The Legacy of ‘The House of Horrors’

Universal Studios Hollywood has always been the place to “ride the movies,” but like anything in theme parks, things come and go. Some attractions fade away quietly... and others leave a hole that never really heals. For horror fans, Universal’s House of Horrors was one of those. When it shut its doors for good in 2014, it didn’t just feel like the end of an attraction, it felt like the end of an era.

The building had a weird little history before it became the house for the monsters. It actually started out as Marvel Mania Café, a short-lived restaurant themed around Marvel Comics—way before the MCU took over the world. After that flopped, it got turned into a walk-through based on Chicken Run (yep, really), and then it briefly transformed into a Grinch-themed attraction during the holidays. But things really got interesting when it became The Mummy: Chamber of Doom, a horror walkthrough packed with props and set pieces from The Mummy movies. (Fun fact: there’s a video of the whole maze hidden as a bonus feature on The Mummy Returns DVD—one of the only decent-quality recordings out there.) Later, it got revamped again as Van Helsing: Fortress Dracula, and that one really stuck with me. It was dark, icy, full of monsters, and even had a scare cam where you could scare people inside and watch their reactions on a screen. I remember being blown away by how much effort went into it.

Then in 2007, Universal went all-in and gave us House of Horrors. It was a dream for horror fans. You'd walk through dark hallways and massively scaled sets filled with classic Universal monsters—Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster, and even Chucky in his own chaotic toy factory. It was scary but never over-the-top, just the right mix of scary and fun. It became a must-do for me every time I visited the park. I’d go through it three or four times in one day if I could, while my parents waited outside, completely over it. It had that old-school haunted house charm with a big studio budget behind it, and it gave horror fans something to enjoy year-round—not just during Halloween Horror Nights.

Then came the bad news. In 2014, Universal announced that House of Horrors was closing to make room for a new Walking Dead attraction. People just didn’t care about it the same way, and by 2019, it was gone too. The space ended up getting bulldozed to make room for a Starbucks and the Secret Life of Pets ride. Universal is known for horror. It’s where the monsters were born. And now there’s barely a trace of them in the Hollywood park. Sure, Florida’s Epic Universe got Dark Universe (and it’s incredible), but it’s still hard to believe that Hollywood, the home of the Universal Monsters, has no real tribute to them anymore. House of Horrors meant a lot to people, and even all these years later, fans still talk about it like a lost treasure. Hopefully one day Universal realizes what it had and brings the monsters back home.

While the House of Horrors may be gone, fans can now rep the attraction with a brand-new shirt just released by Razors in the Night. The shirt features the maze’s iconic marquee on the front, with a cast image on the back.

The shirt can be purchased at razorsinthenight.bigcartel.com, starting at $30.

Words and Shirt Design by: Razors in the Night