Halloween Horror Nights in 2026 certainly looks to have a very impressive line-up this year, with 10 haunted houses, walkthrough scare zones, live entertainment and more.
Guests are invited to step right up into the Infernal Carnival of Nightmares, where legendary icons Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow reign as the ringmasters of terror.
Year after year, Halloween Horror Nights continues to redefine what a scare event is all about. There’s nowhere else on the planet that does it quite like Universal, and after visiting Halloween Horror Nights for the last two years, I can hand on heart say it’s worth it and more. It truly is something special for Halloween haunt fans.
When I was born in 1991, Halloween Horror Nights was originally called Fright Nights, and it was originally a three-night event that rapidly grew into the Halloween Horror Nights event we know today.
2026 marks the event’s most expansive yet, so let’s dive right into all 10 of the iconic haunted houses that will be gracing Universal Orlando this year!
Stranger Things 5
Celebrating the fifth and final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, this may very well be the last time a Stranger Things maze graces Halloween Horror Nights (barring any future spin-offs planned, of course).
The barrier between reality and the supernatural is collapsing to unleash an ominous darkness over the town of Hawkins.
Stranger Things mazes in the past have been nothing short of outstanding, with many walkthrough POVs out there showcasing some jaw-dropping scenes, including one that sticks in my memory: Vecna’s Upside Down clock room and the Creel House.
These sets were outstanding, and it seems as though Universal is going all out with making more larger-than-life sets within this particular maze, as Stranger Things certainly has the tallest sets out of this year’s HHN line-up.
Completely immersive and utterly mind-blowing, Stranger Things 5 is going to be a hit at this year’s event. The first half of the maze hits home, and whilst it does fade out in terms of grandeur towards the end, I think it’s safe to say a lot of the HHN budget went on this particular maze.
Sinners
With the most Oscar nominations of any film in history, Sinners makes its Halloween Horror Nights debut as guests step back in time to the Club Juke, where a night of music and celebration turns to panic as a troupe of unrelenting vampires crash the opening night.
What I love about the Sinners maze is the fact that before you even go into the maze, the queue line for the maze itself is a small indoor pre-show. Whilst queues will naturally trickle outside during an always-busy event, I think this is a really nice touch, and they even went through the effort to theme this part before guests enter the maze.
From the early previews I’ve seen inside the maze, the sets certainly look the part, but there doesn’t look to be too much in the way of scares. Bear in mind I’m seeing early preview stuff, so this isn’t solidified as the be-all, end-all verdict, but out of all the mazes that had ‘hype’ behind them going into this event, Sinners certainly doesn’t feel like the strongest of the IP mazes by quite some distance.
When it comes to people’s favourite IP mazes, it really does depend on how audiences gravitate towards the movie/TV show versions. If you’re a big fan of the movie, then it’s only natural that you’ll gravitate more towards that maze being your favourite, as you’re fully immersed in the world they’ve grown to love.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Sinners and was quite dumbfounded by its sheer number of nominations, but when it comes to the mazes, I try to take a more natural stance on how they’re reviewed and start them all with a clean slate. To me, still, Sinners wasn’t too strong on scares.
The safe bet at HHN is that the mazes are going to be well-themed, but when there’s no scares on top, that certainly knocks it down the pecking order.
Hellraiser
I think we’ve found what is going to be most people’s favourite Halloween Horror Nights IP maze right here.
Hellraiser has guests descending into the iconic Lament Configuration puzzle box and entering a dimension inhabited by torturous beings, the Cenobites and their leader, Pinhead.
It’s certainly one of the longest mazes at the event. It keeps going and going and going, and it’s almost like a maze in itself, with the ability to get lost very easily in there.
The detailing on the puzzle box as you walk through it already looked cool in the daytime during a lights-on maze tour, but at night it turns into a completely different beast.
Costuming is certainly a strong point of all HHN mazes, but I feel Hellraiser stepped it up tenfold inside that maze, as you’re completely in the world of Hellraiser and it’s genuinely terrifying.
2026 delivers a very strong line-up at this year’s event, but this particular maze is teetering on the borderline of its own league. It’s very special and is certainly going to be one of the highlights of the event, and you know what that means: the longest queues.
Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness
Speaking of long queues, I have a feeling we may have our winner here, as I can imagine a whole Crazy Train of people queuing up for this one as HHN pays tribute to the heavy metal icon.
This maze is mind-blowing, not just for fans of Ozzy, who will lap up every single Easter egg this maze has to offer, but to the wider public too.
Music made Ozzy, just like the music makes this maze. You are completely immersed in the world they have created, and it’s a maze where the music is a character in its own right.
Out of all of the mazes at Halloween Horror Nights, you get some that you appreciate but aren’t entirely stoked to go around again, but with this particular maze, it’s certainly the most re-visitable maze, as guests will be moshing through the maze from start to finish.
Choo, Choo! All aboard the Crazy Train!
