Haunt fans will be thrilled and terrified by this year’s Halloween Horror Nights as Universal Studios Hollywood has once again lived up to its own high standards and exceeded the bar set for haunted attractions in Southern California with a terrific new lineup for 2025.
Horror Nights 2025 kicked off on Thursday, Sept. 4 and will run on select nights through Nov. 2 at the Hollywood movie theme park.
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This year’s edition of Halloween Horror Nights brought back a few favorites (Friday the 13th, Poltergeist), introduced some new hits (Terrifier, Five Nights at Freddy’s), delivered some solid original mazes (Scarecrow, Monstruos) and offered up a few duds (Fallout, World Wrestling Entertainment).
Let’s take a closer look at each of the eight haunted houses at Universal’s Horror Nights and rank them from best to worst.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)1) Five Nights at Freddy’s
The survival video game turned Blumhouse horror film set in a Chuck E. Cheese-like abandoned pizzeria taken over by murderous animatronic characters has now become a Horror Nights haunted maze.
The theming, lighting and sound effects in the Five Nights at Freddy’s maze were among the best of the night.
The simple but compelling storytelling elements kept the crowd engaged whenever there was a lull in the action — until, bam, Freddy & The Fazbear Band hit you again with another attack.
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The puppeted animatronic figures from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop were the best part of the maze and the highlight of Horror Nights.
Having a robotic bear, rabbit, chicken or fox the size of a refrigerator coming after you in the dark was truly terrifying. Even seeing the animatronic puppets waiting to strike in the shadows was scary.
Universal pulsed a lot of people through the Five Nights at Freddy’s maze, but the constant scares — and threats of more — kept the large crowds moving quickly through the scenes.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s maze had the second longest wait times of the night — reaching 170 minutes at one point.
The Terrifier haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)2) Terrifier
The Terrifier slasher film franchise stars Art the Clown as a demonic serial killer who stalks his victims in a fictional New York City borough during Halloween and Christmas.
The Terrifier maze was awesome with wall-to-wall scares, extreme gore and grisly kills in every scene.
Signs out front warned “You will get wet.” “Blood” splatter was everywhere in almost every scene. Even the dividers you pushed through between scenes were soaking wet.
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The great theming in each room brought the repetitive jump scares to another level with each new gruesome or disgusting scene building upon the last — from the Funhouse of Horror to the Clown Cafe.
There were so many clowns in the maze you never knew if that was Art standing in the dark or just an animatronic or mannequin.
The finale was a series of chainsaw-wielding “scareactors” coming at you from every angle.
The Terrifier maze consistently had the longest wait times of the night — reaching 240 minutes at one point early in the evening.
The Jason Universe haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)3) Jason Universe
The latest Friday the 13th maze returned once again to Camp Crystal Lake where the gruesome legend of the machete-wielding slasher Jason Voorhees was born.
The Jason Universe maze was home to the best scare of the night: A victim’s head getting ripped off, which was simple to execute yet terrifying to experience.
A close runner up: Jason punching through the chest of a camper with his victim’s heart in his clenched fist.
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The finale was unrelenting with four scares in a row — pow, pow, pow, pow — before you finally escaped Jason’s clutches.
The brand loyalty of Friday the 13th meant the Jason Universe maze consistently had the third longest line of the night — right around the 60-minute mark.
The Ghosts of Latin America haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)4) Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America
The fourth haunted maze in four years based on Latin American folklore firmly cemented Monstruos as an official Horror Nights franchise that promises to raise its severed head on a semiannual basis.
The 2025 version of the Monstruos maze brought to life the weeping woman La Llorona, sharp-toothed La Muelona and horse-headed La Siguanaba with La Muerte once again serving as a guide through the terror.
Universal made an attempt to separate one folklore tale from the next, but they all had one thing in common — a boogeyman who was coming to get you or your family in the middle of the night.
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The marquee scene of the Monstruos maze was an animatronic monster crashing through the roof and devouring a sleeping child — the victim’s fluttering feet still dangling from the beast’s fanged mouth.
Darkness was a recurring theme with a jump scare waiting in almost every one of the shadows.
