Universal Published the HHN 35 Ingredient Lists a Day Before Opening Night, and the Pleasure & Pain Brain Is a Custard Dessert

For nine days, the strangest looking item on the Halloween Horror Nights 35 menu was a pale molded brain sitting in a pool of red sauce with white chunks scattered around it. This site read it as savory. It is a custard dessert. The white chunks are vanilla cake, and Universal says they are meant to be teeth and skin.

The Pleasure & Pain Brain, center, is brain custard with vanilla cake pieces. Image credit: Universal Orlando Resort

Universal Orlando published full descriptions of the Halloween Horror Nights 35 food, drink and merchandise lineup on its Discover Universal blog on Thursday, August 27, one day before the event opens. It is the first time the resort has said what is actually in the items it announced by name on August 18, and in at least four cases the ingredients are not what the photographs suggested.

Quick facts: Halloween Horror Nights 35 runs select nights from August 28 through November 1, a 48 night run with 10 all new haunted houses, per Universal's own announcement. The resort published full ingredient builds for 13 items, eight food and five cocktails, plus shorter notes on three canned drinks and two passholder exclusives. Neither the food nor the merchandise carries a price anywhere in the post.

Four items that are not what they looked like

The reveal that changes the most is the Hellraiser tie in. The Pleasure & Pain Brain is listed as brain custard with "ripped teeth and skin" vanilla cake pieces, which puts it in the dessert case rather than alongside the burgers.

The Ozzy Osbourne item is the other surprise. The Prince of Darkness Cake, a squat black tiered thing with a bat perched on the frosting, is a three tiered mini carrot cake with cream cheese mousse. Carrot cake is not the flavor anyone would have picked off the photo, or off the Prince of Darkness.

Two more get clarified rather than reversed. El's Battery Jerky, which arrives in a printed beef jerky can, is creamy mac and cheese with garlic bread and jerky pieces. Lasagna Burn, the Evil Dead Burn item, is a ground pork and chili crisp pot sticker lasagna, so the bowl of dumplings in the promotional art is the dish itself, not a side.

The fifth house item, Annie's Juke Joint Catfish & Grits for Sinners, is what it looked like: crispy catfish with low country grits, crunchy garlic and a side of hot sauce.

Where you can actually find it

Universal gave a location for exactly one item. The Rigatoni Ritual Pie, a garlic butter cheese pizza topped with baked rigatoni a la vodka, crispy sausage and pesto, is at Louie's Italian Restaurant. The blog points guests to Richter's Burger Co. and Schwab's Pharmacy for "more seasonal offerings" without saying which items land where.

The Rigatoni Ritual Pie at Louie's Italian Restaurant, the only item Universal assigned to a venue. Image credit: Universal Orlando Resort

That is the practical gap in this announcement. Twelve of those 13 items still have no listed venue, and none of them have a price, with the event opening tomorrow night. Universal may fill the locations in through in park menu boards and the official app, but as published, a guest who wants the Jack & Odd Dog has not been told where to go looking for it.

The other two Oddverse items are a CarnEVIL Smash Taco (a smashed cheeseburger taco with American cheese, shredded lettuce, pickles, secret sauce and toasted sesame seeds) and the Jack & Odd Dog, an all beef footlong with peppers, onions and cheese sauce, topped with spicy cheese puffs and served in an ube bun. Returning fan favorites include the Twisted Tater Chips, Birria Pizza Fries and the Fritos Walking Taco.

The cocktails now have spirit bases, and three of them come from local Florida breweries

Each of the five house drinks got a build. Hopper's Recharger is mandarin orange vodka, yuzu juice, a lemon lime drink and energy drink. Slide Guitar Smash is corn whiskey with lemon, ginger syrup, simple syrup and mint essence. Cenobite's Kiss is blanco tequila with lemon, lime, huckleberry syrup and spicy bitters. Black Rain is tequila, port wine, cold brew concentrate and agave syrup under black sprinkles. Frostbite is blanco tequila, blue curacao, lime, simple syrup and spicy bitters, garnished with gummy dentures.

The detail worth flagging is on the canned drinks. Maniac Mix (a strawberry blood orange vodka spritz), Oddfellow's Elixir (blueberry lemonade vodka) and Canned Carnival (a strawberry, raspberry and lime sour ale) were, per Universal, all created by local Florida breweries, in cans designed by Universal Creative for the event. Universal did not name the breweries.

Two passholder exclusives, one of them a full dessert

Annual Passholders get two items nobody else can order. Cannoli Chips are at Guido's Gelato inside Louie's Italian Restaurant: shards of cannoli shell dipped in pumpkin pie filling, served with pepitas and with cannoli filling topped with chocolate chips. The Alien! Drink at the Dead Coconut Club is a vodka cocktail with blue curacao, pineapple juice and cream of coconut, which is where the fluorescent green comes from.

The passholder exclusive Cannoli Chips and Alien! Drink. Image credit: Universal Orlando Resort

The two newest hotels are the two that do not get late night food

Universal says all 11 of its hotels will serve themed cocktails during the event. Late night bites in the lobby go to most of them, but the blog names two exceptions: Universal Stella Nova Resort and Universal Terra Luna Resort, the pair of value priced hotels that opened beside Epic Universe in early 2025. Guests at those two get the drinks and not the food.

Loews Portofino Bay Hotel and Loews Royal Pacific Resort go the other way, each picking up limited time menu items, at The Thirsty Fish and Jake's American Bar respectively. Over at CityWalk, the exclusive offerings are at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen, Voodoo Doughnut and the Dead Coconut Club, whose alien abduction overlay we covered on Tuesday.

Merchandise, still without a single price

The 35th anniversary items lead with a collectible coin and a crewneck carrying new artwork of this year's ringmasters, Jack the Clown and Dr. Oddfellow. The house tie ins Universal highlighted are accessories inspired by Smoke and Stack from Sinners, a Demogorgon scrunchie, the Hellraiser Lament Configuration rendered as a purse, a chainsaw shaped crossbody bag for Evil Dead Burn, and Ozzy Osbourne apparel. The HamiKuma assortment expands to a plaid top, a plush backpack and a plush fanny pack, alongside the character's first Orlando meet and greet inside Five & Dime.

None of it is priced in the announcement. The only concrete number we have on HHN 35 merchandise remains the Stranger Things 5 collection, where one of everything came to $295.

All of it sells out of the Tribute Store, which this year returns to its original spot to the left of Revenge of the Mummy under the name Sideshow Obscura.

Sources

• Discover Universal blog, "Top Food & Merch at Halloween Horror Nights 2026 at Universal Studios Florida," August 27, 2026
• Universal Orlando Resort press release, "Universal Orlando Resort Celebrates 35 Years of Pure Fear With Halloween Horror Nights 35"

Image credits: all images by Universal Orlando Resort.