Halloween Horror Nights is famous for slashers and jump scares. We’re talking Jason, clowns with chainsaws and the Universal Monsters. But this year, one of the most powerful houses at Universal Studios Hollywood wasn’t about Hollywood at all and as Hollywoodland News is filled with contributors who are Scream Queens, we are here for it.
Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America was a haunted altar. This was a wild a scream filled tribute to Latin American folklore where women ruled the night. In a world of Jasons, this house reminded us to be a La Llorona, grief-stricken, vengeful, and utterly unstoppable.
The Legends Who Haunted the House
Halloween Horror Nights 2025 came for blood this year and trust me, they brought it. Between the radioactive chaos of Fallout, the jump scare fever dream that was Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Terrifier turning Art the Clown loose on everyone’s last nerve and we will not leave out The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks because that one was one of Hollywoodland News‘ staff favorites. Needless to say, Halloween Horror Nights 2025 is a buffet of nightmares and we were hungry.
Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America hit different. This house didn’t need a big franchise or a video game IP because it pulled from the stories our abuelas warned us about and cranked them up to 14820138%.
Inside, you come face to face with:
- La Llorona — the OG crying ghost mom, still wandering riverbanks wailing about the kids she drowned.
- La Muelona — a Colombian chingona with a jawline full of fangs, ready to chew through unfaithful men like chicharrones.
- La Siguanaba — the ultimate catfish who lures men in with her beauty before flipping the reveal and scaring the life out of them with her monster face.
Fallout brought nukes, Freddy’s brought killer animatronics, and Terrifier drenched you in clown gore, literally, but Monstruos 3 brought fear to my Latina soul. It felt like stepping into a haunted altar where the monsters weren’t just out to get you but like a real Latina, they had something to say.
Monstruos 3 is about Women Who Refuse to Stay Quiet
Here’s the thing about Monstruos 3, it puts women in charge.
Traditionally, horror has been a total boys’ club: directors, writers, monsters, final guys are all men. Women usually get two choices: scream or die. Representation in horror is only just starting to catch up, but in folklore, women have been monsters, witches, ghosts and goddesses since forever.
That’s what makes this haunted house so good. It takes those ancient roles and lets them run the show.
La Llorona isn’t some sad little ghost lurking in the background. She’s the main event, wailing like a banshee and daring you to look her in the eye. La Muelona is a “don’t mess with her” warning personified and this time, she gets to bite back. La Siguanaba is out here proving the male gaze has consequences so: come closer, papi, and see how fast that pretty face turns into your worst nightmare.
This house flips horror’s usual script. Instead of watching women run screaming, you’re the one running because they’re coming for you. And we are here for it
Día de los Muertos ≠ Halloween
Let’s get one thing straight: while Monstruos 3 leans into the visual language of Día de los Muertos, candles, tombs, marigolds, the holiday itself is not meant to be scary. Día de los Muertos is a sacred time to honor our dead, to welcome them home and to celebrate their lives. It’s joy, not jump scares.
And before anyone starts planning their “cute sugar skull Halloween costume,” please don’t. Dressing up as someone’s culture, someone’s ancestor or someone’s altar piece is not a costume. You wouldn’t dress up as someone’s grandma for a laugh, right? Same rules apply.
So yes, scream your head off in Monstruos 3 but keep Día de los Muertos sacred and treat it with the respect it deserves.
Symbolism in the Fog of Monstruos 3
The scares in Monstruos 3 are dripping with symbolism.
First off, the Tarot Queens. La Reina de Bastos, Copas and Espadas are basically towering altar pieces that say, “Yes, the women are in charge here, get on your knees pendajos.” Tarot may have European roots, but in Latin America it’s become a whole spiritual language. It’s a mix of mysticism, divination and that one tia who can read your future over cafecito. Seeing those queens lit up in the house felt like a visual sermon: these monsters don’t just scare you, they decide your fate.
Then there’s The Cemetery of the Lost. This isn’t your basic Halloween graveyard with a plastic skeleton and fog machine. This feels like walking through a Día de los Muertos altar that’s been abandoned and left to rot. Candles, flowers, carved tombs, all twisted just enough to make your skin crawl.
And of course, Oscura the Black Cat. Every good witch has a familiar, and Oscura is that girl. She’s skeletal, eerie and perched like she owns the whole house, which, let’s be real, she does.
This house is layered and isn’t scary for the sake of being scary. Every set piece feels like a nod to our spirituality, rituals and power.
HHN 2025 Bringing Representation in the Dark
Here’s why Monstruos 3 hit me harder than any chainsaw clown ever could: it’s representation, not just a haunted house.
For decades, Halloween Horror Nights has been dominated by slashers, zombies and IP-driven scares.
Most of those stories were written by men, starring men and revolving around male fear. Women were usually there to scream, strip or get slaughtered.
For Latinx kids who grew up with La Llorona warnings whispered like bedtime stories, this is recognition on a massive stage and proof that our folklore belongs in the same haunted pantheon as Dracula or Frankenstein. For horror fans, it’s an education and I’d go as far as to say that it’s a crash course in Latin American myth that comes with jump scares and killer set design.
For women, this is revolutionary. Horror has spent decades punishing women for being loud, angry, sexual or complicated. Monstruos 3 hands them the knife and says, “Go ahead. Haunt them.”
In a World of Jasons, Be a La Llorona
As I stepped out of the fog with my heart pounding, I realized Monstruos 3 was a huge flex. Universal crowned La Llorona, La Muelona and La Siguanaba as horror royalty while simultaneously sharing our folklore in a way that was both special and intentional.
This house reminded me that horror doesn’t just belong to Hollywood slashers and masked killers. It belongs to the women who wail by the river, who bite back, who lure men to their doom.
These are the women we’ve been warned about for centuries, and honestly, the same kind of women that us chingonas strive to be.
So yes, I love Jason and Freddy as much as the next scream queen but in a world full of Jasons, I’ll always choose to be a La Llorona.
We reached out to Universal and asked to cover this event as Press and our request went unacknowledged and ignored for three consecutive months in advance of the event. We reached out to Universal and they haven’t responded but we chose to write this anyway.
If you want to experience this for yourselves, grab tickets to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and walk through Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America, if you dare.
Then come back here and tell me which ghost made you scream the loudest, because we are here for scares with representation.
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