Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights has gotten wetter and better! An event beloved by many and known for its eerie, creepy, and gory attractions is coming back bigger than before with a new wet path on the Terrifier house. Scaring visitors since October 25, 1991, Halloween Horror Nights is a ticketed event at Universal Studios that presents a terrifying experience, worthy of blood-curdling screams. The event incorporates around 10 themed haunted houses a year, outdoor “scare zones” filled with chilling characters and creatures, live entertainment, and Halloween-themed merchandise and food unique to the themes that year. When Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights first opened, it was called Universal Studios Fright Nights and only had one house called “Dungeon of Terror,”a large difference from the massive and terrifying Halloween Horror Nights of 2025.
A new addition to the event’s arsenal this year is the inclusion of the Terrifier house’s choice of a “blood bath” or “dry path” when people reach a specific part of the house. The Terrifier house did not truly have smooth sailing, though; it was more of a violent voyage that included a flooding incident on preview night. Universal Halloween Horror Nights‘ preview night is an exclusive, limited capacity, pre-opening event which is held the evening before the official first night of the season and allows people who attend to see all the attractions, scare zones, and haunted houses before the general public. The people in attendance were fans, the media, and Universal employees. On this year’s preview night, on August 26, 2025, an unidentified guest reportedly slipped and fell to the ground inside the Terrifier haunted house due to the excessive water present in the house, according to Mary Collins and numerous people who attended that night. The house was shut down for the night, and many people did not receive the chance to visit the attraction that night. On top of this predicament, the drainage system failed to work, and there was water flooding the park. Despite initial setbacks, the house was restored after this fateful night, and guests could return to this petrifying place.
The Terrifier haunted house’s wet path occurs near the end, and guests report varying levels of wetness, from some getting incredibly drenched to some only getting partially sprayed. The wet path is called the “blood bath” and allows guests to experience and, in a way, feel the grotesqueness, gore, and spectacles of Art the Clown’s madness and creations. This path immerses guests, giving them a sense of reality, as if stepping into the movie world they are viewing. This multi-sensory experience has not been seen before at such a profound level. Aside from this formidable component of the house, Universal’s Terrifier house has heaps more to offer. There is a scene where there is a bathroom with most likely one of the most putrid smells you will ever smell in your life. Throughout the park, there is themed food to match the movie and other surprises incorporated in this year’s roster of haunted houses.
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights has way more to offer than just scary things to see. Guests can sit and eat themed Halloween foods from their favorite houses and watch scare actors on the prowl as they are eating. The haunted houses this year bear the themes of Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks, Terrifier, Jason Universe, Fallout, Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters, Dolls: Let’s Play Dead, Grave of Flesh, Gálkn: Monsters of the North, and El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. The most popular house this year was Five Nights at Freddy’s, which consistently held the longest queues with an 185-minute wait time on August 28th. Some notable foods from these houses and other freaky dining spots are The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane Booth‘s Flamin’ Hot Birria Ramen, which according to Universal.com is, “Tender birria beef on ramen noodles in a Flamin’ Hotbirria consommé broth with shaved onions, scallions and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos”, Five Nights at Freddy’s offers a, “Chocolate cupcake, [with] raspberry insert, cannoli cream filling and mascarpone buttercream icing”, as well as Fallout booth’s Pickle Bucket Baked Chicken, which is, “Buffalo chicken dip with crispy fried pickles.” Additionally, these booths had a variety of popular drinks like Fallout booth’s RadAway, which consisted of, “Lemonade with chipotle pineapple and spiced brown sugar syrup in a souvenir RadAway bag.” Guests could also try Terrifier‘s Clown Café Juice which was orange juice infused with cranberry juice and sparkling apple cider. These foods pull guests into the horror films and really submerge visitors in the spirit of Halloween.
In addition to the incorporation of a wet path in Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, the event had a freakish amount of other offerings such as stage shows and scare zones. Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay, which is a live show featuring burlesque-style performances, an incredible amount of fire, and audacious acrobatics that defy the audience’s perception of gravity returns to the stage this year with all new routines. Haunt-O-Phonic: A Ghoulish Journey is a returning lagoon show with overwhelming fountain displays, projection mapping, and mystical music. Multiple scare zones, that lure in observers and make them feel a part of these unearthly worlds by scaring and interacting with them, are present at key locations throughout the park. Some of these zones include Masquerade: Dance with Death, The Origins of Horror, and The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane. Halloween Horror Nights is not to be missed so be sure to buy your ticket before the event vanishes on November 2, 2025.
