Halloween Horror Nights 2023: Check Out All the Haunted Houses, Ranked from Least to Most Scary

Halloween Horror Nights reminds us that we never go it alone.

In its third post-Covid year, Universal Orlando Resort’s 32nd annual Halloween spooktacular found both new and old ground, building on what it arguably has always done best with its theme park events — original creative content — while also exploiting several of intellectual property (IP) that managed to rise to an incredibly fresh level.

In addition to five Fright Zones — all designed to tell the twisty story of this year’s icon, Dr. Oddfellow — 10 haunted houses, a death-defying live performance, tons of themed food and drink, and more are scattered throughout the special Universal ticketed evening event Studios Florida, performing nearly 50 select nights now through November 4th.

As for featured IPs, horror fans will be delighted with titles like The Exorcist: The Believer, Chucky: Ultimate Kill Countthe return of the favorite Stranger Things (this time focusing on its fourth season) and, of course, The last of us.

Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

And when it comes to fear, there’s something for everyone. As Lora Sauls, senior group manager of creative development and show direction at Universal Orlando Resort, tells PEOPLE, “Of course every year we just want to be bigger, better, scarier with our intellectual properties, but we also just want to write amazing stories of original content. .”

He also notes that the focus on Dr. Oddfellow — who first appeared on HHN more than two decades ago — is “something that makes this year so different” from those that came before it.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

“He really controls the entire Scare Zone program with his journey of becoming immortal and invites all of you who love fear and just soak it up to follow his journey,” she says. “He is a deceitful man; he loves to tell lies, so he can offer you immortality, but in the end he will only tear you apart [of an exchange] for your soul.”

Below you’ll find a list of this year’s top 10 haunted houses ranked from least to scariest in the opinion of this writer, who has attended Halloween Horror Nights most years since 2002 and is familiar with IPs, event lore, and Universal Orlando itself.

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10. Dueling Dragons: Choose Your Fate

This house is stunning in both design and execution. It’s a testament to a lifelong Universal fan who (like me) rode the original Dueling Dragons roller coaster at Islands of Adventure park — which has since been modified once, before being replaced by Hagrid’s Magical Creatures motorcycle adventure — and wants to relive those medieval memories. .

“There’s some graphic stuff in nature, but it’s just a fun story about two wizards fighting over Merlin’s book of spells,” Sauls tells PEOPLE.

If you want to be transported to a fantasy world that might not be what you expected as the main character — with a bit of a choose-your-own adventure vibe, with the return of Fire vs. Ice to the original queue — this maze is perfect for you. If you’re looking for screams and aren’t nostalgically attached to the original Dueling Dragons coaster, you might not get that much out of it.

Mike Aiello and Neil Druckmann discuss The last of us during Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

9. The last of us

This might be a controversial opinion, but the house is based on The last of us — specifically the video game, not the TV series, per se — isn’t super scary. But it’s a real homage to the game, right down to the perfect replication of the sound made by marbles.

Is it fun? Absolutely. Are you rooting for (non-Pedro Pascal) Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey in the TV series) as they fight for their lives? Of course. But the spine-chilling factor doesn’t end there—and that’s okay. May not. The scenery, the cast, the music, etc. all more than make up for it.

AND The last of us is a popular IP for a great and unique reason: it transcends horror in a humanizing way that the zombie genre probably hasn’t quite mastered yet.

Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count row of haunted houses inside Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

8. Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count

Admittedly, I might have put this house at number 9 or 10 if I had only seen some of the later films in Child’s play franchise, but it (expertly) recreates some of the scenes from the original movies that I watched (probably too soon) in my childhood that are still etched in my memory, so it packs a punch. Keep your eyes peeled for a particularly iconic Jennifer Tilly scene from the (highly underrated) 1998 comedy-horror classic. Bride of Chucky!

My main gripe with this house is that the first half transports you straight into the movie, but the second half feels very random. I was hoping to see something substantial from the latest season of the show – or even the upcoming season focused on the White House! But no such luck. (I still want to do it again.)

Universal Monsters: No Masks row of haunted houses inside Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

7. Universal Monsters: No Masks

One thing that Universal is not lacking in is monsters, and they have used that fact for most of the years, infusing traditional horror icons into their houses like Dracula, The Wolf Man, etc.

