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September 2, 2025 13 mins
And as HHN leans on accessible IP like WWE, Fallout, and FNAF, builds in food-forward offerings, and pilots no-scare options, the question arises: is Universal future-proofing the brand—or diluting its horror core? Also this week: Kennywood's Phantom Fall Fest Debuts New Haunted House; Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare Comes to Kings Island in 2026; Netflix House to Open in Philadelphia & Dallas; The Haunted Carwash Returns to SoCal with Three Locations; Coffin Creek Moves; Mr. Floats & The CarnEvil of Souls Tours U.S. to Promote Kickstarter Campaign; Walibi Holland Revises Ad Campaign Following Public Outcry; Spirit Christmas Stores will Return for 2025. Read the stories here.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Coming up your weekly roundup of news from around the
haunt industry. Welcome to the show. I'm Philip on the
hn Show. We bring you the haunt news, information, and
education you need to prepare for Halloween. On Tuesdays, we
bring you a roundup of news from haunts worldwide. Read

(00:28):
more about these stories and so much more in our
free weekly newsletter. Subscribe at the link in the show notes,
and as always for the news roundup, I'm passing it
off to Darryl Universal.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, Florida kicked off its
twenty twenty five season on August twenty ninth and runs
for forty eight select nights throughout November two. This year's
event features ten haunted houses, five originals and five based
on intellectual property, including five nights of Friday's follow out Terrafire,
Jason Universe, and WWE presents The Horrors of the Wyat six.

(01:02):
Returning entertainment includes Nightmare Fuel, Circus of Decay, and The Hantophonic,
a ghoulish journey lagoon show, while new additions range from
a zombie dance performance that melts die in with a
roaming art the Clown also new er twenty dollars Deathly
Afraid necklaces, which offer guests us scare free path throughout
scare zones, but not haunted houses. The introduction of no

(01:22):
Scare necklaces underscores the broader shift. HHN is quietly expanding
its appeal beyond traditional horror fans. Several entertainment zones now
function as standalone experiences, including The Undead DJ's Club Horror
and The Cat Lady on Crooked Lane, a staged street
performance that unfolds over time. Like Commerci Theater. Food continues

(01:43):
to emerge as a major draw, and themed food items
tied to each house like terrifiers, bloody popcorn, and illusion
based desserts like Devil's Eggs made from gelatine. While Orlando
hasn't introduced a tasting card, one is being tested in Hollywood,
pointing towards a possible transformation into a Helloween food festival format.
This year's most significant operational changes spatial haunted house queues

(02:06):
have been moved outside the park, activating backstage zones with
covered que lines and restrooms. This clears interior walkways for entertainment, food,
and roaming characters. Effectively increasing event capacity. New scare zone
boo boxes allow actors to perform and hide, dynamically enhancing
immersion while managing crowdflow. These elements aren't just scenic, they're strategic,

(02:29):
designed to hold guests attention while others queue for high
demand houses where wait times regularly exceed two hours. Taken together,
these moves reflect a new chapter for Halloween Horror Nights.
The event is still anchored by its houses, but it
is increasingly evolving into a multi layered festival style experience,
and as HHN leans on accessible ip like WWE Fallout

(02:52):
five Nights at Freddy's, built in food forward offerings and
pilots no scare options, the question arises, is universal future
proof the brand or diluting its horror core. Learn more
from Philip and Scott in this week's edition of the
Green Tagged podcast. Kennywood's Phantom fall Fest debuts a new
haunted house. Phantom fall Fest at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

(03:14):
creeps out of the shadows in this longest season yet
September twelfth through November first. This year, guests are in
for even more nightmares as the park debuts its brand
new haunted house, Detached. Brave souls are encouraged to pull
themselves together as they enter the terrifying toy store of
the puppet Master. In his delusional quest to build the
perfect puppet, he is hand packing the parts he desires

(03:36):
from all who enter the shop. Beware and keep your
head on straight if you hope to survive a trip
through the world deranged dolls and maniacal marionettes. Detached joins
six more haunted houses, four sinister scare zones, and more.
A day to night Halloween event offers family friendly fund
rides for all during the day, then at six pm,
the fear kicks in gears. Terror lurks behind every corner,

(03:58):
with nearly two hundred scare actors roaming the park each night.
We are taking terror to a whole new level in
twenty twenty five as we debut our newest and most
horrifying haunt ever during Phantom Fall Fest Detached, said Ricky Spacuza,
Kennywood General Manager. With the longest event run in Kennywood
history and the debut of Detached, we're delivering next level

