Halloween Horror Nights is building a haunted house around Ozzy Osbourne, and both coasts are getting their own version of it. “Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness” opens Friday, August 28 at Universal Orlando Resort and Thursday, September 3 at Universal Studios Hollywood, with guests climbing aboard the Crazy Train for a trip through the darker corners of his solo career.
Universal describes it as a non-traditional memorial that spans 45 years, built like a living horror movie. Music from Ozzy’s solo albums carries you through, from The Blizzard of Ozz in 1980 to Ordinary Man in 2020.
How are the two haunted houses different?
The Hollywood house starts at the beginning, in Birmingham, England, where John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne grew up. From “Crazy Train,” guests move through the decades and into the Osbourne Asylum, inspired by Diary of a Madman. Different versions of Ozzy show up along the way: Madman Ozzy, Werewolf Ozzy, and the Prince of Darkness himself, the nickname he picked up in the 1970s.
Orlando takes a different route. Guests head through ancient ruins and dungeons before boarding the Crazy Train into a world pulled straight from his album covers, including Bark at the Moon, The Ultimate Sin and Black Rain.
“Fans will discover so many meaningful details, including a few Easter Eggs,” said Mike Aiello, Senior Director of Entertainment Creative Development at Universal Orlando Resort. Coming from the team that hides things in every corner of a Halloween Horror Nights house, those last few words are doing a lot of work.
Sharon and Jack Osbourne signed off on it. “Walking through these haunted houses, you’ll recognize so many moments inspired by his music and imagination,” they said in a joint statement. “It’s a wonderful tribute to Ozzy, and we hope fans have as much fun experiencing it as he would have had seeing it come together.”
Where can you buy the Ozzy merch?
Limited-release merch tied to the houses is already at both parks, including a T-shirt and an Ozzy acrylic figure that fits the separately sold Infernal Carnival collectible display. It goes online Thursday, July 30 at 9 a.m. PST on shopUniversal.com.
Shark Take
Both houses are all-original, so seeing one doesn’t mean you’ve seen the other. If you’re picking a park on the Epic Universe side of the Orlando trip planning question, note that the event runs select nights from August 28 through Sunday, November 1 in Orlando, and September 3 through November 1 in Hollywood. Tickets are on sale now, and the Frequent Fear Pass is the one worth pricing out if you want to hit both coasts’ worth of houses more than once.
Source: Universal Orlando Resort
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