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First look at Ozzy Osbourne maze at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights

Passengers will board a Crazy Train in Ozzy Osbourne’s hometown of Birmingham, England, and take a journey through the musical career of the heavy metal pioneer during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.

The new Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness will be one of eight haunted houses during the annual Halloween event that runs on select nights from Sept. 3 through Nov. 1 at the Hollywood theme park.

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Halloween Horror Nights creative director John Murdy offered a behind-the-scenes tour of the new maze that pays tribute to the late Black Sabbath co-founder and two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

“I grew up listening to Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper,” Murdy said. “Those were my two go-to bands when I was a little kid in the 70s.”

Halloween Horror Nights creative director John Murdy in the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Consider this your spoiler alert if you’d rather be surprised by what awaits in the Horror Nights maze created by Universal in collaboration with the Osbourne family.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Osborne Station

Set amid fiery and smoky post-World War II rubble, the facade of the Prince of Darkness maze will feature the fictional Osborne Station train depot with O-Z-Z-Y spelled out in the windows.

Like many Birmingham kids born in the late 1940s, Ozzy was a “Blitz Kid” who played amid the rubble in the heavily bombed industrial heart of England.

“That was their playground because that’s all they knew,” Murdy said.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A Blitz Kid in an English schoolboy uniform with a gas mask standing atop the rubble will represent Ozzy in his youth.

“I didn’t even know at the time, but Ozzy has a little boy in an English schoolboy uniform with a gas mask running through one of his later videos,” Murdy said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s just so bizarre.’”

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A spilled-open suitcase at the Blitz Kid’s feet will be filled with children’s clothes, transistor radio, xylophone, toy cows and a photo of Ozzy as a kid.

“There’s items in it that relate to Ozzy’s childhood,” Murdy said. “It’s just little Easter Eggs for the fans.”

Ozzy discovered rock n’ roll and fell and fell in love with the Beatles listening to a similar transistor radio.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

His first job as a teenager in the mid-1960s was at a Birmingham slaughterhouse that processed cows.

The xylophone was a nod to the viral video of Kentucky schoolchildren who performed “Crazy Train” as a tribute to Ozzy.

Fans in the queue outside the maze will hear a playlist of Ozzy’s songs from his solo career that started in the 1980s and featured a series of multi-platinum albums.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Waiting Room

Visitors entering the Ozzy maze will step into a train station waiting room to join other passengers patiently waiting for the next train departing straight to Hell.

Travel posters on the walls will offer nods to Ozzy’s career, including an exotic destination called Centre of Eternity, a song title from his 1983 “Bark at the Moon” album.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The iconic “Crazy Train” intro of bass guitar, vibraslap percussion and Ozzy’s “All Aboard” will play on a continuous loop in the train station waiting room.

“We wanted to make Crazy Train front and center,” Murdy said. “We’re going to get on the Crazy Train and take a trip through his career.”

A Train Conductor Ozzy stilt-walking “scareacter” will come through a 10-foot-tall door for the first scare of the maze.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Train Station Platform

A blast of cold air on the train station platform will remind visitors of cool, damp Birmingham while providing brief relief from the Southern California heat.

Beware of the travel poster of a hitchhiking Ozzy holding a destination sign that says “Hell” — everything is not as it seems.

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Conductor Ozzy will make several more appearances during the station platform scene that will feature the Randy Rhoads guitar intro to “Crazy Train.”

The lyrics to “Crazy Train” that reference the Cold War and the anxiety of nuclear annihilation will help tie together the post-World War II theme of the maze.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

All Aboard

Visitors will board the Crazy Train bound for Hell, where video displays in the passenger windows will create the illusion of the train barreling down the tracks.

“The scenery out the window is flying past you as you’re walking through here,” Murdy said.

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The audio soundtrack aboard the train will transition to “Straight to Hell” from Ozzy’s 2020 “Ordinary Man” album that features a guitar solo by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.

“The train goes off the rails,” Murdy said. “There’s a big explosion.”

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Osborne Asylum

The victims from the train crash will spill into the Osborne Asylum that pays tribute to Ozzy’s 1981 “Diary of a Madman” album.