(04:19):
horror and thrills that you won't find anywhere else in Pittsburgh.
Tickets are on sale now starting at thirty seven forty
nine for dated tickets and fifty nine ninety nine for
any day tickets. Phantom Theater Opening Nightmare comes to King's
Island in twenty twenty six. The stage is set for
guests to be ushered into a new but familiar chapter
in King's Island in Mason, Ohio, as Phantom Theater Opening

(04:41):
Nightmare will make its debut in spring twenty twenty six.
Located at the site of the park's original Phantom Theater
Dark Ride, They're Quirky characters and chaos from the original
will return along with modern technology, enhanced scenic elements, and
expanded storytelling. Guests will board and chanted opera boxes and
arm themselves with interaction of spellbound flashlights to journey through

(05:02):
haunted hallways, magical dressing rooms, and wild backstage areas to
capture ghost notes before they can ruin Maestro's thrilling musical performance.
Manufactured by Sally Dark Rides, the ride will feature twenty
six interactive scenes with multisensory effects, hidden easter eggs and
nods to the original attraction, and plenty of spellbinding musical chaos.

(05:23):
Families who have visited King's Island will remember how special
the original Phantom Theater was and they've always wanted it
to return, said Tony Caravellano, Park Manager of King's Island.
While paying homage to the original ride, Phantom Theater opening nightmares,
modern and advanced features will help create new memories and
stories for all who take their seat inside this amazing experience.

(05:44):
To make way for this attraction, the current dark ride
Boo Blasters on Boo Hill will close on September first.
Stay tuned for the King's Island Facebook page for construction
progress and opening date announcements. Netflix House announces opening dates
for Philadelphia and Dallas locations. Get ready to step inside
your favorite films and franchises with Netflix House. Netflix will

(06:06):
open two one hundred thousand square foot locations this year, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
on November twelfth and Dallas, Texas on December eleventh. These
year round attractions will offer a mix of complimentary and
paid experiences to immerse guests in the world of the
streaming giants, hit shows, and movie with a variety of
entertainment options including engaging photo opportunities, fund programming, Netflix Bytes Restaurant,

(06:28):
and the Netflix Shop finally a place where the Netflix
Store you can't get enough of becomes something real that
you can play, shop and taste. This is fandom coming
to life, where you can actually step inside the worlds
even watching and loving for years, whether going on an
epic adventure with a straw hat, taking a journey into Hawkins, Indiana,
or grabbing a cocktail inspired by your latest obsession. With

(06:49):
fresh experiences dropping regularly, there's always a new reason to
come back, says Mary and Lee, Netflix's chief marketing officer.
Each location will feature unique offerings. Opening experiences in Netflix
House Philadelphia will include Wednesday, Eve of the Outcast, where
fans can discover games, misfortunes, and horrifying surprises in an
immersive exploration on the eve of the Outcast Festival. One

(07:12):
piece Quest for the Devil Fruit, where guests can dodge
infamous villains and escape the marines in a high stakes
race to reach the mysterious Devilfruit ahead of the straw Hats,
Netflix Virtual VR Games, Top Nine, Mini Golf, and Too
Dumb Theater. Netflix House Dallas will feature Stranger Things Escape
the Dark, where guests can journey through ruins of Hawkens
to find three missing townspeople before the horror lurking within,

(07:34):
find you Squid Games, Survive the Trials, where guests can
play diabolical games, face off against the frontman and betray
friends for a chance to win it all, and Netflix
replay a game room packed with physical challenges, immersive story rooms,
and retrostyle games based on popular ips. Tickets will go
on sales starting October seventeenth for Netflix House Philadelphia and
November eighteenth for Netflix House Dallas. Stay tuned to their

(07:58):
official website for further details and pricing by following the
links in our show notes. Plans are already underway to
open a third year round location in Las Vegas, Nevada,
in twenty twenty seven. The Haunted car Wash returns to
so Cal with three locations. Southern California's Haunted car Wash
makes its highly anticipated return this Halloween season by taking

(08:18):
over three locations, the Carwood car Wash in Lakewood, Flash
and Go car Wash in Montclair, and the Big Wave
Car Wash in Anaheim, select nights October third through November
first in Anaheim and Lakewood, and October seventeenth through November
first in Montclair. Fearless adventurers can face their Darkest Beers
with a spine chilling car wash experience starting at just

