Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) 33 at Universal Studios Orlando promises to be a spine-chilling experience with an impressive lineup of haunted mazes, an array of delectable treats and terrifying scare zones that will immerse you in the Halloween spirit. Here’s a review of the food and scare zones you can expect this year. HHN truly has something terrifying for every horror enthusiast. Also be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see video content from us including a VLOG of HHN that has been uploaded!
HHN 33: The Mazes
We are going to review the mazes from our favorite maze to our least. Now we attended HHN multiple times over the course of the opening weekend and even the preview night. With certainty our maze rankings will change as the season goes on it always does. In fact we put a list together of the mazes we were hyped for before ever setting foot in any of them. I will post that list below but you can also find it in our preview article here.
Maze Ranking Before going through mazes
- Major Sweets Candy Factory
- Slaughter Sinema 2
- A Quiet Place
- Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
- The Museum: Deadly Exhibits
- Goblin’s Feast
- Insidious The Further
- Universal Monsters Eternal Bloodlines
- Triplets of Terror
- Monstrous The Monsters of Latin America
Insidious: The Further
Venture into the dark and unsettling world of Insidious. Encounter the sinister spirits and malevolent entities that lurk in the shadows. This maze takes you through the Further, where every turn brings you closer to your deepest fears. What we liked about this maze besides it is very creepy is how they blended all of the movies from the franchise together and it actually makes sense. Now this maze is not based on any one movie from the franchise but it feels more like you are just in, “The Further” as the names suggests. This worked really well as you maneuver through the further facing some of the most terrifying things you can imagine! We consider this one of the best HHN mazes we have ever been in. So good!
Goblin’s Feast
Feast your eyes on pure horror in the Goblin’s Feast maze. These malevolent creatures are hungry, and you’re on the menu. Navigate through their lair and try to escape before you become their next meal. Being big fantasy style people this maze hit us just right and we ranked it very high. The set designs in Goblin’s Feast are big and amazing, and the Goblin’s themselves have so many different variants they are just a lot of fun. We sort of felt like they are a version of the Yetis for this year which for us is a win.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Get ready to bust some ghosts in the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire maze. The city is freezing over and it’s up to you to navigate through icy specters and chilling paranormal activity. Can you keep your cool and save the day? While going through this maze several times we were all smiles to the nods to the newest movie which we liked, but also the feeling of the older movies being present in this maze. This maze is more on the fun side than the scary side, but the huge sets created in the soundstage were great!
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
Meet a twist on the classic monsters in Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines. Follow Saskia Van Helsing (Daughter of Aberham) as she chases down Dracula’s daughter, a She-Wolf, and even a She-Mummy as you journey through ancient tombs and haunted castles. The maze is beautifully architected and a real joy to traverse. At this point in the year though we feel the monsters need to up their game a bit. Typically the Universal Monsters mazes end up being the best. This one has the look but not the feel just yet.
Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America
Explore the haunting folklore of Latin America in the Monstrous maze. Below is a bit of information on the three monsters in this maze. In terms of the maze it looks really cool with big sets and one really cool monster! We felt though the story isn’t very obvious in here and it held it back for the ranking of it in our opinion. We are curios to see how the maze changes in our heads as the season goes on.
Tlahuelpuchi: In Mexican folklore, a Tlahuelpuchi is a shapeshifting vampire or witch that lives with a human family and drinks the blood of infants at night
La Lechuza: Lechuza—a Spanish word for a type of owl, especially the barn owl—is a myth popular throughout northern Mexico and Texas. As the story goes, an old woman shape-shifts into a giant owl, La Lechuza, to take revenge on people who wronged her during her life.
El Silbón: El Silbón (The Whistler) is a legendary figure in Colombia and Venezuela, associated especially with Los Llanos region, usually described as a lost soul. The legend arose in the middle of the 19th century.
A Quiet Place
Step into the silent world of A Quiet Place, where any sound could be your last. Navigate through this silent but deadly maze, where creatures hunt by noise, forcing you to tread carefully or face a deadly encounter. While we absolutely love The Quiet Place movies and enjoyed this maze, it does have some parts that feel like dead space, and the creatures themselves fell a bit flat for us. We feel this will get better as the season goes on.
