Universal Walked Through Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control, and Flagged a Left Hallway With More Stable Ground

Universal's newest Halloween Horror Nights house preview went up on Wednesday morning, and near the end it turns practical: a note about which hallway to take if you would rather not fight the floor.

The post went up on Universal's own blog under its Behind-the-Screams banner, and it covers Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control, the house that puts two of the event's original icons together. Halloween Horror Nights 35 starts Aug. 28, 2026 at Universal Studios Florida.

Two Universal creatives went on the record. Senior show director Charles Gray and scenic designer Dylan Kollath both spoke to Universal's blog about the house. Universal used a similar pairing in its H.R. Bloodengutz preview on August 6, where show director Ramon Paradoa and scenic designer Nick Collins did the talking.

The setup, for anyone who has not been keeping a lore diary. Jack Schmidt, who fans know as Jack the Clown, worked as a performer in Dr. Oddfellow's carnival. Oddfellow found out about Jack's crimes, murdered him, and sealed the body inside a Jack in the Box. Jack, box and all, ended up in the Oddverse, which Universal describes as a pocket dimension Oddfellow created and draws his powers from, and where he only became more evil and more powerful.

"Jack Schmidt was torn, twisted, and pulled apart and driven mad in this other world. But he also gained the powers of Dr. Oddfellow," Gray told the blog.

The truce is the whole point. Gray says the house builds to one decision, and it is not a fight to the death. "Jack and Oddfellow have been warring with each other for years and years," he said. "But they finally decide that fear divided is fear diluted. By coming together with their chaos and control, joining together, they could remake this world."

What the walkthrough actually describes. You start in a grisly carnival scene, pass bloodied bunk beds, and find Jack applying stolen clown makeup to his own face. The narration opens from Oddfellow's point of view before Jack takes it over, and the two trade off telling the story of the rivalry. Universal notes that narration is not always included in haunted houses, and says Kollath and Gray are excited to see how fans react to the story.

From there you watch Oddfellow stuff Jack into the box, Jack scratches and fights and takes on Oddfellow's powers, and a room with a swirling, dizzying vortex drops you into the Oddverse. Deeper in, the blog names churning hallways and a personal game show hosted by Jack the Clown.

The finale has a name. It is the Tilted Hallway, a lopsided floor with video effects, and scareactors tucked into what the blog calls creeping corners.

And here is the genuinely useful part. Universal flagged, in its own post, that the Tilted Hallway area splits in two. "If you'd prefer more stable ground, there are two hallways in this area," the pro tip reads. "If you take the one on the left, you'll encounter all of the same scareactor fun with a more accessible route."

Universal framed it as a pro tip rather than a formal accessibility accommodation, and published it more than two weeks before opening night. If tilting floors are a problem for you or someone in your group, that is worth writing down now.

On the effects. Gray said video is doing heavy lifting: "Video plays a huge role in this house." He also described the audio and visual work as tightly linked, calling it "married together in a very interesting way." Blog author Anna Dooley, an editorial content intern at the resort, added that the smell of popcorn turns up as a practical touch, which is her own description rather than a quote from the creative team.

The design brief, in Kollath's words. He calls blending the two characters' looks one of the most exciting parts of building this house. "We had a brief glimpse at Jack and Oddfellow's backstory in the Dr. Oddfellow Twisted Origins house [from HHN 32], so elements of that are woven through this one. But we wanted to take the aesthetics of both Jack and Oddfellow... and have them clash and blend with each other," he said, adding: "It was a surprise to us how out-of-the-box the ideas became when we brought them together."

Both characters have carried houses before. Universal ran Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem at HHN 25, and Dr. Oddfellow's Twisted Origins at HHN 32. Jack turned up in that one only in pieces, and WDW News Today's review at the time noted he "does not star in this house, though there are references to him," listing a silhouette behind the tent, a dressing room holding his trunk and his box, and his murder shown by projection at the end. This year his name is in the house title alongside Oddfellow's.

Sources

• Universal Orlando Resort blog, "Behind-the-Screams | Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control at Halloween Horror Nights 2026" (published August 12, 2026)
• Universal Orlando, Halloween Horror Nights event page
• Universal Orlando Resort blog, "Behind-the-Screams | H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! at Halloween Horror Nights 2026" (August 6, 2026)
• WDW News Today, "REVIEW: Dr. Oddfellow's Twisted Origins House Reveals Frightening Backstory at Halloween Horror Nights 32"

Image credits: All photos courtesy of Universal Orlando Resort.