Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 2022

Think you’re tough stuff? You should try Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando!

This is no cutesy trick-or-treat halloween party, Halloween Horror Nights is hardcore and scary! We highly suggest that you heed the warnings from Universal and not bring anyone younger than 13, unless of course you want them to have nightmares for life.

What is Halloween Horror Nights

Halloween Horror Nights is commonly called HHN by fans, and is celebrating 31 years of terror. Every year Universal Studios creates multiple haunted houses that have movie-set quality details and actors that will scare you to the point of falling down! (Personal experience there) In addition to the haunted houses, HHN features walk-through scare zones in the streets of the park, wild entertainment, and of course…FOOD!

Halloween Horror Nights takes place from 6:30 PM – 2:00 AM on select nights September through October.

Haunted Houses

Forget everything you thought you knew about haunted houses. These are not cheap houses with a few things that go “boo!”.! HHN works tirelessly all year to create huge, elaborate, and terrifying experiences!

Guests come back year after year because Universal Studios changes the houses year after year. Some of the houses are licensed movies and characters like Beetlejuice, American Horror Story, House on Haunted Hill, and Halloween to name a few, and other houses are stories created by Universal Studios. Some of the stories and characters created have become cult icons for fans.

HHN 2022

Halloween Horror Nights 2022 features 10 haunted houses through the park.

The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare

This year’s featured haunted house is The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare. This house is in the largest building and is one of the most detailed houses with music pumping even outside the house for the people in line to get pumped up. Universal Studios describes it as “the macabre mind of The Weeknd in this haunted house as he stalks your squad through the surreal nightmare of his After Hours music. A slasher carving a smile at an otherworldly rave. Bandaged maniacs performing extreme plastic surgery. A grotesque mannequin masquerade. His nightmare is now yours.”

This house has the longest wait times through the night! If this is high up on your must-see list, be sure to check out our TIPS section at the bottom of the article and our sections of HHN Express Passes.

Halloween

Michael Myers has been haunting our nightmares for decades now, but no Halloween movie is anything compared to this house!!! Everywhere you look, every turn you make… He will be there.

Universal Studios describes this house as a “visit Haddonfield, Illinois, where Michael Myers is about to don his mask and embark on his first brutal spree. Silent. Merciless. Relentless. He’s the embodiment of pure evil. You don’t want to go alone as you go back to where it all began. This year, step into the original 1978 horror classic, Halloween.”

Horrors of Blumhouse

Have you seen the new horror movie of 2022, The Black Phone? Buckle up, buttercup, you’re in for a wild scary adventure into the movie and Freaky. This house really felt like a 2 for 1 deal because it was like 2 houses connected.

The HHN website describes this house as follows: “Step inside a new double-feature of Blumhouse horror. Your scream squad will find yourselves trapped between a frantic teen and the ruthless serial killer she’s swapped bodies with in Freaky. Then, you’ll try to make a desperate escape from the dark basement of The Grabber before you become his latest victim in the terrifying The Black Phone.”

Universal Monsters: Legends Collide

Through the years, Universal Studios has created houses with vampires, werewolves, and mummies, and this year they came together to create a battle that we didn’t know we needed! The end scene changes day to day, so you won’t know who is going to win the battle!

On our night, the mummy came out victorious!

Spirits of the Coven

We love witches! This haunted house put a new spin on the typical witch story. The house is set in the prohibition era of the 20s in a speakeasy with alluringly beautiful women. Those women are witches luring men into the coven to be used for potions. As you walk through, notice the witches! Each room they get older and older until you see a typical ugly witch over her cauldron.

Bugs Eaten Alive

Ugh, gross. Gross, gross, gross! The backstory is that in the 1950s, a company was selling bug extermination services that are inserted into a home’s air conditioning unit. Sounds great, right?

Wrong! The bugs are not exterminated, in fact, they are growing larger and larger! These larger than life bugs are carnivorous, too. Guess what? You’re on the menu!

This was scary, but a different style of scary, because it’s creepy crawlies! Oh, and the bugs spit, too… Nasty!

Fiesta de Chupacabras

“Visit a Latin American village where the legend of the creature Chupacabras is celebrated with a colorful fiesta. And the streets are lined with the crimson blood of tourists like you and your amigos.” This is how Universal Studios describes this house, but it felt more like rabid dogs.

Hellblock Horror

What’s more terrifying than a prison break in a maximum security prison? One filled with demons! This is a great house, but you need to know the backstory first, otherwise, it can be pretty confusing.

Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Lake

“In a New England fishing village, undead fishermen emerge from the waves to seek their revenge. You and your scream squad may have escaped their hooks in the scare zone. Now they’ll reel you in and drag you under.”

Descendants of Destruction

You’re in a subway tunnel after the apocalypse. People are not people anymore, they are chasing you around to make you one of them. Think zombies, but more wretched and terrifying! “Careful not to leave any of your scream squad behind as you descend the subway tunnels of a deserted New York. Lurking in the dark are hungry mutants looking to feast on the last remnants of humanity.”

This house was the second scariest house at HHN 2022! It was so scary, I’m surprised that I didn’t lose my voice from screaming! I hope to see more houses like this one in the future!

Halloween Horror Nights Express Pass

Express Passes at Universal Studios allow you skip the line and jump to the front, and they are an absolute MUST! The lines at the haunted houses tend to hover around 60 minutes each, so if you don’t have the Express Pass you have some hard decisions to make!

The Express Pass doesn’t mean that you will have zero wait, but it is significantly shorter. Express Pass is an additional cost to your HHN ticket. The cost varies depending on how close to Halloween your date is. The prices start at $129.99 and it’s important to note that there are no discounts for Express Passes.

Express Passes can be used on each Haunted House and Rides to skip the line one time.

