Universal Studios’ 2026 Deathcare-Themed Horror Feature Hits Too Close to Home
The proliferation of true-crime channels and documentaries may prove that Americans are obsessed with “ripped from the headlines” content. As someone who goes to sleep every night watching “The First 48” or “Forensic Files,” I can’t honestly say that there’s anything wrong with consuming this kind of entertainment.
However, treatment and timing matter. An authentic retelling of a horrific event from 10 years ago is much different than a tacky parody of an atrocious type of tragedy that’s (sadly) still hitting the headlines.
In July, Universal Studios announced this year’s lineup for Halloween Horror Nights — an annual horror-themed event held at the Hollywood and Orlando resorts from early September through November 1. Features for 2026 include haunted houses based on famous horror tropes, “scareactors” who roam the parks, live stunt and dance shows, and, of course, rides accompanied by creepy music.
However, included among haunted houses with themes like Stranger Things, Hellraiser, and Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness is one called Dead, Deader, Deadest, which tells the story of a disgraced family-owned funeral home that is almost certainly is based on Pasadena, California’s scandalous Lamb Funeral Home, which was documented in the 2025 HBO series “The Mortician.”
The series detailed the all-too-real crimes of David Sconce, great-grandson of Charles Lamb, who founded Lamb Funeral Home in 1929. In 1987, Sconce, who was tasked with the family’s cremation operations, was found to be performing mass illegal cremations, presenting families with fake or commingled cremains, selling body parts, desecrating bodies, and even instigating a murder-for-hire plot against a rival funeral home owner. Sconce pled guilty in 1989 to 21 felony counts and served several stints in prison and on probation, finally being released in 2023.
SFGate, a San Francisco-based news outlet, was the first to publicly make the connection between the Lamb scandal and the Universal Studios creation, calling Dead, Deader, Deadest a “rare attraction inspired by one of LA's most notorious true crimes.” But anyone familiar with the sick saga of David Sconce could easily spot the similarities to the backstory offered in the Universal Studios blog:
Like Lamb Funeral Home, the haunted “Deville Family Funeral Home” was “founded in the early 1920s” in Los Angeles County.
“Rumors of missing bodies, improper cremations, organ trafficking, and other illicit business practices dogged the family business for years” — as they did the Lamb/Sconce families.
Deville Funeral Home’s fictional funeral director Ambrose Deville “tried unsuccessfully” to patent a short-cut drug to avoid the “laborious and costly process of embalming,” while Sconce tried to save time and money by running two cremators stacked with numerous bodies for 16-18 hours a day, growing the business from 194 cremations in 1981 to 1,675 in 1982.
Halloween Horror Nights Creative Director John Murdy admits to drawing “inspiration from various funeral home scandals in the late 20th century,” according to SFGate. The publication also notes, though, that the Deville haunted house “is one of the only times Universal has based anything at Halloween Horror Nights on true crime” in general “out of respect for victims and families.”
Is Dead, Deader, Deadest a case of “too much, too soon”? Judge for yourself: here’s a behind-the-scenes tour of the set led by Murdy. Either way, it’s hitting a little too close to home for a deathcare community and hundreds of families still reeling from too many way-too-similar, way-too-recent true-horror atrocities.
