ORLANDO, Fla. - When I told my fellow Halloween Horror Nights attendees that I'd never visited a haunted house before, they recoiled in mild panic. Why was I, an easily frightened amateur, willfully subjecting myself to a medley of gory visuals and jump scares? I figure someone has to blaze the trail for the scaredy cat community. It might as well be me.
To be clear, I love horror movies. They're not real, and I can close my eyes to escape them. Not so at a haunted house - and especially not at the annual fall event hosted by Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., where terror overwhelms the senses and nefarious creatures invade your personal space.
Every year between Labor Day weekend and Halloween weekend, thrill seekers head to the theme park at nightfall to walk through 10 incredibly detailed haunted houses packed with actors in frightening costumes and scenes teeming with guts and decay.A mutated creature lurks among parkgoers at one of the scare zones at Halloween Horror Nights. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)I watched hundreds of videos of past Halloween Horror Nights haunts to prepare, watching people shriek and panic as mangled creatures leaped out at them. Yahoo social producer Eric Duran, a Halloween Horror Nights veteran, swears these scares are predictable and not too off-putting. He followed me through each of the houses, never once flinching. I had the opposite experience. One can never get used to having a snarling monster lunge toward your face as you try to navigate around it, no matter how many times it happens, even if they're strictly banned from touching you. But that's just my opinion.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTo get a truly objective assessment of how spine-chilling each of these houses is, I tracked my peak heart rate at each stop to create a ranking of the scariest houses at Halloween Horror Nights 2025. To set a baseline, my resting heart rate is 73 beats per minute (bpm). Join me as I recount the darkest highlights of the scariest night of my life.10. Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty HuntersHeart rate: 109 bpmIn this experience, demons made out of lava start to take over an Old West town, and two otherworldly bounty hunters have to save the day. It smelled awful, which was impressive. I'm certain that the peak of my fear came when I was genuinely startled by a decaying thing peering around the corner, and it just wouldn't go away because I just kept screaming and we were both locked in mutual screaming and amusement until I finally regained the ability to move.9. El Artista: A Spanish HauntingHeart rate: 112 bpmGuests get spooked at El Artista: A Spanish Haunting. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)I knew that the gothic house that follows a tortured writer seeking inspiration would appeal directly to my creepier sensibilities. Set in 19th-century Spain, the art on the walls of this house starts to come alive, jumping out at passersby. I was so captivated by its beauty and the narrative, I almost forgot to get scared.
That is, until my bat ear headband got caught in something - maybe someone's costume or a piece of gauze hanging from the ceiling -and I thought I had been captured by some malevolent-but-stylish ghoul. I doubled over in a hunched position that I maintained for the rest of the night.8. WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt SicksHeart rate: 118 bpmA masked character jumps out at parkgoers at WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks at Halloween Horror Nights. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)You can only be so scared when you're creeping through a haunted house and come face-to-face with a massive WWE logo. I don't really know much about wrestling aside from the fact that it's dramatic, which I appreciate, but this house is based on a group of creepy characters portrayed by professional wrestlers.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI definitely hit peak bpm when one last creep in a grotesque mask and crappy wig unexpectedly lurched at me, causing me to involuntarily sprint out of the exit with my arms in the air in surrender like a frightened cartoon.7. Dolls: Let's Play DeadHeart rate: 125 bpmOne of many spooky toys on display at Dolls: Let's Play Dead. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)Guests enter the house of a maniacal little girl who tortures her toys, and we're next."I'm not afraid of dolls," I said, seconds before screaming in response to the abrupt screeching sound of a crying baby.
This was the least scary to me content-wise, but they still got a good shriek out of me when I ran into a giant piece of yarn that my brain, seized by fight-or-flight instincts, mistook for a snake.6. Gálkn: Monsters of the NorthHeart rate: 132 bpmGuests get freaked out at Gálkn: Monsters of the North. (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)The main thing I remember from this house is that it had cult-y Scandinavian vibes and the best air conditioning in the entire park, which lulled me into a false sense of security. Looking back at the footage of my walkthrough, I can't really te