Nightmare Wharf, the NEW Halloween experience debuting this fall at Buffalo Naval Park revealed the themes for its three themed attractions: Project Blackwater inside the USS Little Rock, The Infected District, and The Boneyard midway. A cinematic trailer is also out.

Buffalo, NY — The Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park is turning historic naval vessels and the city’s waterfront into three themed scarescapes for the inaugural Nightmare Wharf Halloween event this fall, and tickets are on sale now. We first covered the event when it was announced, but now we have details on the event’s three themed attractions, a preview trailer, and ticket options.

Nightmare Wharf’s Debuts Three Themed Attractions

Project Blackwater takes place deep within the USS Little Rock and is described by the operator as “a Cold War era descent into paranoia, classified experimentation, and maritime horror.”

The Infected District is a “fog-soaked Victorian era waterfront outbreak zone where the dead roam beneath gaslight and industrial ruin.”

The Boneyard anchors the event as “a chaotic midway of twisted sideshow energy, roaming monsters, live entertainment, themed concessions, and the darker heart of Nightmare Wharf.”

The Naval Park described the event in its release as transforming portions of the waterfront and historic fleet “into a cinematic, story-driven Halloween experience blending theatrical environments, live performers, immersive effects, and the uniquely atmospheric interiors of the historic ships themselves.” The Naval Park said the event has been built to lean into “the industrial architecture, steel passageways, mechanical spaces, and atmosphere that make the Naval Park one of the most visually distinctive destinations in the region.”

A cinematic trailer for the event is available on YouTube.

Part of a Larger Plan

“This is about more than Halloween,” said Brian Luallen, president and CEO of the Buffalo Naval Park. “It is about placemaking, audience development, and helping ensure the long-term sustainability of one of Buffalo’s most important cultural assets. Nightmare Wharf is designed to create an experience that is uniquely Buffalo and uniquely tied to the atmosphere, history, and authenticity of this waterfront and these historic ships.”

Bob Pecoraro, chairman of the board of directors, framed the event as part of a wider museum-ship and historic-attraction model. “Few places in America can offer an experience like this,” Pecoraro said. “Museum ships and historic attractions across the country have successfully used immersive events like this to expand audiences and support preservation efforts, and the Naval Park has discussed opportunities like Nightmare Wharf for years. We finally have the right team and the right vision to bring it to life.”

The Naval Park said revenue from Nightmare Wharf will directly support its broader mission, including preservation initiatives, educational programming, public events, and ongoing stewardship of the historic fleet. The Park also flagged the launch as arriving at a “critical time” as the organization continues navigating major preservation, remediation, and future drydocking efforts involving portions of the fleet.

Park officials said the experience was designed with attention to safety, historic preservation standards, and operational compatibility aboard the vessels, and that scenic and technical installations are “temporary and reversible elements consistent with preservation best practices.”

Event details

Tickets for Nightmare Wharf are on sale now. The Naval Park said additional attraction details, operating dates, themed events, and special experiences will be announced throughout the summer. The Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park is the nation’s largest inland naval park and the home of four U.S. Naval vessels: USS The Sullivans, USS Little Rock, USS Croaker, and PTF-17. For more information, visit BuffaloNavalPark.org.

Orlando, FL — Registration is now open for IAAPA Expo 2026, and the Halloween-themed Haunting Grounds area will move into the Orange County Convention Center’s West Building as part of the show’s largest footprint to date. The Expo runs Nov. 16-20, 2026.

The West Building expansion is the headline structural change for the 2026 show, and it is where most of the haunt-relevant programming will live. In addition to Haunting Grounds, the West Building will host the Food & Beverage Pavilion, which has doubled in size and will feature live chef demonstrations, and the EDUTalk Stage. Two new venues debut in the same building: the What’s New Theater and the Young Professionals Hub.

Haunting Grounds

Haunting Grounds is IAAPA Expo’s dedicated Halloween-and-haunt area, where vendors specific to the haunted attraction industry exhibit alongside themed activations and education. HAN’s 2025 coverage of Haunting Grounds covered the area’s role as the haunt industry’s annual touchpoint inside the broader attractions trade show. IAAPA has not yet released the full Haunting Grounds exhibitor list or programming slate for 2026.

The move to the West Building puts Haunting Grounds in the same hall as the expanded Food & Beverage Pavilion and the EDUTalk Stage, which should change the flow attendees take through the show.

