Welcome to the Crossroads! Where did my travels take me this time? Hollywood, California, and Universal Studios! Last year, I had fun ranking the ten houses at Universal Studios Orlando for their Halloween Horror Nights. This year, I traveled to the West Coast to experience what Halloween Horror Nights is like, Hollywood-style. Where did I rank the houses? Let’s peel back the skin and dig into the gory fun of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood! I have a video of all the 2025 Hollywood houses on the YouTube channel, which you can check out here (if you dare!)

There are usually overlaps between Hollywood and Orlando with house themes, and this year was no different, with five houses haunting both coasts. This year’s big IP (intellectual property) houses in both parks were Terrifier, Fallout, WWE’s The Wyatt Sicks, Jason Universe, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. The only IP house not at both parks was the Poltergeist house in Hollywood. The other two houses in Hollywood were original creations: Scarecrow and Monstruos 3: Ghosts of Latin America. The Terror Tram (Hollywood exclusive experience) theme this year was Enter the Blumhouse, celebrating fifteen years of the film house of horror.

Where did they rank after I got scared silly touring the haunts? Let’s find out!

8. Five Nights at Freddy’s- This house wasn’t last the first time I explored the houses. One house had a better showing on my second time through and bumped this house to last. Most of the scares were the possessed animatronics, but they could be seen a mile away and didn’t produce any scares when you approached them. The scare actors tried, but with so many prop ‘scares’, they didn’t have much to work with. The house was boring and had the longest wait times of the night we went. I’d be upset if I had to wait the hours the wait reached in the regular queue.

7. Fallout- The Fallout house was originally my last place pick, until I went through a second time. This is one instance where a different scare actor team can change how I experience and feel about a house. I moved this to seventh, but it still held the last-place title for most of the night. It wasn’t scary, and it seemed like another uninspired house. The scare actors were fantastic (the issues with houses are not on them- it’s on the designers and writers- they always do a phenomenal job). My main problem is that this didn’t seem like a good IP for a haunt. The same issue is what I feel dragged down the Quiet Place house last year: good property, but not so much for a haunted house theme. The second time, the scare actors were in better positions and filling in gaps from my first trip. Better experience? Yes. Better house? No.

6. The Jason Universe- I love the Friday the 13th franchise. Jason is one of the core slashers I grew up with in the 80s, and I was stoked about this house. Get scared to death by a machete-wielding Jason in a house? Yeah, where do I sign up? Unfortunately, it didn’t translate well. The only scares were from Jason, so the house became repetitive quickly. I can only have so many Jasons lumber out of the shadows before it becomes comical. The set pieces were well done and depicted some of the best deaths at Camp Crystal Lake, but in the end, it didn’t do anything new with the hockey-masked killer. The house would’ve been better served if they had made it original instead of copying deaths from the film series: so much potential, but so much disappointment.

5. WWE Presents: The Wyatt Sicks- This was not a house I was looking forward to. I haven’t watched the WWE in decades, and I knew nothing about the Wyatt Sicks besides knowing about Bray Wyatt’s death. But, Brent, did you like the house? Honestly, I did. The setting and characters were creepy, and some great scare areas in the house got me pretty good. The setting was a cabin in a swamp-like area, so it being the house next to the Jason Universe house made them seem too much like each other, setting-wise: decent house, but horrible line management by the Universal staff (that is another tale for another time).

4. Poltergeist- This movie scared the hell out of me as a kid, and the house lived up to the warm, fuzzy childhood trauma. Yes, it is a direct adaptation of the film, but it isn’t a constant barrage of Jasons coming at you. This told the movie’s story and sent you on your way to contemplate if only the headstones were removed back home, but not the bodies. I was disappointed in some aspects of the house, however. I wanted the clown in the bedroom to do something when I walked by. Childhood trauma was that clown. On the second time through, a different clown prop slowly came out from under a bed, but it wouldn’t have scared a five-year-old. A clown was added to the closet ghost scene, but it was a scare actor who wasn’t always in place. The other thing I expected more from was the first room you entered with the television. Are they here or not? Overall, it kept the movie’s feel while delivering some good jump scares.

3. Scarecrow- We reached number three before hitting our first original house. Scarecrow was a nice callback to a previous house and featured music from guitar icon Slash. This house was a pleasant gory stroll through farms where the scarecrows decided to do something about their human farmers and their families. There was some amazing corn cob usage for kills, and the scarecrows did their job, being scary as hell. The music is tough to hear due to screaming, but the Slash soundtrack was tight when you could listen. Mostly, it was in the queue when you could hear the guitar soundtrack.

2. Terrifier- Art the Clown being the subject of a house at this year’s HHN was one of the worst-kept secrets in recent memory. Before the first house announcement, everyone was already speculating that Terrifier would be one of the houses. This house did what I wish the Jason Universe house had done—the Terrifier’s house mixed movie scenes with original scenes. The different scenes blended to create an experience worth the wait and the money. Who doesn’t like a clown? Art cuts his way through scare actors and props with expert precision, and the misting water throughout the house made everything feel bloody and gross. Orlando gave you a chance between wet and dry for the ending, but you had no choice in Hollywood. You got wet…

1. Monstruos 3: Ghosts of Latin America- I didn’t think an original house would win the night, and it almost didn’t. I kept a running ranking on my phone, which I updated after every house. I experienced Monstruos 2 last year in Orlando, and it was one of my top houses, so I eagerly anticipated this house. It didn’t disappoint. The house is divided into three Latin American ghosts and their stories. The set pieces were fantastic, the costumes bloody good, and the scares plentiful. I went through this house twice, and it was great both times. I waffled between Terrifier and this house for first, and after going through both twice, Monstruos came away with the scare victory.

I enjoyed the chance to visit Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood, and I hope to hit one or both next year. I’d love to see both versions and compare them. I hope you all have a spooky-good Halloween, and I’ll see you in the shadows!

Brent