“If you’re going to do Terrifier, you’ve got to really do Terrifier,” exclaims John Murdy, Creative Director and Executive Producer of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. “We approached it with that mindset, because that’s what the fans of this franchise love.”
The all-new haunted house, versions of which appear at the seasonal event in both the Los Angeles theme park and Universal Orlando Resort in Florida, is inspired by the Terrifier film franchise. The face of the already iconic series is the enigmatic Art the Clown, a demonic serial killer who butchers the inhabitants of the fictitious Miles County, New York.
Could it be the most intense attraction Murdy and his compatriots, including Michael Aiello, Senior Director, Entertainment and Creative Development at Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, have created in the event’s decades-long history?
“I think ultimately our fans decide that,” he muses. “What was interesting when we announced the house, a lot of fans were like, ‘You’re not doing the hacksaw kill, are you?’ They thought like we would soft pedal it, but we’re really not, so I think that will surprise the fans.”
The Terrifier house is groundbreaking in multiple ways. Writer-director Damien Leone, the brainchild of the franchise, told me, “Mike and John completely embraced what Terrifier is. They came to us and said, ‘You guys are known for gore. We want to make this the bloodiest house in the history of Halloween Horror Nights. We want to have the most bodies that have ever been involved in any of these houses.’ They were speaking my language, so it was a no-brainer.”
‘Terrifier’ Icon Will Be On The Loose At Universal Studios
For the first time, the creatives are adding an extra dimension to the terror and taking Terrifier’s Art the Clown beyond the walls of the experience and into the real world of the theme park.
“It’s kind of like a Where’s Waldo? Thing,” Murdy explains. “Art is going to be outside of the house and in the park. You might be in a store, and he’ll show up next to you. You might be enjoying a bite to eat, look up, and he’s sitting across from you, staring at you. We’ve intentionally created these disruptions to put our guests off guard. You don’t know where Art is going to show up.”
“I called our Vice President in charge of retail, and I went, ‘Hey, I know we never let characters go in stores because it’s the one safe spot when you’re at the park. I want to break that rule, and I need your help.’ She was cool and down with it. It’s all a wild experiment, and we don’t really know what’s going to happen.”
Aiello continues, “Art encounters will pop up in various places, all across the studios. We’re not publicizing it. We’re not giving out times or anything. Art is all about engaging in everyday spaces, so that’s what we’re doing with him. We want him to make people uncomfortable. If they’re sitting down to eat somewhere or shopping in a store.”
‘Terrifier’ Water Effect Will Be ‘Like A Car Wash’
It’s not uncommon for Halloween Horror Nights guests to get a 4D-type experience in mazes with a splash of “blood” here or a heat effect there, but Terrifier takes that up multiple notches.
Towards the end of the walkthrough, ticket holders at both the Hollywood and Orlando parks potentially could get drenched.
“In Hollywood, people will go through a tree hedge maze, and above you, we’re making it rain blood,” Murdy reveals. “There is a whole array of water nozzles backlit red, and then there’s special flooring to drain all the water and pump it out. We’re really messing with our fans with this notion, and it’s driving them crazy right now. They keep asking us, ‘How wet am I going to get?’ Mike and I won’t tell them. We’re leaving it to their imagination.”
Aiello adds, “Our water moment in Orlando is a decision point for the guests, because we’re using more water than we’ve ever done in a haunted house before. We’re doing rain curtains; there’s a drip line, but it’s at 100 percent. We’re usually at 20 percent. The floor is actually a graded floor that allows the water to pass through it, because it’s a steady stream, and can be filtered out. That’s our blood bath. It’s like a car wash.”
“You can opt to do the dry path, and we created that because of the amount of water that we’re using. We wanted to ensure guests had the choice, but Art’s is on a secondary level before you make that call at the decision point. There’s a waterfall of blood in front of him, and he’s conducting his symphony of blood as we’re making that choice.”
‘Terrifier’ Achieves Something The Movies Couldn’t
Both Terrifier houses start with guests entering the experience through a Fun House façade.
“Our entrance in Hollywood is pretty much Terrifier 2,” Murdy says. “Some of the things we do when we work with IP filmmakers is to ask for the assets they used. We asked for graphics for the Fun House, and they were like, ‘It was a miniature. It was like Stonehenge in Spinal Tap.’ So our artists recreated all the graphics, which means this is the first time this has ever been life-size.”