What’s new in the South Building

IAAPA Expo will also debut two new themed lounges in the South Building. The Cruise Lounge will serve as a dedicated networking space for attendees tracking the cruise industry, and the Glamping Lounge will host networking and discussions for the nature and adventure parks segment.

The South Building continues to anchor the show’s traditional networking lineup: behind-the-scenes EDUTours, sector-specific receptions, and ticketed events including the Leadership Breakfast and the Women in the Industry Networking Lunch.

What IAAPA leadership said

“IAAPA Expo remains the place where the global attractions community comes together to discover new ideas, build relationships, and shape the future of our industry,” said Todd Andrus, executive director and vice president for IAAPA North America. “With the addition of the West Building, we’re able to create an even more dynamic experience for our members and attendees, one that offers expanded opportunities for business growth, professional development, and collaboration across every segment of the attractions industry.”

Luciana Periales, president and CEO of Neverland Parks and chair of the IAAPA Board of Directors, said the Expo’s value comes from its global cross-section. “IAAPA Expo is one of the few locations where attractions professionals from around the world come together under one roof. As an operator from Latin America, I have experienced firsthand the value of learning from colleagues across different markets, cultures, and sectors. The connections made at IAAPA Expo often spark new ideas, partnerships, and innovations that continue to shape our businesses long after the event concludes.”

IAAPA Celebrates returns to Epic Universe

IAAPA Celebrates, the Expo’s flagship member event, returns to Universal Epic Universe for 2026. The all-inclusive evening at Universal Orlando’s newest park gives IAAPA members access to the park’s attractions, food and beverage, and entertainment as a networking and after-hours event.

Event details

IAAPA Expo 2026 runs Nov. 16-20, 2026, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. The 2026 edition will be the largest in the show’s history, with more than 1,100 exhibiting companies and more than 170 expert-led education sessions across operations, technology, guest experience, safety, sustainability, and more. Registration and additional information are available at iaapa.org/expos-and-events/iaapa-expo.

Universal Orlando Resort announced that an H.R. Bloodengutz haunted house will run at Halloween Horror Nights 2026, the character’s first headlining house in 15 years. The new house, “H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular!”, is a direct sequel to the 2011 fan-favorite “H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror,” with the original actor reprising the role.

“Tune into a curated selection of H.R. Bloodengutz’ Halloween favorites in this haunted house complete with ghouls, gore and all the frights that keep you coming back for more,” Universal said in its announcement on the u/HorrorNightsORL social channels.

The house is exclusive to Universal Studios Florida and is the fourth of 10 houses Universal has revealed for HHN 2026.

About the House

The sequel picks up 15 years after the original 2011 house. Bloodengutz has finally broken out of the Carey Penitentiary on Halloween Day and returned to the derelict WKNB television studio to present a marathon of straight-to-TV Halloween films he never got to showcase. The house is structured around seven scenes corresponding to seven horror movies the host presents, some of which are callbacks to HHN’s past, according to HHN show director Ramón Paradoa in an exclusive interview with Bloody Disgusting. Teased scenes include a black-and-white zombie film in an old graveyard and a Halloween party in a tiki bar overtaken by monsters.

Paradoa told Bloody Disgusting that Universal worked with “the original actor who played Bloodengutz in 2011 to reprise his role,” delivering “an authentic, older version of the character.” Bloodengutz appears in queue-line and interstitial video between scenes, ushering guests into each movie, in the same horror-host framing used in the 2011 house. Universal has not publicly named the performer.

Paradoa described the slate this way: “We call these houses Halloween comfort food, and we’ve done them throughout the course of our history, and this house checks off that vibe.” The Halloween-only focus is a departure from the 2011 original, which spanned holidays from Valentine’s Day to Christmas.

About the Character

H.R. Bloodengutz is a Universal Orlando original, created in-house for HHN 21 in 2011. In HHN lore, the character is the on-air persona of Larry Kurtzberg, a washed-up Broadway actor who became the unstable host of WKNB Channel 21’s “Midnight Horror Show” in the fictional town of Carey, Ohio, and was imprisoned after killing his producer on a final live broadcast. The name is a parody of the Sid & Marty Krofft children’s series “H.R. Pufnstuf,” and the character’s look and cadence are modeled on Al Lewis’s Grandpa Munster.

The character last appeared as a cameo in HHN 30’s anniversary house “Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland” in 2021. He also surfaced earlier this year at Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas, where the spring Feaster Grievings event revealed Larry Kurtzberg to be The Feaster Bunny, a callback to one of the fake films from the 2011 holiday house. The cross-property reveal tied UHU’s year-round programming to HHN’s shared mythology.

