Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2025 - Opening Night Update and Review

Welcome to our update and review of opening night of Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood! In this update we're going to share all of our house walk-through videos and our thoughts on the event overall.

Right off the top we're going to let you know this years event is VERY popular. Maybe one of the most popular ever. There's usually 1 IP house that brings in the casual Halloween fan. This year there are 4 houses that are bringing in people from a wide variety of fandoms. Terrifier, Fallout, Five Nights at Freddy's and The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks. So if you are going to be visiting, make sure you get your tickets early, and get those add-on's such as Express and Early Entry ASAP!

Be sure to check out our Survival Guide as well, this will help you to have the best night at HHN!

Now let's get into the fun!

As with the past few years, the red carpet/media check in was in CityWalk near the Universal Cinema.

As always, it's an honor to be included in these events!

This years lineup is STACKED!

Clownz

And fire ... the best of combos

Cheers Art! We absolutely loved the roaming Art The Clowns. If you've followed our site you know that Terrifier isn't my jam. But I can't deny that having an "icon" at the event really tied things together. More of this in future years please!

Haunted Houses

Let's run down the Haunted Houses. Going to list these from our favorite to least favorite. But for the most part everything this year is stellar!

As a reminder, my hype list prior to HHN is below. You may be shocked at how things have changed.

Hype List:

Jason UN1V3RSE
Five Nights at Freddy's
Monstruous 3
Fallout
Scarecrow
Terror Tram
Wyatt Sicks
Poltergeist
Terrifier

Jason UN1V3RSE

I grew up on Friday the 13th. I can remember being 8 or 9 years old and dressing up as Jason for Halloween. So I always love a good slasher house. And this one absolutely delivered. Just a super fun house going through the history of the franchise. Really looking forward to much more with Jason this season.

Monstruos 3

I have to be honest, even though my hype for this house was pretty high, before the event we were wondering if perhaps it had become time to try something new here. We couldn't have been more wrong. This house delivered on every single level from the themeing, the scares, the talent, the music ... everything! This may be my favorite version of Monstruos. 3

Not the best pic, but is that a hidden mickey?

Five Nights at Freddy's

Let me get this out of the way. This isn't a scary house. At all. But it works on every single level. Sure, there's been talk about less animatronics in the Hollywood version vs. Orlando, but that's being nit-picky. This is a great "starter" house for newer horror fans. And one that shouldn't be missed.

Beware of the killer cupcake

Terrifier

I know you were all wondering if this was truly going to be a "one and done" house for me as I always said it would be. Well, I did it twice on opening night, so that flew out the window. And I will be doing it again. I will emphasize again, the movies are not for me. But as an HHN House, this totally works. It's vile. It's disgusting. It's also hilarious and just a lot of fun.

Probably my favorite picture I took all night.

I don't put a "Viewer Discretion Advised" notice on too many videos, I did for Terrifier.

Fallout

I'm going to be straight here, most of the house is just "okay". The sets are amazing. It's so cool to walk into the vaults and see the world come to life. But there just seemed to be a lot of dead spots.

Where this house really shines though is in the final room in the Super Duper Mart. It's absolutely relentless. If they add more talent to some of the other parts of the house this could turn into a classic.

Terror Tram

That's right, the Terror Tram. While the theme is not too different from the past few years, the execution here is off the charts awesome. Absolutely stacked with talent who know their job. Even M3GAN gets to purge this year. The inclusion of Insidious and Exorcist Believer outside the Bates Motel works flawlessly.

Scarecrow: Music by Slash

While this is a repeat from 2022, there are enough differences in the house to make it feel fresh. Most notably, the soundtrack by Slash, which adds a depth to the house not present in the 2022 version. Absolutely fantastic all the way through. Glad to see this one back.

Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks

My hype for this house grew prior to HHN starting from watching the Bray Wyatt documentary. Definitely check it out if you haven't seen it yet. The tributes to Bray were incredible. However, in a lot of the house it felt like I'd seen the sets somewhere previously. It just seemed like they put the Wyatt Sicks in scenes from Texas Chainsaw from last year. Maybe it's just me.

That being said, the house is a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to more visits throughout the season.

Poltergeist

I'm going to be 100% honest here, there are zero changes from the 2018 house.

If they needed to bring back a house to fill out the event I completely get it. I just have to question why this one. Why not the fan favorite Bride of Frankenstein Lives from 2021 to give it a true run with zero safety restrictions.

With that being said, the sets are spectacular and the talent here gives it their all.

Scare Zones and Atmosphere

As I said at the top, the inclusion of an event "icon" in Art the Clown really ties the event together. We saw him everywhere from Universal Plaza, to the walkway to Curious George, and even the lower lot. And it was great that there weren't throngs of "influencers" chasing him around all night. People were just letting him do his thing. Even on a night that was full of influencers for media night.

And as always, the scare zones are chock full of fun talent at every turn.

Alright, that's going to wrap it up for our opening night coverage of Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood! This years event is spectacular and there seems to be something for everybody! We look forward to bringing you more nights of scares over the next couple of months!

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