Videos / Photos: Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Opens at Universal Studios Hollywood with New Haunted Houses, More

Last night in Southern California, theme-park fans flocked to Universal Studios Hollywood for the opening of its Halloween Horror Nights scare-tastic seasonal event for 2024’s spooky season. Laughing Place was invited to experience Horror Nights again this year on opening night, and below are the many videos and photos I took along the way.

Of course the main attraction of Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights is the haunted houses that are designed and executed with such great care in order to elicit the biggest screams out of the event’s guests. Below you will find video highlights from all eight of this year’s houses, arranged in the order of my preference, from favorite to least favorite. Here’s my ranking:

1 – A Quiet Place

2 – Monstruos 2: The Nightmares of Latin America

3 – Dead Exposure: Death Valley

4 – The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy

5 – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

6 – Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface

7 – Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines

8 – Insidious: The Further

Watch A Quiet Place haunted house HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Studios Hollywood:

Watch Monstruos 2: The Nightmares of Latin America HIGHLIGHTS Horror Nights 2024 Universal Hollywood:

Watch Dead Exposure: Death Valley HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Studios Hollywood:

Watch The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Studios Hollywood:

Watch Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Studios Hollywood:

Watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface HIGHLIGHTS Horror Nights 2024 Universal Hollywood:

Watch Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Hollywood:

Watch Insidious: The Further haunted house HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Hollywood:

And Terror Tram is back as well. This experience combines a ride on Universal Studios Hollywood’s famous Backlot Tour trams with a walk-through of some famous horror locations, along with this year’s theme of “Enter the Blumhouse” featuring the studio’s horror movies M3gan, Happy Death Day, Freaky, and The Purge.

Watch Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse HIGHLIGHTS Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Studios Hollywood:

As for this year’s shows, the impressively violent stunt show “The Purge: Dangerous Waters” is back in the “Waterworld” arena, and there’s also “Late Night with Chucky” in the DreamWorks Theatre, which I’m disappointed to say landed with a thud during the performance we attended. I can’t imagine the latter show sticking around again for next year’s Horror Nights unless it goes through a major retooling, because in my opinion it just didn’t work.

Watch "The Purge: Dangerous Waters" FULL SHOW 2024 at Halloween Horror Nights Universal Studios Hollywood:

Watch "Late Night with Chucky" FULL SHOW Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Universal Studios Hollywood:

Rewinding time a few hours to show off some photos, our evening started at Universal CityWalk, where the red carpet was set up for Halloween Horror Nights’ opening night, plus a store dedicated to the event was open and operating in Production Central.

I couldn’t resist picking up the vinyl record soundtrack of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash’s scores from some well-received Horror Nights houses over the past decade or so. I’m glad to have this record for my Halloween-time enjoyment even though it was a bit pricey at $60 plus tax.

As we entered Universal Studios Hollywood itself, we found the entrance to the theme park decked out with banners and signs promoting Halloween Horror Nights. And within, there was a departure board letting guests know how long they could anticipate waits for haunted houses and other attractions being around the park.

There are four Scare Zones this year in Universal Studios Hollywood’s Upper Lot area: Chainsaw Punkz, Skull Lordz, Luchadores Monstruosos, and– definitely my favorite of these– Murder of Crowz.

We also found photo ops for Five Nights at Freddy’s and a Universal Studios Hollywood clapboard around the park.

As for unique food and beverage options for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, both Chuck and The Weeknd have their own bars, and Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has– what else?– a barbecue joint on the Lower Lot near his haunted house.

Before we left, we wanted to check out some more of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights merchandise, including the big displays for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Plus there were some very cool and familiar-looking dolls from Peacock’s Chucky on display as well.

All told, this was another really fun year at Halloween Horror Nights, though the incredibly hot weather last night didn’t help it feel much like fall. Hopefully things will cool down in Southern California as the event continues.

Halloween Horror Nights 2024 runs on select nights from now through Sunday, November 3rd at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. Be sure to visit Universal’s official Horror Nights website for additional information and to purchase advance tickets.