Evil Dead Burn
I rather enjoyed the Evil Dead Burn movie, other than the quite questionable end credits sequence that redefined the entire lore of the franchise. But that niggle aside, this particular maze is a gore fest, but it certainly is by no means a strong maze.
It comes to something when the entire catalogue of maze footage and photos that were provided to us by Universal didn’t include a single in-maze photo that we can share with you today. The second they update that folder, I’ll update the article accordingly.
Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control
The icons of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights come together in this highly anticipated maze, where Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow’s twisted rivalry unfolds in a battle between chaos and control that ultimately leads to the two adversaries joining forces.
When it comes to set design and old-school effects that haven’t been seen for years at HHN, they’re all back with a bang and a refined feel within this particular maze.
It’s an acid trip of the highest order, with incredible characters and illusions, and when it comes to big-budget mazes, I’d bet my house on this being one of them.
We have an origins story weaving its way through the maze, but this is going to be a fan favourite, and just to prove how immersive and incredible it is…
I’ve absolutely stuffed as many interior photos as I could of this particular maze within this very article for you.
INVASION: Alien Abduction
The aliens are coming as guests witness a terrifying encounter with an aggressive, unseen alien craft that has abducted a family and its livestock from its remote homestead and is now plotting to tear everyone apart.
Sadly, there were no photos attached for this particular maze either, which is a shame, as the exterior barn façade for this maze is impressive, and that’s before you even step into the maze.
It’s a fun maze that’s well-themed, but it’s very tongue-in-cheek and 80s goofy humour for sure. There’s certainly more room for scare potential as the season goes on, but this is a very solid scare maze for those who wish to tiptoe into their scare maze tolerance. This is a great start.
H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!
Enter the twisted world of H.R. Bloodengutz as the fan-favourite creature feature host returns to WKNB Television Station for a final Halloween Special of gruesome proportions in “H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!”
If you bottled vintage horror in the fun-filled maze, this is what you end up with. It’s gloriously themed, and whilst the rooms are a little bit smaller than other mazes at the event, it’s just absolutely packed full of fun.
The original mazes at Halloween Horror Nights are usually the strongest, as they have the freedom of creativity with no boundaries of an IP, and this one is certainly a testament to that, as they’ve gone hell for leather on making this particular maze outstanding.
When it comes to the original IP mazes, I have a feeling this one is going to be high up on most people’s lists.
MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals
Navigate a post-apocalyptic wasteland where almost all life is nearly extinct, causing humans to feast on each other for survival in MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals.
For the set design alone, this maze is worth a visit, and there’s a standout puppet moment that guests will absolutely love.
It starts off slow but then gets better and better. This was a maze that was compared to Grave of Flesh last year, not in terms of the story of the maze in any shape or form, but a maze that people expected to just naturally be weak.
It’s safe to say that MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals is not weak, and out of all the mazes at HHN this year, there’s no real ‘weak’ maze outside of Sinners. But that’s certainly more of an expectation vs. reality situation as opposed to just a bad maze.
Cybergoria
Enter Cybergoria, a cold, dead world where humans have awakened from a cryo-sleep to find that the machines built to make them immortal and invincible have been harvesting human flesh and replacing it with synthetic parts.
A very long house compared to the location it was in, but the set design is on point within this one. It’s got an Alienmovie-type vibe to it, mixed with other sci-fi flicks we know and love, and it’s a maze that once again has repeat value.
Halloween Horror Nights 2026 Overall
Halloween Horror Nights in its 35th anniversary looks to be one of the strongest in many, many years.
I absolutely loved last year’s event, but this year they’re stepping it up far beyond just the sheer strength and quality of the mazes.
The iconic tribute store is back in its original location (where it should be), and with plenty of scare zones, there’s always something to see and do.
The horror extends beyond the scare zones and into other areas of the park, as the streets teem with even more lurking frights, including:
- Mel’s Die-In: Zombies, where a hungry horde of zombie carhops have taken over Mel’s Die-In – and they’re ready to serve up guests on a platter.
- Club Horror, located in the streets of San Francisco, where the DJ is undead but the vibe is alive and well.
- Chainsaw Hordes roaming the streets of Universal Studios who prey upon unsuspecting guests.
- And for the first time ever, a creepy-cute meet-and-greet with the infamous HamiKuma, located inside the Five & Dime merchandise location.
In addition to this, there are two brand-new shows, including:
- Stranger Things: Return to Hawkins, an all-new nighttime lagoon show honouring the legacy of Stranger Things that brings the global phenomenon to life in a spectacular new way. Featuring beloved scenes from the series projected across towering water screens, dynamic lighting effects and immersive audio — including iconic music from the series — this experience will take guests on an emotional journey in celebration of the series’ 10th anniversary.
- Nightmare Fuel: Blood Noir, where guests can embark on a dark musical journey and resist temptation as death-defying stunts lure them deeper into a vampire-ridden metropolis.
HHN in 2026 is one special event that I highly recommend that you go and check out immediately. They’ve listened to feedback, improved on the very minor adjustments that were required, and have delivered one of the strongest events in recent memory at the Orlando-based Universal theme park.
