With the ongoing strength of both licensed experiences and the horror genre, it makes sense that collaborative haunted houses have become a popular form of location-based entertainment in the past few years. Not surprisingly, the partnerships most often involve properties associated with horror or other dark themes, including several examples just announced for fans making their plans for Halloween 2026:
- Last week, the Universal Hollywood and Universal Orlando theme parks said that they had paired with Ozzy Osbourne’s family to create haunted houses at both locations during their annual Halloween Horror Nights events. The Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house will take visitors through Ozzy’s different personas and eras, accompanied by a soundtrack of music from his 13 albums. Universal is a key player in this space, partnering with its own and external IPs for its Halloween Horror Nights programming, including for themed haunted houses. Examples of the latter include entertainment franchises such as Sinners (also coming up this year), The Last of Us, Chucky, Nope, Insidious, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. It has also paired with celebrities such as guitarist Slash, for a Scarecrow: Music by Slash haunted house (as well as a limited-edition vinyl release of the experience’s original score and a themed bar), and The Wyatt Sicks, a stable of wrestlers under the WWE Smackdown umbrella, for a haunted house featuring domains for each “maniacal” personality in the group. In an older example, magicians Penn & Teller created a haunted house for Halloween Horror Nights back in 2012.
- United Parks & Resorts (formerly SeaWorld Entertainment) just announced a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to feature haunted houses based on two 1990s horror film franchises, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Anaconda, in its annual Howl-O-Scream events at its SeaWorld and Busch Gardens locations. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Williamsburg, respectively, will feature Anaconda: Fear Has No Escape and Anaconda: Dead on Arrival houses, while the three SeaWorld locations host I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Final Catch. This is the first time United Parks has partnered with a Hollywood franchise for the 30-year-old Howl-O-Scream.
- In Hong Kong this year, rapper and singer Jackson Wang, soloist and member of the K-pop group Got7 and fashion designer/entrepreneur under the Team Wang brand, is creating a haunted house for Ocean Park’s HalloweenFest. The installation is based on a horror IP Wang co-created called Under the Castle, which was inspired by his childhood experiences at HalloweenFest. Since 2023, Wang has opened similar activations at Universal Studios Singapore; C.Park, a mixed-use development in Shanghai; and Ocean Park Bangkok’s Halloween Fest.
- Disney Theme Parks’ Haunted Mansion, a permanent haunted house-themed ride, pairs annually with Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, a Disney-controlled property, throughout the Halloween and Christmas seasons. In addition, the Haunted Mansion IP has been the focus of some outbound licensing efforts, including collaborative merchandise collections with Spirit Halloween and Her Universe, as well as a presence in Epic Games’ Fortnite.
Aside from the seasonal haunted houses outlined here, horror-themed properties star in permanent attractions at theme parks as well. For example, ride manufacturer Triotech partnered with AMC and Warner Bros. for a walk-through Fear the Walking Dead survival attraction, combining elements of an escape room, motion simulator, and maze. Installed first in Las Vegas, from 2017 to 2019, it opened at Trans Studio Bali theme park in 2019 and remains ongoing as one of its rides today.
Comments are closed.