IMPORTANT: An Express Pass for HHN is not the same as an Express Pass for your park day. They are purchased separately. If you are staying at deluxe Universal Studios resorts that offer free Unlimited Express Passes, these do not count for Halloween Horror Nights.

Scare Zones

Did you survive the haunted houses? Now you have to survive the Scare Zones. In the streets between haunted houses, there are themed areas filled with more terrifying actors to scare you as you are passing through. There are 5 scare zones this year.

Horrors of Halloween

Led by the cult icon, Pumpkin Jack, this first scare zone features sinister halloween classics to scare your pants off by sneaking by you in the fog.

Scarecrow: Cursed Soil

This Scare Zone is one of the more elaborate sets, so that means more places for them to hide… We’ll just leave it at that.

Sweet Revenge

Is there anything scarier than children with lots of sugar? Kidding. Sort of. Children in this scare zone were given candy that turns them evil! They steal the key to the city and brutally kill the mayor!

Graveyard: Deadly Unrest

The undead tower over you as you make your way through this cemetery. They at first appear to be disinterested in you until that last second!

Conjure the Dark

An evil sorceress has entered twisted stone ruins and called forth monstrosities from dark dimensions. This Halloween, blood will feed her army of the night.

Entertainment

There are 2 different types of entertainment at Halloween Horror Nights. Ghoulish: A Halloween Tale is a projection and water show that combines music and scary scenes to water. The real HHN entertainment is Nightmare Fuel: Wildfire.

Nightmare Fuel: Wildfire

Before we get into the show – If you decide to bring your children to Halloween Horror Nights despite the warnings, that’s your choice. Maybe they are huge horror fans! However, please note that Nightmare Fuel is 100% for adults. Let us explain…

Nightmare Fuel: Wildfire is a stage show that includes acrobatics, dancing, fire, and a whole lot of latex! This show is a sexy, BDSM story that is full of talent and is very adult in nature.

Nightmare Fuel: Wildfire will show 4 times in a HHN night. Get there early! The stadium will be packed!

Ghoulish A Halloween Tale

A ghost story becomes reality as you go beyond the grave in a spectacularly spooky show on Universal Studio’s Lagoon. This show for all the family is presented using lasers, water spays & jets with images projected onto the spray and buildings in the background.

Food

Halloween Horror Nights food is nothing like the sweet and classic treats from that theme park down the street. You will find things that are spicy, “bloody”, and eccentric. To be honest, some things are downright weird, but that’s half the fun! A great example is the “rotten meat” that is actually flaming hot cheetos turned into a rice cereal treat like matter. It’s weird, but really interesting.

The best thing we ate was the Haunted Horseshoe. This was an open-faced sandwich with a cheesy burger on top a piece of garlic toast. On top of that were crinkle fries, barbequed pork belly, cheese, and bacon.

Drinks

There are lots of drinks and cocktails at Halloween Horror Nights. Different food stands will often have different cocktails. There are also plenty of stands that only serve cocktails and draft beer.

If you plan on drinking more than one drink you should consider purchasing a souvenir cup. It costs $15.49 for your first drink and cocktails after that are $11.49. The refills are larger than the cocktails served in disposable cups of the same price.

Dates

Halloween Horror Nights operates on select nights in September and October. Dates are:

• September 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30
• October 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

Prices for 2022

• $73.99 – September 4, 7, 8, 11, 15, 18, 21, 22, 28, & 29 plus October 5,, 12, 19, 26, 27, & 31
• $76.99 – September 25 plus October 2, 6, 13, & 20
• $79.99 – October 30
• $83.99 – September 2 & 9
• $86.99 – September 16, 23, & 30
• $89.99 – October 21 & 28
• $92.99 – 7, 9, & 14
• $97.99 – September 3, 10, 17, 24, plus October 1
• $104.99 – October 8, 15, 22, & 29

Military Discounts

Great news! There is a special price for members of the military and their immediate family. You can purchase tickets from your base leisure center or MWR for a set price of $70.

Military Discounted Tickets are available for the following nights:

• September 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 ,10, 11, 15, 18, 21, 22, 25, 28, & 29
• October 5

There are tickets for multiple Halloween Horror Nights through Universal Studios as well, but there are no military discounts for the multi-night passes.

Stay and Scream

Universal Studios closes promptly at 5:00 PM to day guests in order to make the park switchover to Halloween Horror Nights, but you can purchase a Stay and Scream ticket for only $35. This allows you to enter the park at 3:00 and at 5:00 when the park closes you stay in a “Stay and Scream” area where you must stay until 6:30.

MDT: There are 3 Stay and Scream areas. The best one to stay in is in the Simpsons area because you have access to Moe’s and Krusty Burger, and it is the closest Stay and Scream area to the most anticipated houses.

Bonus!

Need a break from all of the scares? There are select rides open during Halloween Horror Nights, though they close at 12:00 AM. If you have a Halloween Horror Nights Express Pass, you can use it on the rides, as well!

Available Rides During HHN:

• Revenge of the Mummy
• Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit
• Escape from Gringotts
• Men in Black
• Transformers: The Ride 3D

Did you know that all of Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be open during Halloween Horror Nights? Diagon Alley is easily the busiest area of Universal Studios during the day time, but during HHN it is virtually empty! Go get your butterbeer with no line, get the perfect pictures of the dragon, and cast spells with your interactive wands without waiting in lines!

QUICK TIP RUNDOWN:

• Get the express pass! It’s worth it.
• Lanyards are your friend so you can have your park ticket and express pass at the ready
• Purchase the souvenir cup if you’re planning on having more than one drink
• Be adventurous and eat something weird!
• Don’t skip the entertainment
• Make a list of the top houses that you want to see
• Please, please, please, don’t bring small children

Comments, Questions, be sure to leave them in the Comment Section Below!

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