“We have our queue line in front of the house, we designed this so there is a huge light box with the Terrifier logo and we’ll be playing the Terrifier theme song and then somebody changes the channel, and you hear little snippets of the Clown Cafe theme before it lands on a news report and you’re hearing a reporter explaining that tragedy struck in Miles County and a tall, thin man in a black and white clown costume carrying a black plastic bag was seen walking away. As the news reporter is saying that, someone matching that description appears in the doorway where the devil is, he opens it, and he comes out, does a very choreographed series of bits, then he disappears.”
Aiello adds, “In Orlando, we wanted to sell the fact that this entire house and experience is a world that Art the Clown has created, so instead of the very Jack the Clown looking character in the Hollywood mural, we had Art paint his own image in that spot where that other clown is featured. Hollywood uses the façade as an entrance for the character, whereas we have a media moment where you see shadow play of Vicky and Little Pale Girl and move parallel into the house.”
‘Terrifier’ Aims To Gross Out From The Get-Go
In both locations, the nightmares begin once guests step into the Fun House. In Hollywood, walls covered by newspaper clippings and photos with glowing eyes lead attendees to their first encounter with Art the Clown.
“He’s behind a theatrical scrim, and we’re doing an effect that we actually brought over from Orlando, which is called a drop window. It will look like a wall, and while you’re distracted, a whole section slams to the ground, making a hell of a noise, and there’s a surprise behind it. You’re driven through a curtain and then you’re hit by a Giant Art that will come screaming out at you,” Murdy reveals.
Aiello interjects, “We’re immediately in the Fun House in Orlando, and we have an animatronic, but it’s one of his victims. It’s a body that’s been put on a spring and bobs back and forth, and Art has painted his own face onto the corpse. You round a corner, and the first appearance of Art himself is actually through a split body that is on hinged doors. Art literally opens it up, splitting the body in half and barrelling through it at the guest.”
The first official space in both haunted houses is called Silly Saws and is inspired by the hacksaw kill in the original Terrifier film.
“We wanted to reference all the iconic kills in the series, but since we’re setting everything in the fun house, that meant that in some cases, we needed to bring in kills that didn’t happen in the Fun House and find a reason for why it would happen here,” Murdy clarifies. “In the first movie, Tara is in a warehouse, but we brought her in here to this crazy scene. Saw blades are coming through all the walls. Art the Clown is the performer in this space, and when he activates his trigger, he starts up the saw blade and pushes a body through. When it splays open, guests get showered with blood. It’s the first time in the house that you’re going to get hit with blood, but it will not be the only one.”
The version in Orlando takes it even further.
“We’ve got a corridor and above the guests, on motors, are hacksaws moving back and forth, slicing bodies that are upside down attached to the wall,” Aiello confirms. “As the guests are going through the corridor, they’re getting sprayed the entire way through. So it was an exercise, this being an example of the kill, but how do we expand it and make it feel like the guest is surrounded in it?”
Next up is a scene that Murdy calls Barrels of Fun.
“For each film, we tried to pick the most iconic kill. In Terrifier 2, Art kills Allie. In the movie, it’s set in a bedroom. He hacks her to bits, leaves, and then comes back with a bottle of bleach and salt. It’s one of the most extreme kills in the whole franchise. Mike and I, when we were talking and our team members, we were like, ‘We want to physically affect the guests. We want them to feel like bleach is spraying all over them.’ That’s why we have this scene.”
“The scent of bleach is being pumped in the air, we have Art the Clown with a Tommy gun, and he shoots holes in barrels, and it feels like you’re blasted with what you think is bleach.” The scene then continues with Art, salt in one hand and bleach in the other, rubbing them all over her wounds. Sienna Shaw, who is the final girl in the Terrifier franchise, comes busting through that curtain dressed in the warrior princess cosplay costume with the sword, and challenges Art.”
Again, Orlando serves up a different experience.
“We are trying to up the water effects,” Aiello confirms. “The flooring in this scene for us is created so it can capture liquids, and we’re giving our characters bleach jugs filled with water that they’ll be pouring on the body and splashing the guests with.”
The ‘Terrifier’ Bathroom Scene Will Push Some People To Their Limits
Moving through gruesome scenes called Dolly Molly, featuring Art the Clown, the Little Pale Girl, and into the Clown Cafe, which is featured in the second Terrifier movie and is very similar in both the Hollywood and Orlando versions.
