On Sunday, Midsummer Scream closed out its three-day event with a packed Grand Ballroom for its final presentation of the weekend featuring Halloween Horror Nights. For this year’s event, Creative Director and Executive Producer of Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood John Murdy was joined by Michael Aiello, the Senior Director of Entertainment and Creative Development at Universal Orlando Resort.
In years past, Murdy has often brought a final Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood announcement, along with a behind-the-scenes look at the development of some of the year’s most anticipated haunted houses. Unfortunately, with Midsummer Scream taking place later in the season, everything had already been announced, but that didn’t mean Halloween Horror Nights came empty-handed.
The duo kicked off the hour-and-a-half-long presentation by answering fan questions that were asked on X (formerly Twitter) before being joined on stage by “Terrifier” franchise writer and director Damien Leone and its producer, Phil Falcone, for a deep dive into the “Terrifier” haunted houses coming to Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood and Orlando.
To kick things off, Murdy asked the question, What makes “Terrifier” such a great candidate for Halloween Horror Nights, to which Leone responded, “Art the Clown. He’s a fun, sick, sadistic, twisted son of a bitch.” The group then delved into nearly every facet of the new house, from the facade to characters, kills, and more, that Halloween Horror Nights guests can look forward to experiencing on both coasts.
The Facade
The first element of the house discussed was the facade. Taking inspiration from the Terrifier Funhouse featured in “Terrifier 2,” both coasts are using an iteration of the Funhouse as the entry point to the attraction and as the setting for the experience, where inside, Art the Clown will showcase some of his most infamous kills from the franchise.
Damien Leone is particularly excited about this aspect of the house because it will be the first time he has seen a life-size version of the funhouse facade. “It doesn’t exist,” shared Leone. “In ‘Terrifier 2,’ you see this, and we did not have the money to build an actual scale facade.” Adding “We really just built like a three-by-two-foot facade, and we used some digital effects to map it into the background plate.”
The Characters
Once inside, guests will come face-to-face with various iterations of Art the Clown, including the classic bloody Art, Art wearing the hair of a scalped woman, ‘poopie’ Art, and Santa Art.
But while Art and his kills are the focus of the house, Art isn’t the only character from the “Terrifier” franchise making an appearance at Halloween Horror Nights. The house will feature a supporting cast of characters from the films, the first of which is Vicky Heyes, the final girl turned victim turned villain.
Little Pale Girl will also make an appearance in the house, and at Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood, she will be an animated effect. The scene in the house recreates the sequence where Little Pale Girl rips all of the flesh off her face. Guests will enter the room, and when triggered, Little Pale Girl will turn to look at them, exposing her handiwork.
Of course, a “Terrifer” house wouldn’t be complete without the character Sienna Shaw, famously played by Lauren LaVera. Sienna’s appearance is inspired by her look in “Terrifier 2” and will feature the character in her Halloween costume.
The Kills
The “Terrifier” franchise is what it is not just because of Art the Clown, but also because of the brutality of his kills. The “Terrifier” haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights will showcase some of the most brutal kills from across the film franchise.
Silly Saws
At Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood, the “Terrifier” haunted house will feature a scene called “Silly Saws,” which showcases all the different ways Art the Clown can saw people in half, including the notorious kill from the first “Terrifier” film.
Other kills in the scene will include a pair of decapitated kids on a teeter-totter and a person being sawed in half by a table saw.
Barrels of Fun
Another infamous kill from the franchise finding its way into the Halloween Horror Nights haunted house is the death of Allie from “Terrifier 2.”
“We’re going to do that scene,” said Murdy during the panel. “With the bleach, and the salt. That whole deal. But there’s a twist. Before you get there, you’re going to have to go through this scene we call ‘Barrels of Fun’. Bleach barrels are stacked up on either side of you, and as you start to walk through, you’re going to hear the Tommy gun going off, the barrels are going to light up, and we’re pumping in the smell of bleach. And then you’re going to get showered in bleach!”
Meet Santa
The house will also feature a kill scene inspired by “Terrifier 3” called “Meet Santa.” Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood has recreated the entire Santa set featured in the film. “You’re going to go into Christmas, except all of the elves are beheaded, disembowled, and their intestines are stringing the Christmas trees, and their heads are the tree toppers,” explained Murdy.
Guests will then make their way through a Christmas hedge maze, where it’ll be raining blood while being chased by a chainsaw-wielding Santa Art.
Naughty Potty
One of the more unique elements of the “Terrifier” franchise is its use of poop. “I never saw a slasher take a shit before,” joked Leone during the presentation. “How do I make my guy different? And it just became a running theme.” Halloween Horror Nights is capitalizing on that theme with a scene called “Naughty Potty.”
This bathroom scene starts by recreating the bathroom sequence from the first “Terrifier.” It will also house Easter Eggs in the bathroom stalls, paying homage to some of the franchise’s other kills, including the human jack-o’-lantern kill from “Terrifier,” the mashed potato kill from “Terrifier 2,” and the construction worker kill from “Terrifier 3.”
