HHN 35 opened August 28 and runs 49 select nights through November 1 at Universal Studios Florida. All 10 houses are open, the theme is the Infernal Carnival of Nightmares, and Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow are running it together for the first time. Below: where every house actually is, what the lines have run across our first seven tracked nights, and which rides stay open after dark.
Last checked August 30, 2026, with house waits refreshed September 9. The waits below are medians from the seven nights we have tracked so far, Aug. 29 through Sept. 6. We started the night after opening, so Aug. 28 is not in them. The house opening times and ride checks are our own, timed off the live feed on Saturday, Aug. 29. Prices move with the date you pick, so treat every number here as a starting point.
Five IP houses, five originals. The tag on each one is where it actually sits in the park, which matters more than the order they're listed in: the five soundstage houses cluster together in one part of the park, and the four sprung tents sit together in another. Plan your loop around those two clusters and you'll save yourself a lot of walking.
We track all 10 houses every five minutes. Across our first seven tracked nights, Aug. 29 through Sept. 6, this is the median wait each one ran. Ozzy and Sinners have been the two to plan around since the first weekend, and the gap between the top two and the bottom four is wide enough to build a night on.
| House | Median wait, 7 tracked nights |
|---|---|
| Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness | 65 min |
| Sinners | 60 min |
| H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! | 50 min |
| Cybergoria | 45 min |
| Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control | 35 min |
| Evil Dead Burn | 35 min |
| INVASION: Alien Abduction | 35 min |
| MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals | 35 min |
| Hellraiser | 30 min |
| Stranger Things 5 | 30 min |
When you walk up matters more than which house you pick. Averaged across all ten, waits peak at 58 minutes between 8:30 and 9 p.m., then drop for the rest of the night. By 1:30 a.m. the average is 20. Same houses, a third of the wait, so the last hour is worth staying for.
There are four, and that's the final count. The fifth zone people were expecting turned out to be a separate, smaller category Universal calls street experiences, listed below.
On top of those there are four street experiences, which are smaller and easy to walk past without noticing: Mel's Die-In puts zombie carhops on Mel's Drive-In, Club Horror turns the San Francisco street into an undead nightclub with a DJ, the Chainsaw Hordes roam out of Springfield behind a ringmistress, and there's a HamiKuma meet-and-greet near the Five & Dime.
Nightmare Fuel: Blood Noir is a stunt-and-pyro musical set in a vampire city, at the old Fear Factor stage next to Men in Black. It runs four times a night at 8:00, 9:30, 11:00, and 12:30. Four showings across the whole night means there's no reason to burn prime house time on it, catch the late one.
Stranger Things: Return to Hawkins is the lagoon show, about 13 minutes of projection on mist screens covering all five seasons, marking the show's 10th anniversary. It runs at 9:00, 9:45, 10:30, 11:15, 12:00, and 12:45. Reaction has been mixed, so if the lagoon front is packed, skip it and come back for a later showing.
The Tribute Store is themed as Sideshow Obscura this year and sits just left of Revenge of the Mummy.
Some of them, and this is the part most people get wrong. Universal keeps four rides running through the event:
| Open during HHN | Where |
|---|---|
| Revenge of the Mummy | New York |
| Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts | Diagon Alley |
| TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D | Production Central |
| MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack | World Expo |
Everything else shuts down right at the 5 p.m. day-park close. On Saturday, Aug. 29 we watched eight attractions go dark between 5:03 and 5:10, including E.T., the Simpsons Ride, both Minion rides and the Hogwarts Express. Two rides you might still be looking for are gone for good rather than closed for the season: Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was demolished in 2025, and Fast & Furious: Supercharged closed permanently in August. Its queue is now the Cybergoria house.
A few things worth knowing before you count on any of it:
Everything below is "starting at," plus tax, and moves with the date you pick.
We don't sell tickets, Express Pass, or any of these upgrades, and we don't do affiliate links. This is just what Universal offers so you know your options before you buy from them.
