October 30th – November 1, 2026

As you walk under the “Halloween Horror Nights” sign, you enter the first scare zone: Infernal Carnival of Nightmares. There you’ll see displays for each of the IP (Intellectual Property) houses. The theme this year was the story of Jack the Clown and Oddfellow. There was a scare zone dedicated to each character.

On our first day of HHN, we arrived at the park around 3:30 PM, got our wristband that allowed us to go to the early houses (Hellraiser, Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos and Control, and Stranger Things), and went to the very back of the park for Hellraiser. There was no line, so we did the house three times in a row and didn’t have to use our express pass for this house.

SCARE ZONES!

Diagon Alley

Fortnitemares

I don’t know anything about Fortnite, other than there are outfits you can buy and dances. The scene that plays out is that you’re walking through a “Freaky Field” as characters from the game battle each other from opposite sides of the narrow passageway. Suddenly a storm breaks, and you have to make it out while avoiding Storm Zombies and Cube Monsters. I wasn’t initially excited by this, but I was impressed with how it really did feel like you were in the middle of a storm.

Downtown Clowntown

Clowns abound! We watched Killer Klowns From Outer Space as research for this year’s HHN. Subjecting ourselves to the cheesy 1980’s special effects was worth it to truly appreciate the part of the Downtown Clown Town scare zone that featured alien clowns from this movie.

Sideshow of Decay

Oddfellow’s scare zone features Cindy Caine, who died in a fire, was resurrected, and now has the power to summon and control flames. She periodically performs for the crowd on a large float in the middle of the zone. Sometimes Oddfellow joins her. The Usher watches people from his spot on the float, as well. Characters from past HHNs walk through the crowds to terrorize unsuspecting victims.

HOUSES!

There are 10 houses, five of which are IPs, and five are originals. We both scored each house from one to ten as we completed them. The houses, with each of our averages scores for three nights:

Evil Dead Burn — John 7.5, Mel- 9

Madlands: Caged Cannibals — John 6, Mel 6

Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness — John 7, Mel 4.5

Cybergoria — John 7.5, Mel 5.5

Sinners — John 7, Mel 8.5

H.R. Blood-n-Gutz — John 7, Mel 7.5

Invasion: Alien Abduction — John 6, Mel 5.5

Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos and Control — John 8.5, Mel 6.5

Stranger Things — John 6, Mel 6

Hellraiser — John 7.5, Mel 7

We aren’t allowed to take photos or videos inside the houses, but there were a couple of houses that were “dressed up” in theme.

FOOD!

Much of the food is themed for Halloween Horror Nights. There were zero healthier options than in past years, so I got a big salad from the Today Cafe multiple nights. Once that was taken care of, I enjoyed the fun food. My two favorite items were the Torn to Shreds pork sandwich and Steve’s Smuggled Peanut Butter Bites.

Another fun time! We averaged 40,000 steps a day, but that included starting the day with a 5K run, walking to the park from our hotel for the daytime visit, walking back to the hotel for a siesta, then to-and-from the park for the night’s event. We weren’t as efficient the first night, but by the second, we had a solid plan for a decent bedtime.