Universal Orlando Resort’s 2026 Halloween Horror Nights is bringing Hellraiser to the event with a haunted house built around the franchise’s Lament Configuration puzzle box.
According to Universal Orlando Senior Director of Entertainment Creative Development Mike Aiello, guests enter through a towering recreation of the box, positioned as a threshold into the experience. The house draws from Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart and the films it inspired.
Inside, the maze includes scenes and characters from the Hellraiser world, including 10 versions of Pinhead. Universal’s Lora Sauls said several figures can trigger prerecorded dialogue voiced by Doug Bradley, who played the character in the films. Other Cenobites named by the creative team include The Chatterer, Butterball, Deep Throat and The Doctor.
The attraction also features settings tied to characters including Frank, Julia, Dr. Channard and J.P. Monroe, along with effects such as automated floating chains and projection technology Universal said it was testing in a haunted house.
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Universal said the path to adapting Hellraiser took about a decade, in part because rights to older horror properties can be complicated. Aiello and Sauls said the team worked with Barker and other parties connected to the films while developing the house.
The new maze continues Halloween Horror Nights’ long history of adapting horror stories and films, from Psycho and The Exorcist to Universal Classic Monsters. Universal’s creative team also said it remains open to more author-driven haunted houses in the future, though Edgar Allan Poe’s Nevermore: The Madness of Poe remains the event’s only house centered on a single author.
