Believe it or not, Halloween is less than two weeks away. However, since late September, Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida has been serving up scares with its annual Halloween Horror Nights event.
Amongst crazed men with chainsaws and trick-or-treaters turned cat creatures, this event features 10 brand-new haunted houses. Every year, four of these draw the biggest crowd: the ones featuring licensed characters.
This year, those IP houses are Five Nights At Freddy’s, Terrifier, Fallout and the Jason Universe (also known as Friday the 13th). For its 34th year, here are some of my thoughts on which ones are going to give you the most frights, from worst to best.
4. Five Nights at Freddy’s
Unfortunately, while this is the one I was most excited for, it’s also the most disappointing. Of course, it’s a PG-13 film franchise and huge with younger kids, so they likely wanted the house to be a bit tamer.
However, it’s pretty mild at the end of the day. The set design itself was great; you start outside of the restaurant with the grand neon sign of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
As soon as you enter, it’s as if you stepped right into the movie. The amazing animatronics and 1980s aesthetic are on full display. The familiar Fazbear trio of Freddy, Bonnie and Chica performs “Talking In Your Sleep” by The Romantics as you walk through the entrance.
The first of many animatronic scares is Foxy’s separate station. The rest of the house is walking through the pizzeria with a few scenes from the games and the movie.
Similar moments of that initial Foxy scare happen with the animatronics hiding in the dark but then lighting up. These, combined with the random human actors attempting to scare you as well, were fairly underwhelming.
3. Fallout
Unfortunately for fans of the game, this house mostly only follows the Amazon Prime show of the same name.
The house starts out with a doomsday vault being raided by people, much like the show. As you move out of the vault, the scares become much more frequent. The irradiated lands are full of ghouls, much like Walton Goggins’ character in the show, and they pop out every other step.
After that, you may think it is time for the house to end, but it surprises you. There’s a portion after the ghouls featuring the power armor. The lights turn out and a gun fight commences while you can barely see anything. Overall, a bit more frightening than FNAF, but not by much.
2. Terrifier
Up next is one of my favorites in the form of the Terrifier house. Even though I’m not a huge fan of Art the Clown’s escapades on the silver screen, I greatly enjoyed the haunted house based on him.
The house starts off with a sense of terror when we see the outside of a messed-up carnival, featuring a character stabbed through the head with rebar.
The childlike feeling imbued with horror is present as you walk through the carnival into a Clown Cafe. When we reach the cafe, a childish jingle is playing, juxtaposed by gutted children on swingsets.
One thing I respect the Terrifier house for is its unblinking willingness to have children dye. Constant blood and viscera throughout include kids and people in scenes from the trilogy.
Besides that, Art is a constant presence throughout the house. Most other houses have a new scare every time, but almost every jump scare is Art himself.
I especially love the choice between the wet and dry paths at the very end. Of course, being a good journalist, I decided to choose the wet path to report on the best experience. My opinion: always go with the wet path. It makes you feel as if you are being covered in blood alongside Art.
1. Jason Universe
Even though Terrifier was a great house, the one that takes the cake is the Jason house.
This house felt like the one with the least preparation. You walk through the building in which they keep the Fast and Furious ride, and the haunted house starts out of nowhere.
As you walk through the Lake Crystal Camp, the scares come to you nonstop. Where the Terrifier house had constant appearances of Art the Clown, the Jason house had him appear at least four times every few steps.
There is a moment where you reach the outside and think the house is ending. However, all a sudden, you get scared by Jason Voorhees’ mom. It was a thrilling moment.
The second half of the house is mostly in darkness. It is here that you get the most scared and rethink visiting the park. While the first section only focused on the camp and the first couple of movies, you move through many more locations here.
Ultimately, you get scared the most in the Jason Universe house, but the rest of the houses are still worth the wait.
If you want to experience all 10 houses for yourself, tickets are available on the Universal website through Nov. 2.