Monstruos had some of the lowest wait times of the night — despite being ranked as one of the top mazes year after year.
The Scarecrow: Music by Slash haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)5) Scarecrow: Music by Slash
The Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist once again teamed up with Universal on the soundtrack for an original maze filled with scarecrows seeking vengeance on homesteaders for their past sins against Mother Nature.
The burlap covering the faces of every scareactor made it impossible to tell the real threats from the stuffed scarecrows.
The tusked pig covered in burlap was the best scare — and best looking character — of the maze.
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The moody guitar riffs by Slash helped drive the action and the flow of visitors wandering from scene to scene in the Scarecrow maze.
Things got a little sparse in the middle of the maze, but a good set-up and a strong finish made up for any lulls in the action.
Wait times for the Scarecrow maze were typically under an hour.
The Poltergeist haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)6) Poltergeist
The Poltergeist haunted house brought to life the suburban family home built atop a cemetery from the supernatural thriller that was considered one of the scariest films of all time when it debuted in the 1980s.
The theming in the Poltergeist maze was amazing, but the storyline got a little messy as visitors passed from one movie scene to the next. Returning to previous scenes made sense from a storytelling perspective, but they felt confusing in the rush of a Horror Nights maze.
Universal opted to spend several scenes with the paranormal investigator whose face peels off in the bathroom mirror — a minor character in the story with a high gore factor.
The highlight of the maze was the children’s bedroom scene with moving furniture and a maniacal clown sliding out from underneath the bed.
The lines for the Poltergeist maze looked short next to the neighboring Terrifier maze, with wait times typically under an hour.
The WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)7) WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks
World Wrestling Entertainment lent the alter ego characters from the Wyatt Sicks wrestling crew for a Horror Nights maze set in the eerie and ominous world of Uncle Howdy, Rambling Rabbit, Mercy the Buzzard, Huskus the Pig Boy, Abby the Witch and The Fiend.
There was a ton of backstory in the maze for wrestling fans who follow Wyatt Sicks that largely went over the heads of everyone else.
The creepy WWE characters looked great as they popped out of closets and corners for jump scares — whether you knew who they were or not.
The dilapidated home where the story was set was full of a lot of bad smells, making it the smelliest of all the mazes.
The biggest downside of the WWE maze was the stretch of blackout hallways of nothingness — a rarity in the otherwise always immaculately themed Horror Nights mazes.
Horror Nights fans didn’t seem that interested in Wyatt Sicks on opening night with the maze consistently clocking the shortest wait times, as low as 10 minutes at one point.
The Fallout haunted maze during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)8) Fallout
Scavengers, raiders and mutated cockroaches swarmed the Fallout maze that passed through an underground fallout shelter and a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The television series and video game franchise are set in 2296, several centuries after nuclear war destroys civilization.
The lackluster Fallout maze was by far the weakest of the evening with a storyline that should have been easier to comprehend but somehow got overly complicated.
That’s a big disappointment since Universal has billed Fallout as one of the three marquee mazes of Horror Nights 2025, alongside Five Nights at Freddy’s and Terrifier, the top two mazes of the night.
The overrun vault inhabitants delivered many of the halfhearted and apologetic scares — that softened as soon as they realized the maze visitors weren’t mutants.
It didn’t help that the maze turned into a conga line and even ground to a complete halt for a minute or so.
The highlight of the maze was the Super Duper Mart where mutants emerged from refrigerated supermarket coolers to stalk after anyone passing by.
Fans voted with their feet as the Fallout maze had the second shortest wait times of the night, typically around 30 minutes.
The “The Purge: Dangerous Waters” stunt show during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Orange County Register/SCNG)Other Entertainment
The Terror Tram tour of the Universal backlot once again featured a Blumhouse Productions theme with characters from “Megan,” “Happy Death Day,” “The Black Phone,” “Freaky” and “The Exorcist: Believer.”
“The Purge: Dangerous Waters” returned to the WaterWorld venue for the third straight year with a fiery stunt show.
The four Horror Nights scare zones included Chainsaw Clownz, Carnival of Carnage, Murder of Crowz and Noche de Brujas.
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