Stranger Things is back at Halloween Horror Nights this year. This is the IP that got me through the gates many years ago, and I’ve been hooked on Halloween Horror Nights ever since. This year, we were lucky enough to be able to attend the opening night media event, which allowed filming in the haunted houses for one night only. In addition, Universal creatives hosted a panel before we explored the event to give an overview of each house, scarezone, and show. In our video below, we’re going to cover the Stranger Things 5 segment of the panel in full and provide some highlight clips from inside the haunted house. Welcome back to the Upside Down.
Stranger Things 5 Haunted House at Halloween Horror Nights
Stranger Things 5 Haunted House Scene-by-Scene Description
The Stranger Things 5 haunted house is a soundstage house, built in Soundstage 23. The house opens in the Upside Down, at Castle Byers. After passing the makeshift wooden fort and turning the corner, we see Will Byers suspended above us. The next room contains the title card, continuing the cold open style that Stranger Things haunted houses have done in the past. Vecna can be seen in this room, inviting us in, saying, “We can begin”.
From there, we find ourselves in the Wheeler house, lights flickering, an indication that danger is near. Sure enough, a Demogorgon pops out from one side of the kitchen. No sooner does the Demogorgon arrive than Karen Wheeler appears, broken wine bottle in hand, ready for a showdown.
From there, we find ourselves back in the Upside Down, and it appears that we’re in the tunnels under Hawkins. More specifically, we look like we’re in the tunnels under the MAC-Z, where the kids enter through a hole in the floor of a restroom stall. A flowering Demogorgon can be seen nearby, and it’s a really cool effect. That said, it can be easy to miss, so make sure to look up after passing the ladder. We only caught a glimpse on our first walk-through.
From the Upside Down tunnels, we make our way into Hawkins Memorial Hospital, and the laundry room scene with the Demodogs. A twisted, glowing portal acts as an exit from the hospital, and right into the large MAC-Z showdown room. Here, a Demogorgon arrives on top of a moving Humvee. Turning left from the Humvee encounter reveals the iconic showdown between Will and a Demogorgon, with Will literally snapping the Demogorgon’s limbs.
From the large MAC-Z showdown, we make our way to the vision/illusion of Hopper shooting Eleven in a tank at the Hawkins National Laboratory. Both Vecna and Hopper are in this scene, and water is flowing out of the recently shot sensory deprivation tank. The next hallway takes us into the melting lab. Just like the show, the walls are covered with melting material, and some of the victims may not be as dead as they seem at first!
We’re then transported to Dimension X where we see the backs of the four boys as they look out toward the Mind Flayer/Pain Tree. From there, we enter the belly/insides of the Pain Tree to find Venca suspended above us as Holly Wheeler tries to break free.
Just like the show, we get a showdown between Eleven and Vecna next. After passing by Eleven, we enter the next room where we find Joyce Byers with an axe, standing over Vecna. Finally, the house closes out with Eleven seen in the distance, sacrificing herself, disappearing into the collapsing Upside Down…or did she?
A Decade in Hawkins Comes to an End
Michael Aiello, Senior Director of Entertainment Creative Development, and Lora Sauls, Assistant Director of Creative Development and Show Direction, discussed the Stranger Things 5 haunted house at a media preview panel. It’s one of five all-new IP houses at Halloween Horror Nights 35. Aiello framed the house as the conclusion of a decade-long relationship between Halloween Horror Nights and Netflix. This partnership covered every season of Stranger Things since the show began. Sauls noted that Universal started with a house around season one. Then seasons two and three were merged together, before Vecna joined the event with season four. When Stranger Things wrapped its story with season five, the team wanted in on that final chapter. Thankfully, Netflix welcomed the collaboration again.
Sauls said the creative team made a deliberate choice about what to adapt from a season packed with emotional payoffs. Rather than compress the show’s character arcs into a walkthrough, the house leans into the monsters instead. It is a haunted house, after all. Demogorgons and Demodogs are stationed throughout, with Vecna recurring across multiple rooms. Sauls described the approach as pulling from the season’s more violent sequences rather than its quieter emotional moments. A monster-driven adaptation is intended to be a more relentless scare-to-scare experience than one built around dialogue or emotional plot.
The panel also pointed to a technical milestone five years in the making. Aiello said the creative team had wanted a fully flowering Demogorgon since the very first Stranger Things house, but the technology to pull it off wasn’t there for a Halloween Horror Nights house. This year’s house uses animatronics to bring a Demogorgon to life in front of guests. Aiello tied that breakthrough to a broader push this year toward more ambitious physical effects across the event’s IP and original houses.
Sauls singled out the house’s MAC-Z scene as the largest set piece anywhere in Halloween Horror Nights 35. The room recreates the moment from season five when Will taps into his power and tears a Demogorgon apart. It’s staged around an animatronic Demogorgon that breaks apart.
Stranger Things 5 Haunted House Photos
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