal
‘Hellraiser’ also sticks closely to the themes of pleasure and pain from the original trilogy. Even guests unfamiliar with the source material should be able to grasp what’s happening pretty quickly, making this one of the more successful IP houses at translating its source material into an HHN experience.
3. H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!
Location: Sprung Tent 2
Official Description: Your favorite maître d’macabre returns to WKNB with a special Halloween scare-athon! Tune into this haunted house complete with ghouls, gore and all the frights that keep you coming back for more.
Our Review: I’m a bit biased, as the original H.R. Bloodengutz house from 15 years ago is one of my all-time favorite houses, so I tried to remain neutral as we went through this one. That having been said, you still can’t help but laugh and smile at the campy scenes and occasional good scare.
H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!
Courtesy of Universal
I particularly appreciate the environmental storytelling that begins before you even enter the house, with news reports about Bloodengutz escaping prison and a façade of the public access TV station complete with a crashed prison van out front. From there, the house uses vignettes of different made-up, campy horror movies to keep things moving and prevent any particular scene from overstaying its welcome. Fans of ‘Slaughter Sinema’ from recent years will recognize the style immediately.
And don’t miss the big red button in the first room for your chance to interact with the house itself, just like in the original incarnation.
Worth your time
These houses may not quite reach our top tier, but they’re still well worth experiencing and should be on your list if you have enough time to get through them.
4. MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals
Location: Soundstage 24B
Official Description: The animals might be gone, but animalistic violence is inescapable. Try to survive a defunct zoo that has become the deadly domain of warring cannibal factions in this haunted house.
Our Review: My least anticipated house this year turned out to be a surprising revelation, with a so-so premise more than made up for by style and execution. Reminiscent of Nuka-World in “Fallout,” this house imagines cannibals from the far future taking over a zoo and styling themselves after the various animals that once inhabited the facility.
The concept is instantly understandable as you enter each section, whether it’s a bat house or rhinoceros paddock, and encounter Mad Max-style gang members evoking the appearance and behavior of the former animal residents. I don’t know that they absolutely needed to be cannibals, as that doesn’t add much to the story, but the environmental storytelling and unique style of each room keep this house interesting from beginning to end.
5. Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness
Location: Soundstage 24A
Official Description: Ozzy Osbourne’s shocking image was as haunting as his heavy metal hits. Now you’ll enter the Prince of Darkness’s kingdom where music and mayhem collide — and everything’s gone off the rails. Veer through a decaying world ripped straight from Ozzy’s lyrics in this haunted house inspired by one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest legends. Let the madness begin!
Our Review: This house serves as a love letter to the impact and music of Ozzy Osbourne. Featuring Ozzy himself as a literal Prince of Darkness tended by an army of imps, his presence is unmistakable as his music is brought to life throughout the house. Casual fans will recognize hits like “Crazy Train” and homages to Ozzy’s antics, including a giant bat eating the head off a human.
Ozzy Osbourne Prince of Darkness moon scene.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Hardcore fans will find even deeper cuts, including werewolves mimicking the cover of “Bark at the Moon.” The house is creative and features several unique scares, along with a touching homage to Ozzy in the final room. It’s the kind of house where the more you know about the subject, the more you’ll get out of it, but there’s still plenty here for casual fans to enjoy.
6. Cybergoria
Location: Former Fast and Furious Supercharged
Official Description: Awaken thousands of years in the future in this haunted house, where a cold world driven by machines has a singular goal: to make you live forever, even if it kills you.
Our Review: Another house that didn’t excite me based on its description, but one that executed much better than expected. The “Gore” part of the name is not thrown in lightly, as this is one of the bloodiest and most visceral houses this year.
I jokingly called it a bloody episode of “Doctor Who,” and fans of that show will know exactly what I mean when they see this house. It is a little bit of a one-trick pony, with the same basic monster attacking us repeatedly, but the individual moments are good and, taken as a whole, the house stands up much better than I expected.
See for yourself with our YouTube video below.
Decent—if you have the time
These houses have plenty to offer, but if you’re trying to maximize your night, we’d hit the higher tiers first and come back to these if the lines are manageable.
