ORLANDO, Fla. – Even though Universal Orlando canceled the 2020 edition of Halloween Horror Nights because of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s still offering fans a taste of the popular event.


What You Need To Know

  • Universal opens two haunted houses

  • Bride of Frankenstein Lives and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy

  • Houses available this weekend to daytime park visitors

  • Halloween Horror Nights was canceled this year

Universal has opened two haunted houses that were originally intended to be part of this year’s event—Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy.

At the Bride of Frankenstein Lives, the bride takes center stage. As the story goes, the bride is now determined to bring back Frankenstein’s monster, even using other monsters as her experiments. Over at Revenge of the Tooth Fairy, an old manor has been taken over by goblin-like tooth fairies, who will take teeth with force, if necessary.

The houses are available this weekend during the day at Universal Studios Florida. They feature all the familiar elements that HHN fans would expect—elaborate set pieces, cool lighting and sound effects and, of course, scares. But this time around, due to the pandemic, Universal has made some adjustments.

Social distancing markers have been added to the queues for the houses. Inside the houses, measures have been put in place to keep groups distanced. Universal employees, with glow wands in hand, will direct visitors to stop in certain parts of the houses, if needed, to keep space between groups.

Also, plexiglass has been added where scare actors appear to keep them separate from visitors. The scare actors are also wearing masks, which match the house and their costumes.

Universal warns that the houses contain mature subject matter and may be too intense for younger children, so keep that in mind.

To help manage capacity at the houses, Universal is using its Virtual Line system, which allows visitors to book a time to return. Visitors can access the Virtual Line in the official Universal Orlando mobile app.

The haunted houses are part of what Universal is calling its “Halloween Seasonal Experience Testing,” which also includes food trucks and a Scarecrow Stalk scavenger hunt at Universal Studios and trick-or-treating for kids at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

The houses are included with theme park admission.

As part of the health and safety measures Universal has implemented since reopening, visitors are required to wear face masks and undergo a temperature screening.