Universal Creative Director/Executive Producer John Murdy was back again at Midsummer Scream 2025 to talk — or, specifically, tease — Halloween Horror Nights 2025 coming to Universal Studios Hollywood. This year, he was joined by Universal Orlando Resort senior director Mike Aellio as well as filmmakers for TERRIFIER to gush about this year’s event.
Here’s a shriek peek at everything we learned about 2025 Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood during Midsummer Scream.
What We Learned
Panelists John Murdy (Creative Director and Executive Producer of Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood) and Mike Aeillio (Senior Director of Entertainment and Creative Development, Universal Orlando Resort) got a rousing welcome that started with Art the clown who fired up the crowd.
They were later joined by TERRIFIER creator Damien Leone and producer Phil Falcone. Here’s some of the gory details that were shared.
- Murdy and team are pumped calling this the bet line up for HHN since 2016.
- Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Created in partnership with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for over a year to build animatronic and puppet-based characters for the house.
- The design of the house is about 99.9% the same on both coasts, which is unusual, as Orlando and Hollywood typically diverge. The teams split responsibilities, with Orlando handling certain elements and Hollywood handling others, then merging them into a unified design.
- Fallout
- HHN’s first time partnering with Amazon, incorporates both Vault and Wasteland environments, requiring extensive scenic builds.
- A full-size T-60 power armor suit was built for the house; Orlando’s was already installed while Hollywood’s was en route at the time of the panel.
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Wyatt Sicks
- Rooted in Bray Wyatt’s legacy and carried forward through his brother Bo Dallas (Uncle Howdy). New video content was produced featuring Dallas, which will be used in the house itself and in queue media.
- Hollywood’s facade recreates the Wyatt compound, with a recurring lantern that is featured in every room plus a rocking chair that will carry a special meaning that Murdy didn’t want to spoil.
- Terrifier
- The Facade
- Both Orlando and Hollywood use “Art’s Funhouse” as seen in the second film for the exterior. Designed to pull multiple kills and moments from across the Terrifier films into a single cohesive setting. The facade seen in the film was a scale model so HHN represents the first time the exterior will be seen in life size.
- Hollywood: Facade includes pre-show audio (radio scanning, static, brief Clown Café music cue, and a news report describing a suspect in a black-and-white clown suit with a garbage bag). Art appears behind the entrance door, opens the gate, and can approach guests via a second fence gate.
- Orlando: Facade was repainted to emphasize Art as the focal figure; an adjacent media wall displays video glimpses of characters including Vicky and the Little Pale Girl.
- Character representations
- Multiple Art the Clown variants will appear: classic bloody Art, scalped Art (wearing hair), “poopy” Art, and Santa Art.
- Vicky will be making terrifying appearances, filmmakers touched on the challenge of the design of the mask for the film which had nearly no visibility for the actress and how they adapted for use in the park
- Little Pale Girl appears in both houses. In Hollywood she’s an SFX gag that triggers a 180-degree head turn when guests trip a sensor; in Orlando she’s performed live in two looks (ghostly and mauled).
- Sienna Shaw’s full angel cosplay from Terrifier 2 is recreated; Orlando’s in-house costuming team adapted and built the screen-accurate costume which was shown in the panel.
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Signature kill recreations
- Hollywood: “Silly Saws” room featuring multiple saw gags, a headless children’s teeter-totter effect, and blood-spray on guests.
- Orlando: Corridor with ceiling-mounted moving hacksaws cutting bodies above guests, with blood spraying down.
- Barrels of Fun: Stacked bleach barrels light up amid Tommy-gun audio; the odor of bleach is pumped in; guests are showered as Art is revealed with the gun.
- Bathroom sequence: Includes a now-named “poop monster,” Art writing his name on the wall in,,. matter, and stall Easter eggs referencing kills from Terrifier films including (human jack-o’-lantern, mashed-potatoes face, and flayed face).
- Christmas set piece (Terrifier 3): Dead elves, intestines decorating trees, severed heads as toppers, a hedge-maze of Christmas scenes with “rain blood,” and Santa Art attacking with a chainsaw. Orlando stated this house contains the most bodies ever featured in an HHN house.
- Scent effects are used and promise to be some of the worst yet for HHN
- Warnings and intensity notes
- Hollywood: A marked “chicken exit” exists, but guests who use it may encounter backstage-style elements and surprises; it is not a safe bypass.
- Orlando: Described as the “wettest house” they’ve produced. Guests choose a left Dry Path (for a relatively dry route) or a right path for a Blood Bath designed to feel like a “car wash of blood,” with Art on a second level and a blood waterfall; expectation is guests will be drenched.
- Roaming Art
- Art the Clown will roam both parks unpredictably (e.g., stores, Universal Plaza, lower lot), including the RIP lounge — encounters will not be publicly scheduled or announced.
- The Facade
Photos
See it for Yourself
Midsummer Scream takes place in Long Beach from August 15-17, 2025.
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