Last time I walked through a haunted house that gave me unshakable chills…last time I seen the sun. That’s not exactly what Stack said in the iconic final scene of Proximity Media’s award-winning hit film “Sinners,” but the sentiments behind the messaging feel about the same (to me).
Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) at Universal Orlando Resort returns August 28 for another year of striking fear within the hearts and minds of horror lovers and scaredy-cats alike, and coming with it is one haunted house that is nothing short of sinful: Sinners.
Brotherly love, razor-sharp fangs, conniving vampires, and a not-so-“lively” night at the juke joint await you at HHN 2026. Here’s a brief rundown of what’s in store:
- In the Sinners haunted house at this year’s HHN at Universal, you’ll come face-to-face with iconic characters from the “Sinners” film, including Smoke, Stack, “Preacher Boy” Sammie, Mary, Delta Slim, Annie, Remmick, and more.
- The Sinners HHN house will also include notable scenes from the “Sinners” film, such as “The Surreal Montage” including “I Lied to You” and “Rocky Road to Dublin” as you venture through the haunted house.
- On top of thrilling behind-the-scenes details, you’ll get an exclusive look at Proximity Media founders Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian’s thoughts on the “Sinners” film’s feature as a haunted house at HHN.
The Story Behind “Sinners”
If you haven’t seen “Sinners,” I’d say you’re missing out and should probably fix that, like, yesterday. Luckily for you, this film-turned haunted house experience at Halloween Horror Nights comes pretty close to the (sur)real deal, but I still think having a little background on what you’re getting yourself into is beneficial:
Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Sinners” (2025) is set in 1930s Clarksdale, Mississippi, following identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack, commonly regarded as the Smokestack twins.
Returning to their hometown in an attempt to leave behind their troubled lives as mobsters in Chicago, they find that an evil greater than anything the mind can conceive awaits them with a welcome that is far from warm.
Unaware of what sins lie ahead, Smoke and Stack embark on a quest to open a juke joint for the local African American community in Mississippi. Joining the twins is their younger cousin, “Preacher Boy” Sammie, a passionate blues singer with a knack for the guitar and a pastor father who finds his son’s music of choice “ungodly.”
To help bring the juke joint to life, the Smokestack twins recruit Delta Slim as a performer, shopkeepers Grace and Bo Chow as food suppliers, field worker Cornbread as a bouncer, and Annie, Smoke’s estranged wife, as a cook.
Coming along for this soon-to-be wild ride is Stack’s ex-girlfriend Mary. Little do they know, vampire Remmick and his newly turned vampire thrall couple are on their way to shake things up!
The bloodbath that unfolds in the “Sinners” film is not for the faint of heart — and neither is the Sinners house at HHN. I hope you’re ready to live the night like it’s your last, because thanks to this haunted house, it just might be!
What to Expect from Sinners at HHN 2026
If you aren’t easily deterred by gushing blood, deathly sharp fangs, and vampires with an insatiable thirst for human flesh, then keep reading. If you are easily deterred by all of that…still keep reading!
You know how the movie goes and have an idea of what the haunted house will look like, but let’s get into the nitty gritty of what you can expect to see in the Sinners house this HHN 2026.
Ramon Paradoa, a show director with Universal Orlando’s creative development group, is our resident expert on all things HHN. When tasked with taking “Sinners” from the big screen to the theme park, Ramon says he was “through-the-roof excited.”
“Right off the bat, we knew that this house was tailor-made for Halloween Horror Nights,” Ramon says. “Once we knew that we were adapting it for a haunted house, we knew it would be a challenge — but a challenge that we were really, really excited about.”
Ramon and the entertainment team’s primary objective was finding a way to accurately portray the “Sinners” film in the form of a haunted house while preserving the cultural impact it had on its viewers.
“How do we represent as many of these iconic moments … in a haunted house experience that is still scary and that is still achieving what we love to do at HHN?” Ramon says. “It was a unique challenge to check all of those boxes and to create an experience that the fans and people who love this movie would appreciate, but also something that was going to be a horrific experience for our guests at Halloween Horror Nights.”
The Best Scenes from “Sinners”
When Ramon says “check all those boxes,” he means it. Right from the drawing board, Ramon and Manuel Cordero, senior designer at Universal Orlando, immediately knew that there was one scene from the “Sinners” film that they had to get right: “The Surreal Montage” including “I Lied to You.”
