Our favorite time of year is almost upon us. That’s right. It’s Halloween ALL year, but it’s only Halloween Horror Nights for SOME of the time. And we can’t wait to return to the incredible world of fabulous mist, gore-gous horror, and incredible scares. Universal Orlando Resort is still announcing its full Halloween Horror Nights line-up. But so far, we could not be more enchanted. A Sinners House? We can hardly wait. And today, it’s Nerdist‘s honor to give you an exclusive look at a new original House coming to Halloween Horror Nights 2026 at Universal Orlando, INVASION: Alien Abduction. In the wake of this exciting House annoucement, we spoke to Charles Grey, one of the show directors and creators of this incredible House.
The description for Halloween Horror Nights’ 2026 INVASION: Alien Abduction House is simple enough, “Guests witness a terrifying encounter with an aggressive, unseen alien craft that has abducted a family and its livestock from a remote homestead…and they are now plotting to tear everyone apart.” But as we delved into its depths with Grey, we learned just how foundational, scary, unexpected, and NOVEL this House will be. These aren’t your campy, comedy aliens. Oh no. True horror is coming to Halloween Horror Nights in the form of INVASION: Alien Abduction House. And that’s complete with tentacles, claws, home invasion, claustrophobia, a vibrating floor, and an incredible amount of delicious chaos. Read our full interview with Charles Grey below and get excited for Halloween Horror Nights 2026 like never before.
Nerdist: We’re always so excited about Halloween Horror Nights, and especially the original houses, which are always so beautiful and so thoughtful. So it’s our pleasure to hear exclusively from you about INVASION: Alien Abduction. It feels like it’s been some time since we saw an original Halloween Horror Nights house take on aliens. What made it the right time to bring aliens back to your original houses?
Charles Grey: We’d actually been talking about this for, gosh, the last five years. And every time we got together as a group, because what we normally do is a bunch of us get together in a room and kind of toss ideas around for what’s best for which year, they’ve never quite made it to the forefront. The reason being is when you do the little gray men or the aliens, it can quickly get humorous. It can quickly get kitsche and cheesy. And we’ve done that type of house before or Scare Zone, too, but, in INVASION: Alien Abduction, we really wanted to tell a story of the horrific moment at night when they are coming to take you. And that’s frightening. We had talked about it and talked about it and finally, I think we came up with a story that really encapsulates that almost home invasion type of horror and fear.
But they have this technology and kind of layering out what the aggressors are. So yes, we have the little gray men, but also there’s different types of little gray men. As you go through the INVASION: Alien Abduction Halloween Horror Nights house, you won’t see the same character over and over again. We have a diverse group of aliens coming at you.
And then we also had the issue of “How do you create a giant, two-football-field-sized alien craft?” So what we decided to do is really use lights to become the character. And then also what is coming out of the ships is an important question?
So we have these big, giant tentacles. And then, out of those big giant tentacles, come these little organic claws that can puncture you, pull you into the ship. So it’s really gory, really violent, and just put that aesthetic on everything. And it really changed our story and we got very excited about it. And just one little nugget of difference, too. It’s always like some Midwestern place in these stories. We’re like, what if it takes place in the Southwest? So it’s got a little bit of that kind of turquoise and cactusy flavor to it. That’s the area where I kind of grew up. So I was like, oh, let’s do that.
Many original Halloween Horror Nights Houses connect into lore that’s been started or teased in other Houses or Scare Zones. Do you feel like INVASION: Alien Abduction connects directly into existing Halloween Horror Nights lore in any way, or is it starting new lore for you?
Charles Grey: Something interesting we’ve done in the past on anniversary years, because this will be an anniversary year for us… We always incorporate a lot of stories into past, but if you’ll notice, in our history, there’s usually one or two foundational news stories we’re telling during an anniversary year. And INVASION: Alien Abduction is one of those foundational stories. We didn’t want to tie it to anything because most of the event is tied to a something or another tale or a prequel or things like that. So we really wanted this to be the first chapter. And so we’re really excited about that. And then we’ll see what happens after this.
And speaking about the overall theme of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, the Infernal Carnival of Nightmares, how do you feel INVASION: Alien Abduction has fits into that stained glass window of Halloween Horror Nights this year?
Charles Grey: Well, between the two iconic aggressors we have of Jack and Oddfellow, they represent chaos and control, but are the two sides of the same coin really. And this one most definitely leans towards the chaos. It is super chaotic. We just did an audio walk last week and there’s this stuff all over the place and it’s a very particular audio that draws your attention one way, but then something chaotic’s happening over here. So we’re drawing your attention over here. It really ping pongs you through the experience and people are getting pulled up into the spaceship left and right. So it’s going to be awesome.
That sounds amazing. So you’re almost making these mini-movies when you create these Halloween Horror Nights Houses. What was the character design process like for all your different aliens here? Like you were saying, aliens can mean all kinds of things. There’s the stereotypical alien, but it sounds like you have a few kinds of aliens. What was the creature creation like for INVASION: Alien Abduction?