(08:39):
thirty dollars per vehicle. The Haunted car Wash features an immersive,
interactive drive through experience with creepy performers, haunted special effects,
and unexpected surprises each night. Tickets are on sale now
on the event's official website. Coffin Creek moves in teams
with Paris Pumpkin Patch in Southern California Fair. Now in
its nineteenth year, Coffin Creek has moved move to a

(09:00):
new location, the Paris Fairgrounds in Paris, California. Running October
ninth through November first, the Haunt will return with one
bone chilling attraction, the Asylum. New for this year, Coffin
Creek is teamed up with the Paris Pumpkin Patch, who
will provide family friendly fun right next to the Haunt
during opening weekend. Coffin Creek will be part of the

(09:21):
California State Fair October ninth through eleventh. All attendees much
purchase Fair admission in addition to the Haunt ticket to
access the attraction. Tickets for Coffin Creek are on sale now,
starting at twenty dollars for general admission and thirty dollars
for VIP Paris. Pumpkin Patch admission is five dollars on Thursdays,
eight dollars on Fridays and Saturdays. Mister Floats and the

(09:41):
Carnival of Souls tours us to promote their Kickstarter campaign.
Fresh off headlining The Hall of Shadows at Midsummer Scream
in Long Beach, California, PCB Entertainment announces their collaboration with
Mister Floats and the Carnevil of Souls, heading to Kickstarter
on September twenty third. The forty four page children's book
will feature whimsical and creepy illustrations inspired by Edward Gorey,

(10:04):
Maurice Sendak, and Tim Burton. The story of Mister Floats
and the Carnival of Souls reads as follows. In eighteen
oh six, Rotabert caasparov Grau created for Lorreene Seal the
Lost Souls, based on the infamous seventeen to eleven carnival disaster.
Reprinted under the title A Carnival of Souls, the book
became known as the fable that originated the children's song

(10:26):
Row Row Row Your Boat, and now the forgotten classic
has been restored for generations to come. During this campaign,
backers will have the chance to pledge from multiple tiers,
including a five x seven hardcover, a twelve inch leather cover,
and a twelve inch vinyl. The first two hundred backers
to pledge in a physical tier within the first forty
eight hours will receive an early bird bonus containing an

(10:46):
exclusive Carnieval of Souls patch and the twenty twenty five
Convention exclusive Mister Floats tarot card. Mister Floats and his
Twisted Carnival characters will be touring live across the United
States to promote the campaign this Halloween season, launching at
La Comic Con September twenty six through twenty eight. Additional
appearances will be made at the Crew of Boo in
New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creep at Real Festive in Santa Ana, California.

(11:11):
Will Lie bi Holland revises their ad campaign Following public outcry,
officials at Willie B. Holland in Beating Weis in Netherlands
permanently removed a promotional video for the park's Halloween event
following criticism on social media. The video depicted a woman
being auctioned off to sinister characters and then murdered, prompting
hundreds of posts condemning the video, glorifying human traffic, and femicide.

(11:33):
Park representatives initially stated the video would be taken down
through August twenty fourth. They have since announced the video
will not be posted. Spirit Christmas Stores will return for
twenty twenty five. Once again, Spirit Christmas will take over
a number of Spirit Helloween locations after the Halloween season.
The announcement was made on August twenty fifth via social media,
with Spirit sharing a holiday video and the Captionpirit Christmas

(11:55):
is coming back to town. Stay tuned on our social
channels for more infos. Opening dates and further information have
not been released at this time. Last year's Spirit Christmas
locations featured different sections catering to all things winter Wonderland,
including a spooky creep miss Area which combined horror with
the holidays. Stay tuned to their official website for announcements.
Some upcoming events this September through November include creep It

(12:19):
Real oc September twelfth through fourteenth, and Santa Ana, California,
Son of Monster Palooza October tenth through twelfth in Burbank California,
IAPPA November seventeenth through twentieth in Orlando, Florida, and creep
It Real Festive November twenty first through twenty third in
Santa Anna, California.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
And that's all for the news this week. Today's episode
was produced by me Philip Hernandez, with reporting by Darryl
Plunky post production by David Swope. This hant News Update
is a production of the Haunted Attraction Network and you
can sign up to our weekly newsletter at Hantatractionnetwork dot com.
Support for this episode comes from Gantum Lighting and Controls.

(12:59):
Until next time, Hunters Stay Scary. This is a Haunted
Attraction Network production. HM
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