“Once we decided how we were going to achieve the spectacle of that particular scene, we started designing the scenes before it and after it, which isn’t something we always do for our houses,” Ramon says.
Another challenge Ramon and his team faced while developing the Sinners haunted house was ensuring the iconic moments from the film possess the fear factor needed to stand as a true haunted house in the world’s premier Halloween event.
Fans of “Sinners” know the “Rocky Road to Dublin” scene all too well. This driving track you hear in the film, Ramon says, “doesn’t necessarily scream a song you’d hear in a haunted house.” Yet, he and his team overcame the hurdle and found a way to bring this moment to life.
“The scares are really heavy hitting and have very horrific elements to them to counteract the song playing from the soundtrack of the film,” Ramon says.
From Start…
Step into the Clarksdale train station and catch familiar faces Preacher Boy on guitar and Delta Slim on harmonica via video effects. As you continue through the house, you’ll find the Smokestack twins waiting around the corner chatting each other up about the grand opening of the juke joint.
While these brothers are deep in conversation, you’ll stumble upon a remote farmhouse where Remmick descends and stirs up a bloody massacre of vampiric proportions.
Trekking through cornstalks in the countryside with a fearsome Remmick and newly turned vampire thralls trailing not far behind, you’ll make your way to the juke joint on its big opening night.
Thanks to Manuel’s artistic expertise, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped foot into the real, live juke joint from the film. “We created it in a very interesting way,” he says. “We call that false perspective where we kind of … designed it in a clever way so that it feels larger than it is.”
As you approach the outside of this lively club, sounds of the chorus of “I Lied to You” fill the air. Inside, Preacher Boy sings his heart out on stage while shadows of spirits from the future and past hover above him. The fire inside him quickly goes from figurative to literal, and chaos ensues.
…to Finish
With walls aflame and the juke joint in shambles, Remmick and his freshly fanged crew make their grand entrance and unleash their wrath upon all the innocent clubbers. “It’s very ambitious,” Ramon says. “There’s a lot of moving pieces and a lot of elements and things for our guests to take in, but I think ultimately, I love how we pulled it off.”
“Pulled it off” is a grave understatement, if you ask me. “Sinners” is an emotionally impactful film, and being able to twist those emotions into something that drives a live horror experience is commendable in its own right.
“What makes this house special and unique to anything we’ve ever done before is that … it presents these characters that you can resonate with,” Ramon says. “It celebrates not only music, but it celebrates the importance of culture and embracing your culture, embracing the past, embracing your ancestry — all those kinds of things — but it also gives you a really good vampire story that is well executed and you can tell is created by someone who admires the craft and admires the horror genre like Ryan Coogler does.”
While still sure to be a terrifying experience, Ramon says he expects the Sinners haunted house to hit those emotions a little harder than past houses have done.
“I think when people see these characters, these moments, these environments brought to life — I think it’s going to strike a different kind of chord when they see it in the flesh in person,” Ramon says. “And I am so honored to get to bring that to life.”
From Theater Screens to Haunted House Scenes
It’s not every day your award-winning film goes from culturally connecting with its fans from the big screen to bringing those experiences to the haunting hallways of a Halloween Horror Nights house. For Proximity Media founders Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian, however, this is what their reality has transformed into since the release of “Sinners.”
The Proximity Media founders were thrilled to learn their film would come to have a place in Universal’s famed Halloween event. “It felt surreal,” they say. “From the beginning, we wanted to build a world that audiences could lose themselves in, so seeing ‘Sinners’ evolve into an experience people can physically step inside is both humbling and incredibly exciting. It’s a testament to the incredible work of everyone involved and to the fans who have embraced the film in such a meaningful way.”
Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian admire the work that goes into making HHN happen and hope the Sinners haunted house creates a new experience for guests and fans alike.
“We’re excited for fans to experience the story from an entirely new perspective, and we’re grateful to the Halloween Horror Nights team for giving us the opportunity to weigh in and collaborate directly on bringing that live experience to life,” they say. “They have an incredible ability to translate cinematic worlds into unforgettable experiences, and they’ve captured the tension, mystery and emotional stakes that define ‘Sinners.’ We hope guests leave feeling the same adrenaline, suspense and sense of discovery that we set out to create on screen.”
How thrilled are you to walk through the Sinners haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights 2026 at Universal Orlando Resort? Tell us all about it in the comments below!