Charles Grey: Well, what we wanted to do is tap into people’s expectations, think about what they expect to see. And in a lot of stories, you always see the silhouette outline of the little gray man. So we took that, but then what’s inside the outline is not what you expect.
We get claws, teeth, just very horrific. So if you see it back lit, you’d be like, “Oh, this is what I expect to see. I’ve seen this before.” And then once you get closer, it gets really horrific, especially when they’re right on top of you.
I was especially curious about the part of the description that noted that the aliens abducted some livestock. Are we going to be possessed by alien, terrorized by possessed cows and how do you bring the animal aspect to life here?
Charles Grey: And again, when we were talking about how we create this and what’s the story we want to tell, are these aliens sinister? We thought that the scariest thing would be that they just don’t care. They’re grabbing animals, people. It’s almost like the little kid with the magnifying glass kind of thing. It’s just like they don’t see us as they’re not there to terrorize us. They’re there to take us and they don’t care what wall they puncture through, what kind of animal it is. They just want to do their experiments or whatever, but that’s what makes us so violent is these big tentacles just breaching through walls and grabbing whatever their heat-seeking device sees. So goats and cows and people, it doesn’t matter. They’re just grabbing them all.
Halloween Horror Nights is always evolving with its scares. I know you mentioned these grabbing tentacles in INVASION: Alien Abduction, but did you feel like you invented any kind of new scares or utilize any new technologies or effects in this?
Charles Grey: Yes, we have two new things, but I can’t talk about them. That’s the problem. I can’t give away the scare. But we have one technological thing we’re experimenting with this year and one new scare for this location. So I can say that much.
To me, some of the most resonant parts of Halloween Horror Nights is how you create a true immersion of horror. Can you tease any unexpected sensations we might encounter in the house like scents or textures or temperatures?
Charles Grey: One thing I can share is we found a way to use vibration and floors, so it’s a little bit, we’re trying to work with what you’re feeling below you. A lot of times with subwolfers or anything low tone, you feel how it kind of hits you in the chest, but a lot of times it just gets eaten up by the people and the scenic parts and things like that. We’re trying to incorporate it into the floor itself so that way you feel the ship and the power of the scanning lights just really shaking the house apart, which is actually part of the story as you go through scene by scene, you’ll see more and more destruction.
Can you give us an overall idea of how brave you need to be to go through this house? Do you think INVASION: Alien Abduction will be one of the scarier Houses at the park during this year’s Halloween Horror Nights?
Charles Grey: I do because I do because of the unexpected amount of gore and violence and also the tightness and levels of attack, we’ll say. I think we’ve done a good job of keeping things confined and feeling very close to you, which works to our advantage
We also did some video shoots and we created a unique way for these aliens to move, too. So they’re shuffling and moving in their own way, which is something that was fun to work with the performers on. And it looks really creepy when they’re moving towards you.
And gore wise, if you have a weak stomach, you should prepare?
Charles Grey: Yes, you’ll be hanging onto your friends very tightly, but you’ll have a great time.
Every Halloween Horror Nights House has hidden Easter eggs and it can be hard to find them all when you’re busy being scared. Do you have a favorite small Easter egg from INVASION: Alien Abduction that you can tell us about and maybe alert our readers to where they might keep their eyes out for it?
Charles Grey: I’ll say look at family photos.
What’s your favorite memory of putting this House together?
Charles Grey: Just that it took a while for it to grow legs and I’m just excited to finally see it happen. I’m excited to see what a lot of us had championed, a lot of creators and scenic designers. So again, it sounds stereotypical, but it takes a village. It really did. It took the whole farmhouse to create this one.
What would you tell longtime fans of Halloween Horror Nights to get them excited about this original INVASION: Alien Abduction House?
Charles Grey: For longtime fans, I would say this has the flavor of old HHN. It really does. This is most definitely kind of a love letter for those who’ve been here for coming back for a long time and also the guy or the lady who’s coming in and bringing their kid for the first time that they’ve been for a long time. I would say this is most definitely for that fan to be like, “Hey, this reminds me of when I first came to the park and let me share this experience with you.”
And then conversely, what would you tell to somebody who’s never been to Halloween Horror Nights to get them excited about coming to this original house?
Charles Grey: Well, for somebody new, and I think of myself here, because my daughters are very new to this event, this will only be their second year. I think the facade and the tone and just before you get into the House itself will be quite the adventure. You’ll be able to feel and hear the story before you get into the House, and I think will be something new fans of Halloween Horror Nights could really appreciate, that storytelling before you even encounter the first scare.
Well, if we weren’t excited before, we are EXCITED now. INVASION: Alien Abduction comes to Halloween Horror Nights this year at Universal Orlando Resort. Tickets for the event are on sale now.