ORLANDO, Fla. — Once I informed my fellow Halloween Horror Nights attendees that I’d by no means visited a haunted home earlier than, they recoiled in delicate panic. Why was I, an simply frightened newbie, willfully subjecting myself to a medley of gory visuals and bounce scares? I determine somebody has to blaze the path for the scaredy-cat neighborhood. It’d as properly be me.
To be clear, I like horror films. They’re not actual, and I can shut my eyes to flee them. Not so at a haunted home — and particularly not on the annual fall occasion hosted by Common Studios in Orlando, Fla., the place terror overwhelms the senses and nefarious creatures invade your private house.
Yearly between Labor Day weekend and Halloween weekend, thrill seekers head to the theme park at dusk to stroll by means of 10 extremely detailed haunted homes filled with actors in horrifying costumes and scenes teeming with guts and decay.
A mutated creature lurks amongst parkgoers at one of many scare zones at Halloween Horror Nights. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
I watched a whole lot of movies of previous Halloween Horror Nights haunts to arrange, watching folks shriek and panic as mangled creatures leaped out at them. Yahoo social producer Eric Duran, a Halloween Horror Nights veteran, swears these scares are predictable and never too off-putting. He adopted me by means of every of the homes, by no means as soon as flinching. I had the alternative expertise. One can by no means get used to having a snarling monster lunge towards your face as you attempt to navigate round it, regardless of what number of instances it occurs, even when they’re strictly banned from touching you. However that’s simply my opinion.
To get a really goal evaluation of how spine-chilling every of those homes is, I tracked my peak coronary heart fee at every cease to create a rating of the scariest homes at Halloween Horror Nights 2025. To set a baseline, my resting coronary heart fee is 73 beats per minute (bpm). Be part of me as I recount the darkest highlights of the scariest night time of my life.
10. Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters
Coronary heart fee: 109 bpm
On this expertise, demons made out of lava begin to take over an Previous West city, and two otherworldly bounty hunters have to save lots of the day. It smelled terrible, which was spectacular. I’m sure that the height of my concern got here after I was genuinely startled by a decaying factor peering across the nook, and it simply wouldn’t go away as a result of I simply stored screaming and we have been each locked in mutual screaming and amusement till I lastly regained the flexibility to maneuver.
9. El Artista: A Spanish Haunting
Coronary heart fee: 112 bpm
Visitors get spooked at El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
I knew that the Gothic vibes of the house occupied by a tortured author looking for inspiration would attraction on to my creepier sensibilities. The artwork on the partitions of this home, set in Nineteenth-century Spain, begins to come back alive, leaping out at passersby. I used to be so captivated by its magnificence and the narrative, I nearly forgot to get scared.
That’s, till my bat ear headband bought caught in one thing — perhaps somebody’s costume or a chunk of gauze hanging from the ceiling —and I believed I had been captured by some malevolent-but-stylish ghoul. I doubled over in a hunched place that I maintained for the remainder of the night time.
8. WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks
Coronary heart fee: 118 bpm
A masked character jumps out at parkgoers at WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks at Halloween Horror Nights. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
You may solely be so scared if you’re creeping by means of a haunted home and are available face-to-face with a large WWE emblem. I don’t actually know a lot about wrestling other than the truth that it’s dramatic, which I admire, however this home is predicated on a bunch of creepy characters portrayed by skilled wrestlers.
I undoubtedly hit peak bpm when one final creep in a grotesque masks and crappy wig unexpectedly lurched at me, inflicting me to involuntarily dash out of the exit with my arms within the air in give up like a frightened cartoon.
7. Dolls: Let’s Play Useless
Coronary heart fee: 125 bpm
Considered one of many spooky toys on show at Dolls: Let’s Play Useless. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
Visitors enter the home of a maniacal little woman who tortures her toys, and we’re subsequent.
“I’m not afraid of dolls,” I stated, seconds earlier than screaming in response to the abrupt screeching sound of a crying child.
This was the least scary to me content-wise, however they nonetheless bought shriek out of me after I bumped into a large piece of yarn that my mind, seized by fight-or-flight instincts, mistook for a snake.
6. Gálkn: Monsters of the North
Coronary heart fee: 132 bpm
Visitors get freaked out at Gálkn: Monsters of the North. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
The principle factor I bear in mind from this home is that it had cult-y Scandinavian vibes and the perfect air con in the whole park, which lulled me right into a false sense of safety. Wanting again on the footage of my walkthrough, I can’t actually inform what monsters scared me on the finish — undoubtedly some merciless beasts with vengeful growls — however they made me scream, then snort, then scream once more. What extra may a gal ask for?
