UniversalParksBlog News for September 6th, 2026

Halloween Horror Nights has officially started again.

Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. So, let’s have some fun.

In this week’s UniversalParksBlog News, we’ll rank all the Houses.

Warning: You likely hold strong opinions on this topic and WILL disagree with me.

Feel free to think I’m a total idiot, as I discuss HHN 2026.

1.    Sinners

The top two entries on this list were preordained since Universal announced them.

Sinners was my favorite film of 2025, and I’m still annoyed it didn’t win Best Picture.

At its core, this story’s about vampires, but that undersells its brilliance.

Twin brothers share a dream of using their ill-gotten wealth to make their hometown better.

When they return, things go awry when white vampires want to come in for a drink.

The House perfectly encapsulates the story, straight down to the first appearance of the nefarious vamps.

Also – and this is super-important – the music plays heavily into the action.

Fans of the film will be enthralled the instant they hear those first bluesy guitar riffs.

2.    Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness

Similarly, I’ve been an Ozzy Osbourne fan for ages now, warts and all.

As a person, Ozzy fell short in a lot of ways, as most addicts do.

As a musician, his preternatural talent fed into the premise that he’d sold his soul.

The so-called Prince of Darkness inspires every sequence at this House.

Since his wife and children approved every scene, it’s obvious why this story is so good.

Plus, that first riff of Crazy Train made me pump my fists with excitement.

I also love that they save Ozzy’s appearance until the perfect moment.

And how great is that resonating “I love you all” at the end?!

3.    Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos Control

From the meta perspective, this is THE most important House in 2026.

Universal has cultivated this blood feud between Oddfellow and Jack the Clown.

So, HHN had to get this House right, and it mostly did, raising the stakes even higher.

The House begins with the pageantry of their backstory: ringmaster and circus clown.

Unlike most Houses, it’s bright and colorful, and those always stand out at HHN.

As the name implies, Oddfellow seeks control, while Jack proves too chaotic.

I love the moment when Oddfellow attacks Jack while simultaneously insulting him.

Also, I don’t want to spoil the big surprise in this one, but it’s trippy and disorienting.

As a storytelling mechanism, it also serves a purpose in taking both to the other side of their eternal feud.

This House is easily the best of the original premises at this year’s HHN.

4.    Stranger Things 5

Demogorgons! Get your Demogorgons!

They’re seemingly everywhere in this House. Somebody needs to call demonic pest control.

Despite the overreliance on these creatures, this is a fun House for Stranger Things fans.

I especially love that Universal does a callback to the giant dryer scene from the final season.

Besides, as long as they play the theme music from the show, I’m happy.

5.    H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!

This one’s the opposite of Sinners. I suspected I would hate it from the jump.

So, this ranking should have been a self-fulfilling prophecy…but it’s not!

Universal surprised me with the campy nature of the story, along with several A+ sight gags.

Last year, HHN featured a WWE House of such lousy quality that all those wrestlers got fired soon afterward.

Okay, it wasn’t their fault. The WWE is owned by jerks. Still, the timing was amusing.

This particular House feels heavily inspired by a new WWE character, Danhausen.

Alternatively, this is the closest thing to a Svengoolie House we’ll probably ever get.

I was so pleasantly surprised by the humor of this one.

The House also feels like a spiritual successor to the Vamp ’69: Summer of Blood Scare Zone.

6.    Invasion: Alien Abduction

This one’s fairly basic, but I love the setting anyway. It’s basically the Men in Black’s premise.

Remember at the start of that film when aliens attack a simple farmer?

Well, this House tells that story from a different perspective: What if the farmers fought back?

After watching this one, I’m kinda disappointed in the aliens. They didn’t cover the spread.

Think about it. They could have picked any farm on the planet for abduction purposes.

They settled on this place and promptly got whooped a few times.

Sure, they also tortured several of the locals. Also, we shouldn’t underrate the importance of home field (and planet) advantage.

Even so, I was impressed by how well the humans fought back. I guess they practiced a lot on Men in Black: Alien Attack.

Usually, HHN Houses are fairly one-sided with their slaughter.

I guess the aliens didn’t count on the farmers to have crossbows.

7.    Hellraiser

I was a Hellraiser fan long before most movie-goers even knew what that was.

To this day, I still call people Pinheads, and I suspect it’s partially because of this film.

Even so, this House lacked much beyond the thought of, “Hey, look. It’s that guy.”

Usually, Universal does a great job with its licensed IPs. This year, it failed twice.

8.    Evil Dead Burn

Here’s the other one. The one vaguely Walter White-looking guy is the highlight here.

He appears several times and appears menacing in each instance.

I haven’t watched Evil Dead Burn yet, so the story may make sense if I had.

Still, other than that guy, and the drill bit to the flaming chest at the end, little stuck out for me.

Evil Dead fans know that Bruce Campbell is quite sick right now. He deserved a better House.

9.    Madlands: Caged Cannibals

If I wanted to watch armored psychos, I’d turn on a pro wrestling PPV.

This House feels like someone bought a warehouse full of Mad Max merch.

The zoo part is a nice twist, and I’m always here for loud chainsaw sounds.

Overall, this one has some phenomenal ideas, but it’s still a swing and a miss for me.

10. Cybergoria

Ostensibly, I should be THE target audience for this one.

The premise doubles as the basis for Fry’s story arc on Futurama.

Fry accidentally gets cryogenically frozen, storing him on ice for 1,000 years.

Cybergoria starts here, but then it becomes “Long Corridors: The HHN House.”

Seriously, this one’s shockingly boring, given its fertile premise.

You walk through a lot of halls and occasionally glance at beaten-up androids.

I wanted to love this one, but I found myself yawning my way through it instead.

 

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