Halloween Horror Nights 2026

Halloween Horror Nights 2026 marks the event’s 35th anniversary under the theme “Infernal Carnival of Nightmares,” with Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow returning as co-icons. The first house Universal Orlando announced for the season was “Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control.” Universal has since announced a Sinners haunted house at both Orlando and Hollywood and a Stranger Things haunted house at both coasts drawing from the show’s fifth and final season. Six houses remain to be announced.

Event details

Halloween Horror Nights 2026 runs select nights Aug. 28 through Nov. 1 at Universal Studios Florida, and Sept. 3 through Nov. 1 at Universal Studios Hollywood. The H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! house is exclusive to the Orlando event. Tickets are on sale now. For more information, visit UniversalOrlando.com/HHN.

Hersheypark has announced auditions for the 2026 season of Dark Nights, with three days of casting calls running June 18 through June 20 at an off-site location at 27 Northeast Drive in Hershey, Pennsylvania, between the Dunkin' and Starbucks.

Thursday runs All-Star Interview Sessions from 2:00 to 8:00 PM, while Friday (12:00 to 6:00 PM) and Saturday (9:00 AM to 3:00 PM) host open auditions for both alumni and new performers.

The day-of programming includes lawn games, music, group audition sessions, new hire onboarding, production Q&As, and a Father's Day cook-off for Saturday participants.

Apply here: https://form.jotform.com/EpicEntGroup/dn26-audition-appointments

Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood will both feature a haunted house based on the 2025 Ryan Coogler vampire horror film Sinners at Halloween Horror Nights 2026, Universal announced. The cross-park reveal makes Sinners the second haunted house confirmed for the Orlando event and the first confirmed for Hollywood.

About the Haunted House

Both versions of the house are set inside Club Juke, the 1930s Mississippi juke joint at the center of the film, with the Smokestack Twins facing a vampire attack.

 The Orlando version opens as “libations flow freely, and guitar screams fill the air at the Smokestack Twins’ juke joint” before “Remmick’s troop of bloodthirsty vampires crash the party.”

The Hollywood version is similar: “This juke joint’s opening night might be your last. Pierce the veil and experience the horror of the film Sinners as the Smokestack Twins defend Club Juke from a hive mind of bloodthirsty vampires.”

The two coasts typically run different versions of shared houses each year, though Universal has not specified whether that will be the case for Sinners.

 

About Sinners

Sinners is the 2025 vampire horror film written, produced, and directed by Ryan Coogler.

 Set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow era, Sinners follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack Moore, who return to their hometown to open a juke joint after years away. On opening night, the club is besieged by a group of vampires led by Remmick, drawn to the supernatural musical talent of the twins' young cousin. The film blends vampire horror with the folklore and history of Delta blues and uses the genre to explore the legacy of Black art and its appropriation in American culture.

Sinners earned 16 Academy Award nominations at the 2026 ceremony, the most for any film in Oscar history. It won four, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan. The film also won Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards, Outstanding Film at the Black Reel Awards, and Best Film and Best Director at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists awards.

 

Halloween Horror Nights 2026

Halloween Horror Nights 2026 marks the event’s 35th anniversary under the theme “Infernal Carnival of Nightmares,” with Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow returning as co-icons. Universal Orlando previously revealed the first original haunted house for the season, “Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control,” at a MegaCon panel earlier this spring. That house tells the origin story of the rivalry between the two characters from Oddfellow’s perspective.

 

Halloween Horror Nights runs select nights Aug. 28 - Nov. 1, 2026, at Universal Studios Florida and Sept. 3 - Nov. 1, 2026, at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Branson, MO — Field of Screams Nixa is opening a new indoor haunted attraction inside Ballparks of America in Branson on Sept. 11. The new operation, Field of Screams Branson, will run roughly 40,000 square feet at launch under a multi-year sublease from Ballparks of America, with a plan to grow to 100,000 square feet.

The Branson site is the company’s first indoor attraction. The outdoor Field of Screams Nixa haunt, the operator’s main attraction at 2142 N Sports Complex Lane in Nixa, will continue to run in the fall.

About Field of Screams Branson

The Branson location will occupy the former Red Roof Mall building inside the Ballparks of America campus. The launch attraction is called the 9th Inning Nightmare, a nod to the baseball venue. Owner Derrick Moore told OzarksFirst.com that the sets will be on a cinematic scale to match the larger-than-life vibe of Branson’s other attractions.