The fact that I can continue to deal with this classic topic and stay fresh – this time with newcomers Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame – is impressive. And this time we can do it all in Paris!

The biggest scare factor in this house is the Invisible Man, from the bandaged face to the eerie voice that sounds too sane to actually be sane…not to mention the strobe lights that go off at the wrong moment, when he little too close for comfort.

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Stranger Things 4 haunted house inside Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

6. Stranger Things 4

Any other year, I probably would have ranked the HHNs Stranger Things houses a little less scary. But the fourth season of the hit Netflix series leaned more on traditional horror than its previous installments and, as a result, seemed like the perfect home for this event – and Universal took full advantage of recreating its most legendary scenes.

The design and layout of the rooms, the cast, the perfect use of music and lighting — everything about this year’s house made you feel transported to 1986 Hawkins, Indiana in the best (and scariest) way possible, and it was my favorite Stranger Things house in HHN until today.

Small spoiler: you may see more than one version of Vecna.

Lora Sauls discusses YETI: Campground Kills during Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

5. YETI: Campground Kills

This house is kind of advertised as “funny” for 2023, which means there’s usually at least one of these every year. So I went in expecting to laugh like in the past for horror-comedy houses like the one from 2009. Leave it to Cleaver.

But there were no laughs in sight, as this house felt the closest to real life in the sense that it involved the whole family in the monster’s path, doing something as innocent as camping.

What you don’t see was almost as creepy as what you do see, as well as the highlights YETI: Campground Kills they involve the ingenious use of silhouettes paired with screams — aided, of course, by a remote expanse of forest within which no one can hear those screams.

4. dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins

A major attraction companion to the intertwining Fear Zones centered on the Oddfellow story, this maze offers a traditional carnival feel with some quirks (sans blood, of course) thrown in for good measure.

HHN is so unfamiliar with the creepy carnival aesthetic, having relied many times in the past on iconic clowns like Jack and using IPs like Killer clowns from outer space. But popcorn does count Twisted Origins it only serves to distract unintended guests from the fact that the Freak is lurking in every seemingly safe space to claim your soul.

3. The darkest job

This was admittedly the house I was least excited about, since I’m not a big music person and the story synopsis reads: “Blues musician Pinestraw Spruce must face the music after meeting The Collector and trading his soul for musical fame.”

But the (beautifully rendered) bluesy backdrop is enhanced by an aesthetic and chill factor not unlike From dusk to dawn house at HHN 2014, in the sense that we’re all here just to have a good time and suddenly we realize that we may have been lured in by false pretenses.

All I can say is… watch your back.

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2. Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings

Who doesn’t love a good kill cult? In this colonial-era house, a blood moon influences a bunch of moon worshipers to turn against anyone who doesn’t follow their beliefs, and no one is spared.

I don’t know if it was the old environment that reminded me a bit of that Witch (2016) or the eerie sounds of frantic stabbing that pierced the air at seemingly every turn, but every second of this house gave me an unsettling feeling I couldn’t shake for the rest of the night.

“It’s probably not for kids,” Sauls tells PEOPLE.

Exorcist: Believer haunted house inside Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort/Jen Juneau

1. Exorcist: Believer

Confession: original The exorcist the movie never scared me too much, and the previous house based on that movie that HHN did in 2016 was one that I loved but wasn’t particularly blown away by compared to some of the others that year. I even watched the original movie a few weeks ago in preparation, like Exorcist: Believer it won’t hit theaters for a few more weeks.

The haunted house based on the new film — which will mark Ellen Burstyn’s return to the franchise for the first time since the first film, 50 years ago — was advertised as a sort of “trailer” for the upcoming sequel, so it was hard to go in not knowing what to expect.

I will say that there are scenes you might expect, but the proximity of the scarecrows to the guests as they walk through the house combined with the feeling of complete loss of control puts it at the top of my list — and that would probably be the case even if it is not include a staircase that original fans will recognize and, like me, immediately stop.

Tickets for Halloween Horror Nights 32 — as well as upgrades like the Express Pass, Frequent Fear Pass, Rush of Fear Pass and more — are on sale now at universalorlando.com/hhn.

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Source: HIS Education