Universal Destinations and Experiences, the theme-park arm of NBCUniversal, is hoping to shake up its immersive status quo with Horror Unleashed – which will open on August 14 in Las Vegas, Nevada – in two different ways: launch a whole series of permanent, year-round haunts across the country (and, perhaps, around the world), and, by so doing, create a new way for its customers to interact with its horror content.

The former could potentially be game-changing for the company, serving an expansionary function much like cruises do for The Walt Disney Company, but the latter is far more subtle, providing more of a variation on the theme rather than a wholesale revolution. That doesn’t mean, however, that we shouldn’t explore just how Universal is approaching the challenge of fashioning these new experiences – and we got just a few small-but-tantalizing details on this front thanks to a brief, PR-heavy interview published over on the company’s official blog back on April 10.

But before we dive in, we need to just briefly recap what to expect with Horror Unleashed: the venue itself will be themed to an abandoned warehouse that is crammed full of neglected production artifacts (which we now know is officially called Warehouse 25 and is specifically filled with the detritus of Universal’s more-than-century-long love affair with horror film [and which sounds suspiciously similar to the temporary Universal Legacy Store that graced CityWalk Orlando for some three years, using a similar conceit to take a stroll down the Florida resort’s history – and sell tons of merchandise in the process, of course]). Against this backdrop will be situated four haunted houses, seemingly recycled from the Halloween Horror Nights events located on both the East and West Coasts, which consist of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist: Believer, Universal Monsters, and the sole original entry, Scarecrow: The Reaping. Attached to each of these will be an “immersive area” that will offer up some combination of food and drinks, live entertainment, and scares, making them a thorough blending of what are definitely different and rigidly defined aspects of Horror Nights – yet another variation on the Universal theme.

It is this last component, arguably the most interesting and potentially consequential of this new venture, where we got just a little more in the way of specifics revealed. Using the exact wording from the company’s own write-up, these four different sections will be themed to:

• A classic Hollywood horror set inhabited by gothic vampires
• A film vault populated by all manner of serial killers and slashers
• A graveyard of possessed props
• A storage yard morphed into the home of a twisted carnival

It is this last one that we managed to get some details on previously, when Universal tipped its hand about how it was upgrading its Scarecrow maze to take advantage of the permanent digs it is laying down in Vegas: this particular entertainment zone will be home to none other than Jack the Clown, Chance, and their posse of evil maniacs, who will dance, juggle, and, even, tell fortunes as they alternatively take the stage and mingle amongst the crowd. It’ll be interesting to see if these other immersive areas will similarly tap into the vast array of HHN mythology that has accrued over the past 34 years now (almost all of which you can get a definitive accounting of in Horrors Untold, our authoritative guide to Halloween Horror Nights Orlando’s history and lore), and which sections of which ones will feature the safe havens of zero scares, as Universal has previously promised (presumably, though, all of them will offer near-infinite alcohol – provided you’re willing to pay for it, naturally).

Universal Horror Unleashed opens on August 14, 2025, at Las Vegas’s Area15, an entertainment hub located just off of the Strip. You can purchase tickets here.

Dive more fully into Universal’s universe of horror with Horrors Untold, the HHN Orlando guidebook/immersive horror mystery. You can read samples and pick up your copy here.

Keywords: Universal Horror Unleashed Theming and Entertainment, Scarecrow: The Reaping, Jack’s Alley Bar