The scene will end with ‘Poopie Art’ writing his name on the wall in feces. “If you look at that character design, his little clown gloves are just caked in it,” explained Murdy during the panel. “And the smell. Smell will be pumped in as well.”
The Clown Cafe
The final scene and series of kills showcased from the house during the presentation were from The Clown Cafe, inspired by “Terrifier 2.” For the house, Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood has built Art’s food trailer as well as the playground set featuring all the dead children. The scene will even feature the kid with the Art Crispies cereal.
The scene will also feature an interactive element inspired by the “Terrifier 2” scene with the heart in a box. “People like to touch stuff at Horror Nights,” said Murdy when discussing the element. “Don’t try to touch the heart. Cuz you’ll get a surprise if you do. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
Warnings
The warning from Murdy to not touch the heart wasn’t the only warning that came up during the presentation. The aforementioned smells and blood splatter were recurring themes. In Hollywood, guests will have no choice but to endure the excessive blood spatter expected from the “Terrifier” house. However, Orlando guests will have the option to choose one of two paths, the second of which is called “Symphony of Blood,” which will have guests leaving the house drenched.
One of the more obscure warnings, though, came toward the end of the presentation when Murdy said, “Don’t go out the chicken exit.” “You might encounter a chicken exit in the house,” added Murdy. “You might end up backstage if you go out the chicken exit, and you might encounter some things you’re not supposed to encounter. So if you see the chicken exit. At your own risk. It’s a little surprise for you guys.”
Art the Clown Encounters
The presentation concluded with Murdy and Aiello announcing that Art the Clown may appear throughout the theme parks during Halloween Horror Nights and will not be confined to the “Terrifier” house. “Art the Clown is out there,” said Murdy. “I’m not going to tell you where he is”. Murdy then alluded to some of the scenarios where Art could show up, including shopping and sitting down for a bite to eat. “He could be anywhere,” added Murdy. Even sharing that not even the Halloween Horror Nights R.I.P. Tour lounge will be safe from Art.
Other Updates
While the presentation was almost entirely about the “Terrifier” haunted house, we did get some updates about some of the other houses coming to Halloween Horror Nights 2025.
The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks
As part of the Q&A section of the presentation, John Murdy shared further details about what to expect from the WWE-themed house, The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks, beginning with concept art for the house facade, which is inspired by the Wyatt family compound.
Murdy also detailed the tribute to wrestler Bray Wyatt, who will be represented throughout the house as a rocking chair and a lantern. Bray Wyatt passed away in 2023 from a heart attack. The Wyatt Sicks formed in 2024 as a tribute to Bray by his real-life brother, who wrestles under the name Uncle Howdy. Uncle Howdy will be featured at both parks with all-new content he both wrote and performed, and it will be showcased in the queue at Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood.
Following the presentation, I was given the opportunity to interview Murdy and Aiello and ask a couple of questions about this year’s event. I took the opportunity to ask about the highly anticipated Fallout haunted house and the upcoming third iteration of the Monstruos house at Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood.
Fallout
Though “Fallout” has horror elements, the games nor the series are really seen as horror IPs. So I asked the two how they planned to bring the scare factor to a “Fallout” haunted house.
“Feral Ghouls for one,” said Murdy. “If you go to the Super Duper Mart in the series, that sequence when we watched that the first time we were like wow, that’s totally Horror Nights material.”
Aiello added that the Raiders were also a big part of it. “We both start with the wedding,” shared Murdy. “You know, we’re kind of following in the footsteps of Lucy’s journey on the show…The minute you walk in, the raiders have already broken in, they’re killing everybody, you’re just in the middle of it.
Both houses will also feature some of the creatures from Fallout lore. In Hollywood, guests will encounter the Yao guai, the mutated bear featured in the “Fallout” series, as well as the games. In Orlando, guests will come face-to-face with the Gulper, a mutated salamander featured in both the series and the games.
Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America
Finally, I asked Murdy specifically about the third and final installment in the Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood house, Monstruos, specifically what he was most excited for guests to experience in Monstruos 3.
“Well, we figured that after three years of doing Monstruos that our fans have kind of gotten used to the flow of those houses, so we wanted to use that against you,” said Murdy. “So, we changed some things up this year with just how we designed those houses, and I don’t want to say too much about it. I kinda just want you to experience it. But we kinda wanted to put people on edge.”
A variety of Halloween Horror Nights ticket options for Universal Studios Hollywood are available, including General Admission, Universal Express, After 2 p.m. Day/Night, the Early Access Ticket, which provides entry to select haunted houses beginning at 5:30 p.m. (subject to change), in advance of the scheduled 7:00 p.m. event opening time, the R.I.P. Tour and popular passes, Frequent Fear Pass and Ultimate Fear Pass, which enable guests to experience the scares again and again. For more information and tickets, visitย www.UniversalStudiosHollywood.com/Halloween.
