Why Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights 2025 Might Be the Scariest Year Yet, from a 20-Year Veteran

As someone who has only missed a couple of annual Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) in Orlando, Florida, since 2002 (one being in 2021 when I gave birth and one in 2020 amid the COVID pandemic), not a lot about it scares me anymore. I go for the fun and to “oooh” and “aaah” at the spectacle and creativity — everything that so many people work hard to bring to life annually and have done for the better part of 35 years, while still managing to inject something new every year too.

And HHN has morphed, over the past 20+ years I’ve been going, into something bigger than a haunted attraction for so many. I have a friend who vlogs about the event every year, getting people psyched up for what’s to come. There are fan sites and YouTube channels galore, dedicated to not only speculation and current HHN goings-on but chronicling the lore of past years and icons.

And while admittedly there are drawbacks to this kind of attention (namely, the fact that the event is more crowded than ever), the pros of having HHN continually evolve into something fresh and exciting to kick off the Halloween season for me are more than worth the trade-off of having to weave through throngs of people. (I’m still figuring out the heat aspect.)

I will say that, as a horror fan, I have steered clear of overly gory movies since I was in my early 20s and saw House of 1000 Corpses. I turned off the TV and distinctly remember saying “NOPE.” So I was hesitant to watch the Terrifier films until I finally worked up the nerve last fall, because I can’t resist the idea of a Christmas slasher and I needed to see the first two before the third, obviously. Do I regret it? Somewhat. But also, Art the Clown has become an iconic modern horror villain before our eyes – and now, he’s making his HHN debut.

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One of the first horror movies I can ever remember watching was the 1990 It miniseries, with Tim Curry — and it cemented my fear of clowns for life. I’ve been fine with comedic clown horror like Killer Klowns from Outer Space — and even the more recent It films didn’t send the same chill through me, maybe because I was so familiar with the story already from both the book and original miniseries.

Maybe for the first time since I was 17, I was scared out of my mind to go into a house. Needless to say, Art and his silent-yet-hellish gorefests had me on the edge of my nerve as I entered Terrifier at HHN, knowing I was in for not only a visual spectacle but also a full sensory one, between the questionable scents and choice of wet vs. dry path (I chose wet, and let’s just say I’m glad I brought that poncho).

And I was not disappointed. For the first time since maybe my inaugural HHN in 2002, I actually felt my heartbeat speeding up at some of the scenes that were recreated from the movies, including a particularly gnarly hacksaw kill (ladies, IYKYK (if you know, you know)) and a bleach-related one. I looked down at my Fitbit at one point and wasn’t surprised to see a higher heart rate than usual for my walking pace.

The way the Art character has a knack for tapping into the innocence of your youth and then turning it on its head was a standout theme throughout, which is something it shares with one of this year’s original houses: Dolls: Let’s Play Dead.

Another house that played on nostalgia? Five Nights at Freddy’s — which may be a more modern intellectual property, but, for those of us who grew up going to Chuck E. Cheese (or, if you’re an elder millennial like me, ShowBiz Pizza Place first).

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes 2025 stand out from years past without sounding like I’m putting those years down, because I truly have never had a bad experience with the content slate at HHN. There have been favorite years (2003’s debut of The Director icon comes to mind) and not-so-favorite years (mainly owing to the pandemic, most likely), but this year, HHN feels like it has ushered itself into a new era of being able to perfectly straddle the old and the new.

For me, one example of this is the expanded HHN Tribute Store, which is a nice antidote to the claustrophobic feeling of a couple of this year’s houses – primarily Grave of Flesh, where you feel like you’re getting buried alive, and are at one point plunged into near-total darkness.

David Howard Thornton, who plays the sinister Art the Clown in the Terrifier films, tells PEOPLE that he feels the Terrifier houses in both Orlando and Hollywood are “tastefully done” around Universal’s rules, but still “pretty gory” overall and pay solid tribute to the Damien Leone-directed franchise.

“Also be prepared for some scents in there, some interesting smells, especially in the bathroom,” continues the actor, adding that “You can tell everybody who’s gone through the Terrifier house” due to the full sensory experience.

As for who would win in a fight between Art and HHN’s own 25-year veteran clown icon Jack, Thornton thinks it’s no contest.

“Definitely Art,” he says. “He’s extremely resilient, as we’ve been able to find out. And he’s very wily – I mean it would definitely be an interesting fight, but knowing what I know about Art, Art would win.”

Tickets for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights – running on select nights now through Nov. 2 in Orlando, and from Sept. 4 through Nov. 2 in Hollywood – are available at universalorlando.com and universalstudioshollywood.com, respectively.