“For a long time, we’ve wanted to create something truly special in Branson… something fun, exciting, creative, and honestly a little terrifying,” Moore told the outlet. “We couldn’t have found a better place to do it.”

Field of Screams Nixa Remains Open

The Branson expansion is in addition to, not in place of, the existing outdoor haunt. The operator told supporters on the company’s official Facebook page that “Field of Screams Nixa is NOT going anywhere” and that the original Nixa haunt is returning for the 2026 season with “new scares, new experiences, and even more nightmares.” Guests can attend either or both locations; the company described them as “two completely different experiences.”

Event dates and ticketing

Field of Screams Branson opens Sept. 11 and runs through the end of October. The schedule is Fridays and Saturdays in September, then Thursdays through Sundays in October. Moore told OzarksFirst.com that a Christmas-Halloween crossover event is also planned later in the year. Ticket pricing has not yet been announced; ticket giveaways and sneak peeks are coming via the new social channels.

For more information, visit the Field of Screams Branson page or the operator’s Nixa website.

Field of Screams (Mountville, PA) is opening its gates Saturday, May 2, for a Halfway to Halloween event built around a full-day music festival and two of its haunted attractions. A single Fright Pass covers five bands, the Den of Darkness horror barn, and the Frightmare Asylum haunted hospital. The Haunted Hayride and Nocturnal Wasteland will not be open for the event.

The music festival is new for 2026 and runs from 1:00 p.m. through the evening. The lineup includes Zenith, Basic Cable, Bark at the Moon (Ozzy Osbourne tribute), American Grim, and headliner Adrenalize (Def Leppard tribute). Gates open at 12:30 p.m. with the Chainsaw Bar beer garden, food trucks, axe throwing, 5-Minute Escape Rooms, games, and the Scream Shop. The two haunts run from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Also new for 2026 is a Respawn Option, which lets guests go back through either haunted house for $5 per person.

The event doubles as a preview of changes Field of Screams has made ahead of its September 11 opening day. Tickets are available at fieldofscreams.com/tickets.

Universal Studios Hollywood (Universal City, CA) has announced the food and merchandise lineup for Universal Fan Fest Nights 2026, and the headline items are tied to the event's signature backlot experience, Scooby-Doo Meets The Universal Monsters: Mystery on the Backlot.

The walk-through attraction sends guests via Studio Tour tram to Universal's historic backlot, where they join Scooby-Doo, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy in solving a mystery involving Frankenstein, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man across Little Europe's cobblestone streets and the Court of Miracles, the original filming locations for Frankenstein (1931) and The Wolf Man (1941).

Throughout Little Europe, guests will find two Scooby-Doo items, Scooby Snacks and a Super Shaggy Sandwich, which Universal describes as "a stacked club sandwich sharable with your own Mystery Gang," alongside a Universal Monsters 22" Dog. The menu, curated by Executive Chef Julia Thrash, also covers ONE PIECE, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Dungeons & Dragons, and SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, with an expanded Sanji's Galley at Hollywood & Dine and a new Grand Pirate Den bar. Four Universal CityWalk restaurants will also run limited-time themed offerings: NBC Sports Grill & Brew (ONE PIECE), Voodoo Doughnut (Scooby-Doo), The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon), and Vivo Italian Kitchen (DUNGEONS & DRAGONS).

For the first time, Fan Fest Nights will offer a Universal Fan Fest Nights Dining Pass, which covers six items on a visit date for a single price, including two entrées and four sides, snacks, desserts, or beverages. Hollywood debuted a Halloween Horror Nights Dining Pass in 2025, and the mechanic is now moving into the spring event in its second year.

Food has become a meaningful revenue lever at Universal's hard-ticket events. Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando has expanded themed food stalls tied to its haunted houses, and the Premium Scream Night ticket, which expanded to two nights this year, offers unlimited food as one of its primary benefits. The ticket gets guests in the door, but the real margin at a long-night event lies in food, beverage, merchandise, and premium tours. Bundling F&B into a prepaid pass lifts per-cap spend, locks in revenue before the event night, and removes guest friction when lines get long. Most dining passes at seasonal events are an upsell tied to a season and included with annual passes, but Fan Fest Nights is a separately ticketed event, which makes the bundle a different kind of per-cap play. Universal Fan Fest Nights runs April 23 to 25, May 1 to 3, May 7 to 9, and May 14 to 16, 2026.

MORE: https://hauntedattractionnetwork.com/scooby-doo-universal-monsters-food-lead-fest-nights-2026-menu-dining-pass-debuts/