Spooky season is creeping up, and in Singapore, one of the biggest fixtures on the Halloween calendar is undoubtedly Universal Studios Singapore’s (USS) Halloween Horror Nights (HHN), which returns for its 14th edition across 18 select nights from 25 Sept to 1 Nov 2026.
This year’s edition comes with four haunted houses, two immersive zones, three live shows, and a new roving scare experience, along with enough costumes, prosthetics, and other nightmare fuel to keep things suitably grotesque.
MS News got an early look at the event during a recent media preview for Resorts World Sentosa’s (RWS) wider Festival of Thrills, including a sneak peek inside two haunted houses and an introduction to some of the characters doing their darndest to make visitors jump out of their skin.
Here are five things to know about HHN 14 before the screaming begins.
Nowhere in the park is safe.
That was how Gemma Lefaucheur, HHN Creative Director at RWS, cheekily summed things up.
While the haunted houses and scare zones are still the main event, Ms Lefaucheur told MS News that the team has put more thought into the “spaces between the main experiences”, with the aim of “bringing a whole new level of terror in unexpected areas”.
For instance, a ghoulish version of the Karang Guni Man and Pontianak-inspired Fatimah Rockers will be wandering around with no fixed spot, so you never quite know when one might suddenly show up.
The Ancient Egypt zone is getting an extra dose of the creeps, too, with projection mapping across one of its façades bringing darker legends to life, something Ms Lefaucheur said the team has never done in that part of the park before.
In other words, successfully making it out of a haunted house does not necessarily mean you get a breather outside.
Then again, being scared out of your wits in a completely safe environment is what All Hallows’ Eve is all about, isn’t it?
Previous editions of HHN have featured a wide range of themes. Just last year, visitors could step into the world of ‘Stranger Things’ and come face to face with Japanese demons in The Realm of Yokai scare zone.
This year, however, the horrors hit much closer to home.
The reason is simple: Ms Lefaucheur said original local content consistently ranks among the highest with fans year after year, which led the team to “dig deep into the roots of Asian horror”.
That explains the debut of Ponti-Ana, a new HHN character inspired by the Pontianak, which Ms Lefaucheur called “the greatest ghost of all time”, aka “the GOAT”.
Rather than going with the more traditional image of a gruesome, wraith-like spirit, however, the team wanted to give her a more modern spin. The result is a decidedly cuter, more doll-like character who still comes with a suitably macabre backstory.
In HHN 14 lore, Ponti-Ana was buried long ago with a sacred nail driven into the back of her neck. She is awakened by the pounding music at The Raveyard and, once the nail is removed, rises alongside the Fatimah Rockers as the “Scream Queen of the Undead”. Slay.
Joining her for his USS debut is HamiKuma, the cult-favourite zombie teddy bear from Universal Studios Japan, who somehow still manages to look oddly cuddly despite a decomposing body, one eye dangling from its socket, and innards spilling from his belly.
As you can probably imagine, there is plenty of manpower, make-up, and fake bodily fluid going into bringing characters like these to life.
Across HHN 14, scare actors will go through 340 sets of costumes, 108 wigs, and 90 Halloween masks, while some 250 litres of fake blood will be used across all 18 nights.
A team of 12 seamstresses produced the costumes, while the prosthetics took four months to sculpt, mould, and fabricate.
Once event night rolls around, make-up artists have an average of just 30 minutes per scare actor to complete the transformation before the haunting begins.
The Karang Guni Man may already have been something of a frightening childhood figure thanks to the old threat of being “sold off” for misbehaving, but HHN 14 turns him into something genuinely sinister.
After years of unwittingly collecting objects carrying their former owners’ misfortunes, the curses gradually possess him, turning his cluttered shophouse into a trap for new victims.
At the preview, we caught the tail end of his transformation, as 12 individual prosthetic pieces, a custom balding wig, rotting skin effects, and dabs of blood turned the harmless neighbourhood uncle into something much more menacing.
His shophouse is one of the haunted houses guests can wander through, by the way, and it is packed with 1,125 props, including cracked mirrors, abandoned dolls, and ritual objects.
We also met KHAOS, the theatrical demon presiding over Club PanDEMONium, and the TV Ghost, whose face is stretched into a permanent, toothy scream — easily one of the more unsettling creations we saw that night, judging by the horrified gasps when it was unveiled.