5. Grave of Flesh
Coronary heart fee: 132 bpm
I used to be by no means extra afraid moseying by means of this underworld-inspired home than when our tour information warned us on the entrance that it was going to emulate the feeling of being buried alive — not certainly one of my favourite pastimes! It did odor like grime, however fortunately, I didn’t contact any. The flesh-eating monsters that lurked round practically each nook have been undoubtedly spooky, however no match for my claustrophobia.
4. Fallout
Coronary heart fee: 132 bpm
Lucy from Fallout leads a character-driven haunted home modeled after the beloved TV present and online game. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
This home lulled me right into a false sense of bravery. It’s based mostly on Prime Video’s adaptation of a online game a couple of postapocalyptic wasteland that’s been devastated by nuclear battle and clearly exists for its followers. I haven’t seen the present, so I used to be a little bit misplaced when it got here to the narrative.
Oftentimes, the scares have been tired-looking adults screaming at me, which was precisely the vibe I used to be serving again to them. I’m fairly certain what bought my coronary heart pounding essentially the most was seeing the eerie skeletal character often known as the Ghoul and pondering of the actor who performs him — my longtime crush Walton Goggins.
3. 5 Nights at Freddy’s
Coronary heart fee: 142 bpm
Possessed animatronics hang-out company at 5 Nights at Freddy’s. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
I wrongfully assumed this haunted home can be mild as a result of it’s based mostly on a film I’ve seen that’s primarily a couple of demented Chuck E. Cheese. Alas, I realized rapidly that I don’t actually know myself as a result of I used to be completely paralyzed with concern the entire time. Should you’re not accustomed to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria from 5 Nights at Freddy’s, it’s filled with possessed animatronics that hang-out you thru its deserted hallways.
A short musical efficiency interlude made me really feel protected, however I misplaced my thoughts once more when characters began leaping out close to me — even the objectively unscary Josh Hutcherson look-alike and the little pink cupcake with eyes. The fixed fog made me tear up, and I bought so overwhelmed I practically fell to my knees.
The height of my terror got here after I noticed that my fixed swerving and flailing flung my costly microphone off my shirt and into the unknown. Joyful ending, although: Our tour information was capable of monitor it down. Kenneth, you deserve a increase.
2. Terrifier
Coronary heart fee: 143 bpm
Artwork the Clown creeps by means of the park past the Terrifier haunted home at Halloween Horror Nights. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
Eric and I spoke with a handful of followers outdoors the gates of the theme park, they usually have been far and away most excited to see Artwork the Clown. The sadistic, black-and-white demon clown is the primary character of the vomit-inducing Terrifier films, and at this mecca for horror lovers, he was the belle of the ball.
I used to be extraordinarily nervous about this torturous funhouse for a number of causes. One, the flicks are objectively gross, so I may solely think about how the gremlins at Halloween Horror Nights would possibly up the stakes in actual life. Second, there have been two ending choices: a dry one and a moist one.
I didn’t actually wish to get moist, however I’m an intrepid journalist and I needed to examine. Although it wasn’t the “massacre” I used to be anticipating, each of my moveable chargers bought soaked and died endlessly. Might they relaxation in peace within the Common Studios rubbish can.
The home was additionally insanely pungent. I needed to plug my nostril strolling by means of the toilet scene. I completely misplaced my thoughts when a dying individual leaped out of a mirror and lunged at me, however aside from that, I used to be extra disgusted than scared. I do know Artwork! He’s one of many greatest authentic horror characters to emerge over the previous decade. I used to be form of starstruck.
1. Jason Universe
Coronary heart fee: 151 bpm
Jason Universe is stuffed with actors dressed just like the Friday the thirteenth killer. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
Impressed by the best hits of the prolonged Friday the thirteenth movie franchise, I got here face-to-face with killer Jason Voorhees over and time and again on the scariest home of the night time.
He jumped out at me greater than a dozen instances, and no quantity of anticipation and situational consciousness may regular my coronary heart fee earlier than sending me to the following hallway filled with hockey-mask-wearing freaks. I stored anticipating that I used to be close to the tip, then operating into one other batch of stab-happy summer-camp rejects. I believed I used to be going to die there they usually’d have to pull my physique again to the show at Grave of Flesh, which is the very best praise I may presumably give.
I got here to Halloween Horror Nights in quest of journey and left obsessive about the push you get when the concern dissipates into your physique, changed with that high-flying feeling of pure adrenaline.
I used to be nonetheless so freaked out after I awakened the following morning, I did the one factor I knew would give my mind the exorcism it wanted: I headed straight to Magic Kingdom at Disney World to hug Winnie the Pooh.
