Halloween Horror Nights is the premier Halloween event out here in Southern California and Orlando, Florida. Over the years they’ve had many houses that are terrifying, funny, scary, scary again, and always entertaining. The strength of the event lies in the fact that not every house is for everyone, but there is always something to do. This year we had houses from Halloween, The Weeknd, Killer Klowns from Space, Blumhouse, and many other franchises. Judging by how John Murdy (a great Twitter follower, btw) and his team host the event every year, they usually include some sort of musical performance, a classic Universal Monsters house, one from an ’80s franchise, and one from a new movie or current movie series.
You can read our full Halloween Horror Nights 2022 review right here!
So, for this exercise, we’re going to follow a few “rules.” As much as I’d love to include houses only from the classic ’80s franchises, that would be a boring exercise. Also, we will try to stick with Universal films or franchises that could easily get them. That means no, no Star Wars: Red Harvest house or something. Let’s jump into the dream halloween horror nights lineup!
The houses
- Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark
- Army of Darkness
- New Halloween trilogy (Halloween, Halloween kills, Halloween endings)
- Stranger Things 4/5
- Alfred Hitchcock presents: Psycho and the Birds
- A nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy’s back
- chucky
- Frankenstein’s Bride vs. Dracula (original story)
- The Invisible Man
- Terror Tram: Horror Motel and Trick or treat
As you can see we have a pretty good mix of old and new in the houses here. We’ve had houses based on the music of The Weeknd, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, who’s next? Well, Iron Maiden has some pretty nice images from their most famous album covers to fill a Halloween Horror Nights house. Take each room and upgrade it with Iron Maiden as you progress through her career. Start with Iron Maidengo to Murderer, number of the beast, piece of mind, power slave, Sometimeand then finish with fear of the dark. It’s a game made in heaven (or hell).
While Universal doesn’t own the rights to the first two evil Dead Movies, they’ve made houses based on the movies and TV shows, although we haven’t gotten one based solely on that Army of Darkness. There’s a lot to laugh about, but the film also has some nice set pieces and scares to deal with. I can’t imagine walking through an area modeled after the pit section at the beginning of the movie. It would be the right balance between terrifying and funny.
We had houses based on Halloween and halloween 4, but nothing based on the Blumhouse film trilogy. They are by far the scariest in the entire franchise, and especially this one Halloween (2018) Movie, it would be a great house. Also to celebrate the end Halloween Give him (for now) an oversized house with three movies’ worth of content. We have two films with us The Horrors of Blumhouse: Freaky and the Black Telephone.
More information about the houses
We advertised for two years chucky at Horror Nights, but no actual chucky houses or any kind of scare zone. That’s a shame, because there are some great moments in season one, and with season two coming out later this year, it would be a perfect way to get more people involved in what’s likely to be a third season. Also, we’ve had a few houses based on Chucky, but nothing lately. For a horror icon like Chucky, he hasn’t had much Horror Nights love lately.
Universal has the rights to Alfred HitchcockThe scariest movies Psycho and The birds. With The birdsthere are many opportunities for good scares. Psycho makes a house of its own with all the good scares in this movie. Norman Bates is already a part of the Terror Tram, so giving one of the most influential horror directors of all time a house of his own is only natural.
stranger things was by far the most popular from the 2019 edition of Halloween Horror Nights, and with the show’s popularity exploding after its fourth season, it’s an easy pick. Vecna and the show’s fourth season gave us the scariest version of the show so they were able to give us a season four recap with lots of chilling looks at Vecna and the themes of the show.
The last few houses explained
The last few homes come from a place of personal love for the franchises. A nightmare on Elm Street haven’t had much love lately. The franchise hasn’t had a movie since the remake, we haven’t had a new Blu-ray release for the franchise, and there doesn’t seem to be much movement from New Line Cinema in the series. What better way to get some excitement going than by making a franchise-expansive Freddy’s Haunted House?
Having no idea what original idea the houses of John Murdy and his crew could come up with, for our final two, I’d go with two based on the classic Universal Monsters. The Bride of Frankenstein lives! is one of the best houses they’ve ever done at the event and I would do a sequel with the other most famous universal monster, Dracula. The Invisible Man has some potential as a house with people in morph suits jumping at you or otherwise, this seems like a great way to scare people to death.
The Terror Tram is also usually based on a brand new movie or a recent movie, so I’d go with the Horror Motel to get the Bates Motel set going and hopefully we’ll get one Trick or treat continuation from it.
So what do you think of the Dream Halloween Horror Nights lineup? Would you like to go to this event? Let me know in the comments!
For more horror information, check out Fright-A-Thon, the 61-day Halloween content marathon!