7. Stranger Things Five
Location: Soundstage 23B
Official Description: The Upside Down is invading Hawkins, and this time no one’s safe. In this haunted house based on the final season of Stranger Things, join the gang in Hawkins for one last adventure as you try to survive Demogorgons and the Mind Flayer. Will you defeat Vecna once and for all?
Our Review: Fans of “Stranger Things” will probably love this final installment of the series at HHN, as they get to revisit some of their favorite moments from the final season of the iconic show.
Demogorgon inside “Stranger Things 5”
Courtesy of Universal
Unfortunately, this is the fourth house where we’ve had the same complaint: many of the moments from the source material fall a bit flat without the surrounding context and aren’t particularly interesting on their own. As a non-watcher of the show, the giant set pieces were certainly cool, but I struggled to remember anything that particularly excited me.
For fans of the series, however, the opportunity to step directly into Hawkins and revisit the show’s final season will likely make this house considerably more rewarding.
Head into the Upside Down for the final time with our walkthrough video below.
8. Sinners
Location: Sprung Tent 3
Official Description: In 1930s Mississippi, libations flow freely and guitar screams fill the air at the Smokestack Twins’ juke joint. But the blues become red when Remmick’s troop of bloodthirsty vampires crash the party — and test blood’s true bonds — as you brave this terrifying haunted house based on the award-winning original horror film, ‘Sinners.’
Mary character in Sinners house.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Our Review: A highly anticipated house that struggles a bit to find its footing in a format based almost entirely on jump scares. HHN rarely gets the opportunity to let a story slowly burn, build tension, or explore the metaphors and subtext of its intellectual properties. ‘Sinners’ is a particularly good example of that limitation. The scenic design is excellent throughout and really does feel like walking through the movie, but the house doesn’t always capture the deeper elements that made the film so compelling.
See this house for yourself with our walkthrough video below.
9. Evil Dead Burn
Location: Soundstage 23A
Official Description: The Book of the Dead has been reopened, and now an infernal force consumes a family home. In this haunted house based on the new film, ‘Evil Dead Burn,’ dodge possessed Deadites hell-bent on bloodshed, and encounter not just the root of evil, but the whole family tree.
Our Review: ‘Evil Dead Burn’ is based on the most recent movie in the Evil Dead franchise and, as such, misses much of the campiness, and especially Bruce Campbell, that made the originals so good. Taking place primarily in a single location, many of the scenes begin to blur together and lack the distinction that helps casual attendees understand the plot.
Fans will recognize a few iconic moments and kills, but for everyone else, this can feel like a generic house with an intellectual property overlay. That said, the house does feature some of my favorite uses of puppets over the years, with several very well-crafted and impressively controlled dogs that provide some memorable moments.
Skip this one
There’s nothing wrong with saving this one for the end of your night, but if you’re short on time, this is the house we’d be most comfortable skipping.
10. Invasion: Alien Abduction
Location: Sprung Tent 1
Official Description: Make contact with horrors from worlds unknown in this haunted house, where a ship full of Grays have torn apart a remote homestead in search of fresh test subjects.
Our Review: This house features an interesting premise but is marred by overuse of the one type of monster that tends to plague these single-event attack-style houses. The idea is that the familiar tropes of little gray aliens abducting people from isolated farms are true, but we’ve gotten the actual method and appearance all wrong.
Instead of tractor beams pulling victims into a mothership, giant claws grab them and often rip them apart, while the classic gray aliens are actually toothy monsters intent on eating and killing. No one is safe, with family members and even an unfortunate goat becoming victims throughout the house. Don’t worry, though. There is a cute little cat that sleeps through the whole experience.
Unfortunately, the aliens begin to look increasingly samey around every corner, and attempts at variety, such as making them taller or shorter, don’t do much to solve the problem. It’s an interesting premise that struggles to sustain itself across an entire house. I often found myself thinking this could have worked better as a single vignette in one of the anthology or montage-style houses we see so often at HHN.
Our thanks to Universal Orlando for inviting us to experience these houses as part of the opening night media experience. Now it’s your turn to face the fog and decide which HHN 35 house deserves the top spot.
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