Besides the Karang Guni Man’s eerie shophouse, HHN 14 has three other haunted houses to wander through with dread and trepidation.
And these don’t just have random bloodied ghouls shoved into dark corners for the sake of a jumpscare. Each house has its own backstory, with plenty of thought and effort put into making the sets feel disturbingly believable.
In Singapore’s Most Haunted: On Air, the story centres on grisly reenactments of Singapore’s darkest legends that continue playing long after the studio has fallen into ruin.
Guests enter through a van that has crashed into the abandoned broadcast studio, before passing a dead news presenter slumped at her desk and doomed cast and crew still haunting the sets, waiting to pop out and say hi.
Made in Hell: XL Robotics, meanwhile, goes in a completely different direction.
Set inside a bioengineering and robotics facility where human lifeforce is harvested for AI (artificial immortality, that is), it swaps crumbling decay for sleek machinery, 3D-printed humanoid robots, and oversized animatronics.
It may look cleaner than your typical haunted house, but it is no less unnerving. The glowing neon lights, thick smoke, and cold industrial setting make the whole thing genuinely disorientating, like being dropped straight into a sci-fi horror film. And there’s still plenty of blood, bodies, and gore, of course.
Lastly, Chatterbox Charlie’s Vaudeville Horrors features the return of last year’s ventriloquist character and his dummy, Junior, whose minds have now become one as they turn their victims into gruesome versions of themselves.
What stood out most during the preview was how much attention had gone into details you might barely notice while in full survival mode: tall walls that make spaces feel more imposing, a collapsed ceiling with flickering fluorescent lights, and uneven surfaces that subtly throw you off balance.
So, it’s worth actually trying to look around if you dare. Otherwise, those who would rather admire the sets without someone lunging at them can opt for early-entry access, which opens Karang Guni: The Cursed Collection and Chatterbox Charlie’s Vaudeville Horrors from 6pm without scare actors.
If HHN 14 sounds a little too intense, USS is also running its much more family-friendly daytime Trick or Thrills programme from now till 1 Nov 2026, with Halloween activities aimed at a much broader crowd.
Minion Land will be dressed up for the season with jack-o’-lanterns and photo spots inspired by the lovable yellow troublemakers, while The Belloween Ball introduces Bride of Monster Bob.
Guests can also meet characters such as Kuromi in a special Halloween outfit, Shrek, Fiona, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Gru, and the Despicable Me girls, with candy giveaways happening around the park.
Visitors can tuck into Halloween-themed treats and browse Monster Bob and Sanrio merchandise, while those who prefer their monsters in souvenir form can pick up Ponti-Ana apparel and accessories, plus HamiKuma plush backpacks, popcorn buckets, headbands, and more.
Trick or Thrills is included with regular USS admission, with tickets priced from S$76 for adults and S$69 for children. Do note that this is separate from HHN 14 admission, which costs S$68 for non-peak nights and S$78 for peak nights.
HHN 14 is only one part of RWS’ wider Festival of Thrills, which runs from now till 1 Nov 2026 across the resort.
Over at Singapore Oceanarium, Into the Glowcean turns the space neon with marine-inspired installations by glass neon artist Megan Foo, aka Maegzter, alongside hands-on activities and themed performances.
It will also host the Oceanarium’s first-ever silent disco on 19 Sept, where guests can explore selected zones after hours while switching between music channels on wireless headphones.
Adventure Cove Waterpark gets its own Halloween spin, too. Legend Keepers: The Ocean Spirit Awakens sends families on an app-guided quest inspired by Singapore legends, while Pool Party Panic starts off as a neon pool party before turning into an interactive murder mystery once the lights go out.
At WEAVE, the thrills skew more towards racing and nightlife, with motorsport-themed displays, racing simulators, a Lenovo Gaming Zone, Halloween makeovers by M.A.C, and the Adrenaline Bar with race-inspired games and live music.
So, whether your preferred level of Halloween involves copious amounts of fake blood or just a Minion in costume, Festival of Thrills has a fairly wide spectrum covered.
For the full Festival of Thrills line-up, dates, and ticketing details, check out the RWS website.
Also read: Halloween Horror Nights returns to USS this September, early bird tickets start from S$58
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Featured image by MS News. Photography by Ian Zailee.