Slaughter Sinema 2
Back by popular demand, Slaughter Sinema 2 takes you on a bloody trip through sequels of the most horrifying B-movies. Face off against killer clown zombies, mutated creatures, and more in this zany but deadly maze. This maze is a really cool and hard to rate overall as it is broken up into appetizers, eight to be exact. Being a massive JAWS fans Blood and Chum has our heart, but the heavy metal section also hit well. This maze truly is a dim sum of houses that pack a mall but mighty punch per room.
The Museum: Deadly Exhibits
Step into The Museum: Deadly Exhibits where the artifacts themselves have come to life with murderous intent. Each exhibit tells a deadly story, and every artifact has a chilling secret that you’d rather not discover. The rotting stone which you can see in the beginning of the maze in an interesting form is infecting the whole building. While the effect is cool and builds up we feel like this one is just your average maze with not too much that is memorable.
Major Sweets’ Candy Factory
Enter the Major Sweets’ Candy Factory, where the products are to die for—literally. This maze takes you through twisted hallways of confectionery chaos, with the sweet scent of candy and the bitter taste of terror. I admit we had this one built up in our heads before the season started because we loved the scare zone a couple of years ago. So why is it so low on our list? We felt this maze could have been pulled off in a different way. We wanted some Wonka style whimsical colors and then transform it into the evil sinister candy factory. We do love the characters of Mrs. Sweet and of course Major Sweets!
Triplets of Terror
Experience triple the terror with Triplets of Terror. This horrifying maze introduces you to three deadly villains who are eager to add you to their list of victims. Survive their gruesome games, if you dare. The storytelling style of this maze follows a podcast format, which didn’t translate well to us. The maze is straightforward and in-your-face scary. Without watching the podcast about the maze’s story, we would have never guessed it. The idea of having three main characters, each with their own persona, was well-executed, but overall, this maze was just okay.
As you can see below the mazes performed a lot differently than we thought they would. Keep in mind though these our just our rankings and they will change as the season goes on. Below is our pre-season ranking and on the right is how we ranked the mazes for opening weekend.
| Before HHN | Opening Weekend |
| Major Sweets Candy Factory | Insidious: The Further |
| Slaughter Sinema 2 | Goblin’s Feast |
| A Quiet Place | Ghostbusters Frozen Empire |
| Ghostbusters Frozen Empire | Universal Monsters Eternal Bloodlines |
| The Museum: Deadly Exhibits | Monstrous The Monsters of Latin America |
| Goblin’s Feast | A Quiet Place |
| Insidious Into the Further | Slaughter Sinema 2 |
| Universal Monsters Eternal Bloodlines | The Museum: Deadly Exhibits |
| Triplets of Terror | Major Sweets Candy Factory |
| Monstrous The Monsters of Latin America | Triplets of Terror |
Halloween Horror Nights The Food
Halloween Horror nights loves to take food and make it gimmicky which plays well with the overall theme of the event. We dig into each food item in our VLOG for the event and encourage you to watch it for our thoughts on all of the different food items we tried. You can find the VLOG here. Below is the slideshow of thee items as well. Our favorite was say “Cheese” burger, and the Abbott’s Farm corn chowder.
Final Thoughts on Halloween Horror nights 33
As we bring this article to a close, let’s reflect on the overall event. This year’s event shines with its impressive maze lineups and delectable food offerings. However, the environment outside of the mazes is somewhat hit or miss. Specifically, there are some areas that feel lackluster and could benefit from added entertainment, much like last year’s engaging flash mob of M3GANs. For instance, the stretch between the Torture Faire scare zone and Enter the Blumhouse feels particularly dead.
The show Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus is fantastic and offers a well-needed break from all the walking at HHN. However, we believe that adding another show or two would help manage the crowd levels better.
One final grip is the lack of rides open. We are guessing Universal knows more than we do about having more rides open but this year Transformers isn’t open thus limiting the options of attractions for people to enjoy. We would love them to open back up Transformers, The Simpsons (Treehouse of Horror anyone?) and even Villain’s Con during HHN. This would give people another option for when the mazes are at 120 minute waits.
We made it to the end will you be going to Halloween Horror Nights 33? What are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments and we will see you in the fog!
