As Universal's Halloween Horror Nights DebutsA Quiet PlaceHaunted House, Here Are 6 Franchises We'd Still Love to See

Mar. 15, 2025

Halloween Horror Nights 33 at Universal Orlando Resort.Photo:Jen Juneau Haupt

Jen Juneau Haupt

Every year, Universal’sHalloween Horror Nightsfinds away to balance old and new, leveraging both original concepts and well-known intellectual properties (IPs) to elicit fresh scares — and 2024 is no different.

As returning franchises includingInsidious,Ghostbustersand Universal Monsters continue to define the HHN canon,A Quiet Placehas also entered the fray as the newest horror franchiseto get its own houseat both the Orlando and Hollywood locations of the annual spooky event, which draws more and more fanfare each year since its genesis in 1991.A Quiet Placealso marks the first-everHHN house to incorporate American Sign Language.

As someone who has attended the Orlando event almost every year since 2002, I have seen the gamut of IPs explored in haunted houses and Scare Zones, includingHalloween,Texas Chainsaw Massacre,Friday the 13th,SAW,The PurgeandChild’s Play.HHN has even leveraged hit one-off films likeThe Cabin in the WoodsandBeetlejuice,and television series such asAmerican Horror StoryandThe Haunting of Hill House.

But of course, there is still more to be unearthed. Read on to see six of our top picks for more film franchises we’d love to see at Halloween Horror Nights in the coming years, following the 33rd Orlando event’s official opening night on Friday, Aug. 30.

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Tim Curry; Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise in adaptations of Stephen King’s ‘It’.Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection; New Line Cinema/Entertainment Pictures

Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection; New Line Cinema/Entertainment Pictures

Stephen King’sIT

And since HHN has also leaned into the campy ’80s flickKiller Klowns from Outer Spacemultiple times, it feels like there’s still room in the circus for more clownery.

Candyman

HHN is no stranger to devilish dessert — in fact, the synopsis of one of the haunted houses this year,Major Sweets Candy Factory, reads: “You’ve been invited to chaperone a field trip to a candy factory. But this sweet tour is about to turn sour when free samples transform the kids into candy-coated killers wielding sharpened candies.”

As a gigantic fan of both the original 1992 film and the2021 Nia DaCosta-directed sequel, I have been waiting for aCandymanhaunted house for a long time. With four moves total in the franchise, there is a lot to lean into in both visual imagery (the hook! the bees!) and sounds, the latter even with justTony Todd’s bone-chilling villain voice.

Plus, a bee-sting honey cake with fake blood? Menu gold.

Final Destination

Another multi-sequel franchise with fresher and more ridiculous kills around every corner, there is so much to work with in theFinal Destinationfilms, beginning with the original 2000 movie starringDevon Sawa(who is also now a cast staple onChucky, incidentally).

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Neve Campbell and Rose McGowan in ‘Scream’ (1996).Everett/Shutterstock

Everett/Shutterstock

Scream

There have been many HHN haunted houses over the years that have taken and run — or sometimes, ambled,a la Michael Myers— with the masked-killer narrative. And some of the best rooms are those with masked individuals all around you, where you can’t tell who is real and who isn’t (looking at you, pig-mask room in the 2009SAWhouse).

And speaking about her character Sidney Prescott, who made her first appearance in 1996’sScream,Neve Campbelltold PEOPLE in June amid news that shehad re-joined the franchisethat her final-girl protagonist is “so strong” and has “inspired a lot of people.”

“I meet a lot of fans who say her strength hashelped them get through tough times, and it means more than I could ever have imagined to some people,” she added.

Heather Donahue inThe Blair Witch Project(1999).Getty

Getty

The Blair Witch Project

Twenty-five years ago,The Blair Witch Projectjammed a (cursed, snot-covered) stake in the found-footage ground, defining the horror subgenre in a way nothing before it had before. Since then, several filmmakers have mimicked it with varying levels of success, but there’s nothing like the original — in large part thanks to its genius marketing campaign (namely, the big question of,“Did this really happen?") before the internet was the behemoth it was now.

Aside from its witchy, lost-in-the-woods chill factor,The Blair Witch Projectfeels like it would be an easy practical lift considering its multiple sequels and similar houses in recent years that HHN has pulled off beautifully. For example, there was 2023’s originalYETI: Campground Kills, which felt as close to a real-life camping expedition gone wrong as you can get.

The real scares inThe Blair Witch Projectcome from its most subtle moments, though. All Universal really needs to do is have a guy in a flannel shirt and a beanie stand silently facing a corner, and every elder millennial will be happy to have waited an hour in line.

From L:MaXXXine(2024);Midsommar(2019);Talk to Me(2022).A24(3)

A24(3)

A24

A24 is not a franchise per se, but is a studio that has released a bevy of horror offerings in recent years that rival the more-frequently featured Blumhouse films at HHN. This year, the latter even has its own Scare Zone titledEnter the Blumhouse, featuring characters fromFreaky,The Black Phone,The Purge,Happy Death Day— and of course,M3GANherself.

While arguably not as full as “icon” villains as Blumhouse films typically are, A24 is hugely popular among horror fans and has turned out some bangers, with original stories and memorable characters in films likeMidsommar(2019),Talk to Me(2022) and theMia Goth-ledXtrilogy, the most recent installment being this year’sMaXXXine.

Tickets for Halloween Horror Nights 33 at Universal Orlando Resort, running on select nights through Nov. 3, are on sale now atuniversalorlando.com/hhn.

Those looking to attend on the West Coast can buy tickets atuniversalstudioshollywood.com/hhnfor the sister event that kicks off Sept. 5, also running on select nights through Nov. 3.

source: people.com