Every year, Universal Halloween Horror Nights manages to craft some super scary and interactive haunted houses to make us feel like we’re in the middle of either the best horror movies of all time or the original concepts crafted uniquely for Universal Studios’ guests. This year, the festivities have promised the terrors of silence from A Quiet Place movies, Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula's daughter going head to head, and the marshmallowy nostalgia of Ghostbusters across the many haunted houses this year.
2024’s festivities was my fourth year in a row as CinemaBlend’s final girl for Halloween Horror Nights (though last year I ranked Universal Orlando’s houses rather than the Hollywood ones). After going to the event's opening night, courtesy of Universal, on Thursday and surviving all the houses, I can confidently say 2024 is a really solidly scary and yet another really fun year to enjoy the spooky season at Universal Studios Hollywood. Here’s my personal ranking of all the houses in terms of how worth it I think they are to check out – though honestly, all of them are a great time.
8. Monstruos 2: The Nightmares of Latin America
Monstruos 2 was the first house of the night I ventured to, and I have to say, I was rather disappointed with this one – especially after the same location had one of the most terrifying Latin-themed houses in my 2022 ranking of Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights with La Llorona: The Weeping Woman. This original house (which is not far from the park’s entrance/Minion Land) had some creepy characters for sure, as it features El Charro, the devil dog El Cadejo and the boogeyman El Cucuy, but I found the scares to be rather one-note... and sort of goofy. Of course, it’s possible my walkthrough was during some weird lull.
7. Insidious: The Further
This year, Insidious returns to Halloween Horror Nights, and while we ranked the version in Orlando as the scariest this year, the same can definitely not be said about the Hollywood version. Now don’t get me wrong, this house (which is just past the Wizarding World) is super unsettling and had my blood curdling as it took me and the other guests deep into The Further through the red door, encountering dolls, a child’s drawings and demonic creatures on the way, but most of the house itself is a lot of long dark hallways.
6. Dead Exposure: Death Valley
Down on the Lower Lot of Universal Studios Hollywood, there are four haunted houses to check out. If I were to tell you to skip one of them, I’d suggest Dead Exposure: Death Valley (especially since I know lines can get intense as the season progresses). That being said, I enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected. This house takes place on a top-secret government facility where an experiment to create super soldiers has turned for the worst. This one is full of great imagery and a lot of cool use of neon lighting, but lacks the kind of real punch the remaining ones coming up do.
5. The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy
When the first haunted house from The Weeknd came out in 2022, it surprised me when it became my favorite house of that year, particularly because I’m not an avid follower of his music. This sequel, Nightmare Trilogy (also on the Lower Lot), is another really impressive house from the wicked corners of The Weeknd’s mind, but like some sequels do, it just wasn’t as effective for me this time around. The story was more convoluted as well, from my POV. Even so, I really love how original the imagery feels, and how gory it is.
4. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
The only one of the 2024 movies to get its own haunted house this year is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and it was definitely one of my favorites. From appearances from iconic Ghostbusters characters like the marshmallow men and Slimer, to numerous and quite terrifying appearances of Garraka, the Frozen Empire house does an awesome job of being really entertaining, making one feel like they are in the movie, and actually being quite scary too. The house (which is next to the Insidious house) even made me appreciate the movie itself more as well!
3. A Quiet Place
My most highly-anticipated house of this year was the first adaptation of A Quiet Place at Horror Nights. It’s one of my favorite horror franchises to come out of the past decade, and the house did not disappoint. As you go through the queue (located next to Monstruos 2), a woman on a screen encourages guests to remain quiet, and that’s just what my group did. It made me feel part of the eerie forest atmosphere as one early scare actor implemented sign language and another who screamed was instantly captured. I found myself abiding the urge to be quiet even though I was also internally gasping about all the amazing appearances of the aliens (or Death Angels) and references to the first two movies.
2. Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
I’m always a huge fan of Universal’s Monsters houses because of how much work they put into them year after year, including how they always pick a fun combination of characters to go head to head with. After our 2023 ranking of Hollywood’s Horror Nights had the Unmasked house at No. 4, Eternal Bloodlines stacked up even higher among houses this year. This house, which is the biggest one of the year and located on the Lower Lot, features Saskia Van Helsing teaming up with the Bride of Frankenstein against Dracula’s daughter, and the storytelling and the immersive nature of it was such a great time! I felt like I was in a movie I wanted to see, and the combination of worlds was really special to see in one house.
1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface
If you want to get really scared at Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights this year, the most gory and satisfyingly story heavy house of them all is this year’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre edition! The house (on the Lower Lot) comes as the first movie celebrates 50 years this spooky season, and wow, does it deliver. Rather than simply adapting one of the movies, as Horror Nights did in 2021, this one offers a super stressful and spine chilling origin story for Leatherface. Seriously, enter this one only if you can handle the terror!
Big Bonus Scare: Blumhouse's Terror Tram
Last, but not least, I wasn’t sure where to rank this one, since it is technically not a haunted house, but a unique HHN experience. As the theme park has done in past seasons, during this event, Universal Studios Hollywood transforms its Studio Tour into a massive open air experience that takes guests through actual sets while they get scared. This year, it was all Blumhouse themed, with appearances from movies from the studio like M3GAN, The Purge, Freaky, Happy Death Day and one of Blumhouse’s upcoming horror movies, Wolf Man.
The fear factor is definitely rampant in Terror Tram this year, as the tram has guests walking through the backlot to a ton of scare actors running around with chainsaws and getting in your face. M3GAN gets to lead the pack with her viral dance and a lot of chaos, and that definitely made me want to turn back out of fear.
You can buy Halloween Horror Nights tickets for evenings up until November 3 on the Universal Studios Hollywood website now. I hope my final girl escapades help you have a blast at the best haunted houses of your choosing.