“You’re in a carnival Fun House, so there would be a place to eat, so we decided that should be the Clown Cafe, where all the kids have been killed,” Murdy says. “We’re pumping in a scent in this scene, but it’s actually not an awful one. It’s hot, buttered popcorn. We have a kid sitting and eating Art’s cereal, and we got Damien to give us all the graphics for that. Also in this scene, there’s a severed heart covered in maggots in a hatbox.”
“Art gave it to Sienna in a dream sequence in the second movie, and we wanted to recreate that. With Halloween Horror Nights, we put our guests right in the middle of the action, so they’re really close to everything and want to touch stuff. If they try to touch this, it’s going to blast them with blood. We built the whole food truck and everything.”
The next section is one that guests with more sensitive stomachs might hit a wall. After passing through curtains of dirty underwear, they enter an area called Naughty Potty.
“We have easter eggs to other kills in the franchise in the stalls of this restroom,” Murdy confirms. “From Terrifier, there’s the guy in the pizza parlor whose head Art cuts off and turns it into a human jack o’ lantern. There’s the mashed potato kill from the second movie, and the construction worker that Art peels the skin off his face from Terrifier 3. Vicky, who was the final girl in the first movie, but has become Art’s compatriot in the third movie, appears behind a mirror, and then she’s able to open it up like a window and come after us.”
“Art is writing his name in poop on the wall, and he’s covered in it. As soon as you come in, he hits his lighting audio trigger, and he comes at you with his poopy hands. I haven’t done a poop scene since 2006, and I swore I’d never do another one. We pump into the scent too, and I used to come home from Halloween Horror Nights and my wife would be like, ‘Why do you smell like poop?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s my clothes.'”
There is also a special surprise in the sink.
“This is a mysterious thing,” Murdy laughs. “Mike and I both screencap these films, taking hundreds of pictures when we’re going through them, and this was in the sink. I didn’t really know what the heck it was, because it’s got teeth and it’s got eyeballs, but we gave it to our props team and said, ‘Make this.’ According to Damian, it’s the Poop Monster. That was all he said.”
‘Terrifier’ Gets Creative With Original Scares Alongside Classic Kills
After having a bite to eat and visiting the bathroom in Art’s world, things switch up again with the Chamber of Horrors, which is not a scene from the movies but more of a play on the franchise and the event itself, playing with the concept of House Hosts who usher people through the attractions.
In Orlando, there is a Tunnel of Love, Terrifier-style.
“Basically, it’s where Art has taken over, and we’re taking through basically a sequence where he’s displayed all of his victims, and the tunnel looks as if it’s on fire. We’re using fire projection on the tunnel and smoke effects,” Aiello reveals.
Before the haunted house takes remaining guests to the final scene, which is set in Art’s workshop, the penultimate scene is another fan favorite kill scene from Terrifier 3.
“In the movie, Art visits a mall, and there’s a Santa photo opportunity. We’ve created that. All of the workers who are playing the elves have either been killed in horrible ways or beheaded, and their heads are used as tree toppers, and their intestines are strung on the Christmas trees. He has even killed the mall Santa,” Murdy gushes. “We are playing the Terrifier Christmas Carol, we’re pumping in the smell of freshly baked gingerbread cookies, and then Art, dressed as Santa, comes busting through the curtain with a chainsaw.”
With a killer line-up that also includes Five Nights at Freddy’s, Poltergeist, Fallout, Jason Universe, and WWE Presents: The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks, 2025 is set to be a classic year for Halloween Horror Nights. However, Terrifier is something the creatives are particularly proud of.
“If you’ve seen all three of those movies, you’re still going to walk through and see some things you haven’t seen before,” Aiello muses.
Murdy concludes, “The very last thing we do in our process is blood. We have our own recipe for it, whether it’s scenic blood or blood on performers. It makes a hell of a mess, so our crew comes through a couple of days before we open, and in this case, they’re going to bring a lot of blood. Terrifier is absolutely soaked in it.”
Halloween Horror Nights kicks off at Universal Studios Hollywood on Thursday, September 4, 2025. Universal Orlando Resort gets the ball rolling a little earlier on Friday, August 29, 2025. Tickets are now on sale.