HHN runs 49 nights across more than two months, and not every night draws the same crowd. Weekends sell heavier than weeknights, and opening weekend plus the last two weekends of October are the worst of it. A Wednesday or Thursday in September gets you through the most houses.
The dark nights tell you where the deals are. Through September the event runs Wednesday to Sunday, dark every Monday and Tuesday. October keeps most Mondays and Tuesdays dark too, with the exceptions being Oct. 12, which is a regular event night, and Oct. 19, which is the Premium Scream Night. From Oct. 28 it runs straight through to the close on Nov. 1. Those September Wednesdays are the cheapest and emptiest nights of the whole run.
One signal worth acting on: demand is running hot. The Aug. 27 Premium Scream Night sold out back in July and standard R.I.P. Tour dates were showing no availability around the same time. If you want a specific Saturday, don't sit on it.
This is the single biggest thing you can do for your night, and it's new for 2026. Houses don't all open at once. We watched the feed all afternoon on Saturday, August 29 and timed each one:
| Time | What opens |
|---|---|
| 2:00 p.m. | Stranger Things 5, Hellraiser, Jack & Oddfellow |
| 5:15 p.m. | Ozzy Osbourne, with Sinners about ten minutes behind it |
| 5:40 p.m. | Cybergoria, then H.R. Bloodengutz and Evil Dead Burn |
| 6:10 p.m. | MADLANDS and INVASION, the last two |
| 6:30 p.m. | Official start, everything running |
Houses open at 2 p.m. were running about five minutes on opening night. The three we timed on Saturday, Stranger Things 5, Hellraiser and Jack & Oddfellow, were at 60, 50 and 75 by 10 p.m. that opening night. Some of that gap is just the hour: at 2 p.m. the event hasn't started and most ticket holders aren't in the park yet. The point isn't the headline number, it's that houses you clear in the afternoon are houses you don't queue for at 10. There's no holding pen this year either, so you can walk straight in and get in line.
Two catches. The park closes to regular day guests at 5 p.m. on every event date, so this only works if you're holding both a day ticket and an event ticket, or you bought Scream Early. And those times are one night's observation, so treat them as the shape of the evening rather than a published schedule. Only the 2 p.m. gate time and the 6:30 official start are fixed.
Since most HHN trips have a park day attached, it's worth checking the daytime crowd picture for your date before you commit to a ticket.
See the full Universal Studios Florida guide →
Plan the day around a 5 p.m. close →
No. HHN is a separately ticketed night event. A daytime park ticket doesn't get you in, and an event ticket doesn't cover the daytime park. If you want both in one day, buy both, and you get the 2 p.m. Stay & Scream head start for free.
Universal's line is "not recommended for children under 13," and there's no ID check, so it's your call. Real talk: the houses are graphic, alcohol is everywhere, and there's no toned-down path through the park. If you're planning around younger kids, a regular daytime visit is the better play.
Not on regular event nights. No costumes, no masks. The two Premium Scream Nights allow costumes, but masks stay banned even there.
6:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., and it's the same on all 49 nights. Weeknights don't close early. You can get in at 2 p.m. instead: free if you hold day admission plus an event ticket, or $70 to $75 with a Scream Early ticket if you don't.
On a September weeknight, in at 2 p.m., yes. Across our first seven tracked nights the average house ran about 47 minutes during event hours, and ten of those is longer than the event runs, so getting in early is what makes it possible. On an October Saturday you’re not doing all ten without Express. Rank your top four or five before you walk in and take the longest lines first.
Four of them. Revenge of the Mummy, Escape from Gringotts, Transformers: The Ride-3D, and Men in Black Alien Attack all run through the event, and they sit near walk-on most of the night because everyone else is in a house line. Gringotts closes earlier than the other three. Everything else in the park is down, and the Hogwarts Express doesn't run.
No, Universal Studios Florida only. Universal Nights at Epic Universe (Oct. 3 and 17) is a separate after-hours event, and it isn't Halloween-themed.
Most HHN trips have a park day attached. The app tracks live ride waits at all three Universal Orlando parks and rebuilds your plan when the day gets weird. Get it on the App Store before your trip.
Get Ride Ready