Halloween Horror Nights is the world’s premier Halloween event, taking place over multiple nights during spooky season at several Universal theme parks, with a selection of haunted houses, scare zones and gothic entertainment.
This year at both Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood, Ozzy Osbourne will have his own special haunted house attraction as a tribute to the Prince Of Darkness.
Lora Sauls – assistant director of creative development and show direction for art, design and entertainment at Universal Orlando – talks us through what to expect.
Tell us about the new Ozzy Osbourne house at Halloween Horror Nights.
Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness. That’s been a very special project. Our senior show director, Charles Gray, is a huge Ozzy Osbourne fan. He was in a rock band in the 80s. Charles had long hair, sang very similarly to Ozzy Osbourne. So he’s a huge fan. So when we were brought the opportunity to honour Ozzy and celebrate his most famous albums and all those album covers… and that’s what the house is based on, the ideas of all those album covers.
So you’re going into a very Gothic church or temple-like [structure], you’re going to see above you the Ozzy Osbourne symbol, Ozzy is there with all of his cloaked minions or followers. There’s vision pools that you’re seeing some of his concerts and you're seeing him on stage in, and then you go into the dungeons and you’re seeing him in the dungeon – Patient Number 9, if you will.
Then what I love is you're going to see an oversized bat eat the head off of a human. Role reversal in such a good way. You're going into the cemetery and seeing Ozzy as the werewolf. You’re gonna see the Crazy Train and get on the Crazy Train with Ozzy as the conductor of the Crazy Train.
And you end with Ozzy on his throne from his very last concert. We got the assets of that throne, so you're going to see the Prince Of Darkness on his throne with his dragon beside him. I love the dancing demons – female dancing demons that are very 80s-inspired, they’re amazing – that are kind of leading up to that throne. Then there’s a very special final scare in that scene. So we think there’s going to be a lot of people that have an emotional connection to this house. It is an absolutely gorgeous house. It checks all the gothic, horror box off for us. It is beautiful.
Did the process for the house begin after he passed?
It was. Last year's Halloween Horror Nights, one of the final weeks in Hollywood [October 2025]. Jack Osbourne went to the Hollywood event, and he talked to John Murdy [Creative Director of Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood] about wanting to do something with HHN again. Because John did an Ozzy house many, many, many years ago [Black Sabbath: 13-3D in 2013]. So he had that relationship with them. We meet with John three or four times a week – so we're constantly in communication with John Murdy on the West Coast – and he brought that to us and we're like, ‘Yes, definitely, we'd love to do that.’
So both coasts got on a teams meeting with Jack, and we were like, ‘We definitely want to do it. We want to do it on both coasts.’ Jack was very jazzed about that. He was so jazzed that he’s like, ‘Can we do different houses on both coasts?’ So honestly, the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness house on both coasts are the most different of all of our IP houses.
Now, there are some similarities. You’re gonna get on the Crazy Train in both houses and you’re going to see some similarities. But he was the one that really was like, ‘I would love to see two different takes.’ He even had a joke for the Orlando team. He's like, ‘Why don't you use the [Hogwarts] train and just turn that into the Crazy Train?’ And we're like, ‘We can't do that. But hey, you know, good idea…’ But no, he was very jazzed.
Honestly, it's been an honour – every week we are on a teams meeting with Sharon Osborne and she is approving everything herself. Which is so cool. It is so cool. And she’s so jazzed about it.
Have the Osbourne’s walked through the set builds yet?
Not yet. I don’t think they're coming to Orlando yet, but we’re taking some of their team through it in a couple weeks. But we’re really hopeful that we get either Jack or Sharon or both at both openings because Orlando opens a week before Hollywood. So you can feasibly do both. So we’re very hopeful that they'll come our way to Universal Orlando for our opening.
We did hear that they were going to put the billboard in Hollywood near their Hollywood home. They were so jazzed by that. I don’t know where their Hollywood home is, but they said two streets and Sharon’s like, “Oh, that's perfect. That's so close to home.” She was so delighted about where they were placing that billboard.
The Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness haunted houses open on August 28 at Universal Orlando Resort and September 3 at Universal Studios Hollywood