A Madman Ozzy scareactor with twin personalities akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde will welcome visitors into his alchemist lab.

“There’s a lot of little Easter Eggs in here for the fans,” Murdy said.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An animatronic black cat sitting by the window will offer a nod to Ozzy’s 1980 “Blizzard of Ozz” album cover.

An animatronic crow will be biting off the head of a dove just like Ozzy did during a 1981 meeting with record executives.

Madman Ozzy will burst from a hidden alcove with a glowing syringe that induces his signature laugh.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The asylum cells will be filled with inmates who have Ozzy songs carved into their foreheads.

“All through this stretch you’re getting attacked by Madman Ozzy,” Murdy said.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Graveyard Crypt

Werewolf Ozzy from the “Bark at the Moon” music video will be waiting for you in the graveyard.

Visitors will travel through an ossuary crypt made of human skulls before encountering a giant animatronic bat biting off Ozzy’s head in a bit of payback for the 1982 Iowa concert where Ozzy bit the head off a live bat.

“The wings unfurl, the head moves, the mouth moves and the arms move,” Murdy said of the bat animatronic. “He’s got Werewolf Ozzy’s head in his hand.”

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Crazy Train

Train tracks will lead visitors into a dark tunnel where you will find yourself in the oncoming path of Ozzy’s Crazy Train as the horn sounds a desperate but futile warning.

“That is a giant piece of show action equipment that actually moves,” Murdy said. “It’s probably the biggest thing like this we’ve ever built.”

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Throne Room

The centerpiece of the finale scene set in a hellish cathedral will be a recreation of Ozzy’s throne from his Back to the Beginning concert in Birmingham. Ozzy died in July 2025 less than three weeks after the farewell show.

Prince of Darkness Ozzy, his final incarnation in the maze, will be seated on the throne surrounded by royal purple curtains.

“He has huge wings like a bat,” Murdy said. “It’s almost like the bat turned him into this.”

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Four bat-headed creatures in Anglican priest robes will serve as minions to the Prince of Darkness.

“These are the only characters in the house that aren’t Ozzy,” Murdy said.

A larger-than-life version of the dragon tattoo on Ozzy’s chest will surprise visitors distracted by the nattering minions.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Murdy said the mood of the throne room scene seeks to combine the lightness and darkness of Ozzy’s life and the contradiction between faith and sin in his lyrics.

“Ozzy was actually a really religious guy,” Murdy said. “His son Jack did a great documentary on him called ‘God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.’ Part of that documentary shows him praying before every show, which people would never think about in terms of Ozzy.”

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)

In classic Horror Nights fashion, the Ozzy maze won’t be over when you think it’s over.

“There’s a bunch of scares on the way out,” Murdy said. “It’s all the different iterations of Ozzy.”

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Ozzy’s wife Sharon selected the music that plays as visitors exit the house — “See You on the Other Side” from the 1995 “Ozzmosis” album.

“It’s emotional,” Murdy said. “This house is very personal for all of us that are creating it and for the family. We just wanted that beat at the end of the house.”

Producers of Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights created an attraction based on the music of Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne, left, and Geezer Butler, right) in 2013. (Photo by Fielding Buck, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

This isn’t the first time Ozzy and Horror Nights have teamed up on a haunted maze.

Universal Studios Hollywood created the Black Sabbath: 13 3D maze in 2013 for Halloween Horror Nights. Osbourne and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler toured the maze on opening night.

Concept art for the new Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Courtesy of Universal)

The Halloween Horror Nights 2026 lineup at Universal Studios Hollywood will feature eight haunted houses based on Stranger Things, Sinners, Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Ozzy Osbourne, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Killceanera and Dead Deader Deadest.

Halloween Horror Nights is not included with daily admission to Universal Studios Hollywood. Universal is selling an Early Access Ticket that provides entrance to select haunted mazes 90 minutes before Horror Nights officially begins each night at 7 p.m. Horror Nights season passes, front-of-the-line passes and VIP tours are also available for the event.

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