Halloween Horror Nights 2022-2026

Overview

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood is a large-scale seasonal event, built each season through a fast-moving collaboration between creative, art direction, production, technical, and operations teams.

Challenge

Seasonal haunted houses and event experiences have compressed schedules, demanding installation conditions, and intense nightly operations. The creative opportunity has been to raise the level of special effects and advanced animated figures while keeping the work reliable, theatrical, and integrated with the story of each experience.

My Contribution

In my current role with HHN, I have helped spearhead an effort to increase the level of effects and advanced animated figures for the event. My work combines special effects and animation leadership with creative and technical fluency: helping define effects approaches, guide development, support cross-disciplinary decisions, and align practical show systems with the intended guest experience.

For HHN 2023, I led the effort to create lifelike animatronic Chucky dolls for our award-winning Chucky house, a temporary attraction with a level of animatronics and special effects more often associated with permanent dark rides.

Result / Impact

The Chucky house was recognized as an ambitious step forward for the event, with Theme Park Insider calling it Universal’s most ambitious haunted house yet.

The work reflects a broader push to bring higher show quality, more expressive animated figures, and stronger effects integration to temporary and seasonal immersive experiences.

Role

• Special Effects and Animation Lead
• Special Effects Design and R&D

Creative Director: John Murdy, Art Direction: Chris Williams