Last night, the 23rd annual Six Flags Fright Fest unleashed the screampunks, the demons, the nightmares, and the insane upon the masses. With seven mazes, seven scare zones, three shows, and even three kid friendly pint-sized frights, Fright Fest is really taking its rightful place in the haunt scene elite.
After some heavy investing over the past few seasons, Six Flags Magic Mountain has created permanent locations for most of its haunted mazes. This offers the unique opportunity to invest in technology and scares that do not need to be removed after each season–and trust me, it pays off.
Emerging from the shadows of the two theme park giants (Knott’s Scary Farm and Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights), Fright Fest now faces the issue of differentiating itself. Halloween Horror Nights relies on recognizable movie monsters and their impressive set design and production value, while Knott’s Scary Farm generates a much more interactive and fun atmosphere with its monsters and mazes (although the production value for Paranormal Inc. was top notch this year). Fright Fest appears to be taking the best of each with set designs and production value that came close to Halloween Horror Nights and a level of fun interaction that would have felt at home at Knott’s.
With no new mazes this year (and one removed), Fright Fest appears to be perfecting what they have and working on carving out their own niche in the haunt market. And I applaud them for that. They will need to do more to further differentiate themselves in the future, but as of right now, their sets, use of technology, and actors are top notch.
Now onto what you’ve been waiting for: the mazes!!
Toyz of Terror 3D
This was my personal favorite of the evening. Most mazes are dark, so dark that you can’t appreciate the details, the sets, or the monsters. But not in Toyz of Terror 3D. Everything is brightly colored, and add Chromadepth 3D paint to that–it becomes disorientingly colorful. Get your free glasses while waiting in line because you don’t want to miss this one.
The maze starts off in a standard room–and then the lights change: evil toyz come to life and everything becomes 3D. With this effect, the shapes and colors jump off the walls making the stuffed-animal-lined walkways feel that much more claustrophobic. Twisted dollmakers stand at neon green and orange splatted desks, creating totems of doll heads and grotesque humanoids with too many arms and legs. Even the tools that hang on the walls are covered in paint. The next room, a purple and pink striped room, reveals two lovely ladies looking in a mirror. Yet one’s face is covered in neon slime, mirroring a large painting on the wall of two women with blisters and pus and their faces fusing together. Finally, the maze ends with a large circular rotating drum that you walk through. This is a staple of carnivals, but this one comes with an added twist: a circle on the far wall also rotates. Taking away that reference location and adding in 3D makes this a very disorienting walk.
It’s a simple maze with an effect that has been done before, but Fright Fest does it right and finds that perfect balance of fun and scary. This wasn’t the scariest, but it was the one I had the most fun in. I definitely recommend it.
Red’s Revenge
This maze was brand new to Fright Fest last year and was a fan favorite. The first thing you notice about this maze is the scale of everything. The sets inside this maze easily rival that of Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights: Towering humanoid trees fill multiple rooms of this haunt, a gigantic spider taunts you in another, and a final room boasts a full living room complete with fire place. One of the standouts in the first forest section was the actors hidden in bushes about a foot tall. This is a simple yet very effective scare because I’m usually not looking down.
As you enter the haunt, a screen reveals the story to you. However, the sounds of the haunt and rowdy teenagers prevented us from hearing the exact story, but it appeared to follow the classic fairy tale with a twist–Red is now out for revenge on the Big Bad world.. and anyone that enters her forest. Don’t miss her at the end, atop her throne (and the walkway) at the end of the haunt.
This maze appears to be Fright Fest’s attempt at marketing on a recognizable character (i.e., like Universal does with it’s horror icons), and it seems to be working. They went all out on this maze and with a permanent location, I hope Red isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Vault 666
As a scientist, this maze speaks to me. An actor reveals the story to this one in the first room: LenXcorp is an animal research center. But something has gone terribly wrong, and unauthorized genetic experiments have unleashed hell upon the facility. This is Vault 666’s second year, and it is definitely going strong.
The visuals of this maze were stunning. Boxes and barrels utilized lighting tricks to hide and reveal fake bodies within. A large glass panel offered a view into an operating room with blood and tubes everywhere. Mannequins lined the walls of a long corridor, each with their own experimentation done to them. A fully robotic mannequin even ended this room–and it was so creepy how it moved and looked about. Finally, an actor was placed on an electric table that was positioned upright (think Frankenstein). She pretended to be electrocuted as we entered, stopped, and then ran at us. Another simple effect that worked so wonderfully.
This maze was another standout with great sets, special effects, and actors. The music complimented the tone as well. Alarms blared and the music became louder and more unforgiving as the maze went on. I applaud Fright Fest for taking the “mad scientist” in a new direction with Vault 666.
The Aftermath
Aftermath appeared to be Fright Fest’s answer to Halloween Horror Night’s Terror Tram. Although no tram was involved, the majority of this maze took place outside as you moved through the former Batman stunt show location. This stage easily mimics that of a post-apocaplytic world with overturned vehicles, a crashed plane, and plenty of fire effects. This maze is not going as strong as it was in 2011, but it’s still a visual treat.
My favorite part of this maze was the beginning. You enter a long tunnel, with a bright spot light at the other end. The tunnel fills with smoke and you loose sight of anyone in front of you. All you see is fog and light. It’s a great effect and really makes you feel alone, which is tough to do in such a large amusement park. The tunnel opens up into the outdoor stunt show, and zombies are everywhere. This maze boasts one of the largest casts. This can be a great thing, but it can also be a negative. At some points there were just too many zombies, which lessens the scare for me.
The stunt show set is gorgeous but is starting to get a bit bland without something novel added to keep it exciting. We did hear a rumor that this would be the last year of one of Fright Fest’s top 3 mazes? Could Aftermath be the one? Well if it is, you better go and see it for one last time!
Willoughby’s Resurrected
Willoughby’s is the Haunted Mansion of Fright Fest. I adore the decor, the costumes, the feel of this maze. But they haven’t found the perfect way to make their scares work in this haunt yet. Don’t get me wrong, the scares are good; hell, they even have a pretty novel way of taking your picture at the start. But, the rooms aren’t designed with scare actors in mind. Most are large parlors with a table or desk, or a big open corridor with no alcoves for actors. Actors definitely know this as well. One actress sat at a table and appeared to be waiting for a guest to join her. Another actor sat at a desk with a typewriter and just stared at guests.
This all may be on purpose though. Instead of actors, this maze does a great job of showcasing it’s technology. Lining most hallways are video screens disguised as windows into the horrors inside each room. It’s a great effect if used sparingly, but these screens are used everywhere–even in the bathroom mirror. Projections of rats are displayed in areas as well. And finally, air blasts are used to create many scares.
Maybe I’m too harsh on Willoughby’s. It is a good maze, I just think it has more potential that hasn’t been realized.
Chupacabra
This maze is the only haunt on the map that does not have it’s most extreme rating (“Not intended for children under 12”). Instead it is rated “Parental Guidance Suggested”. A handful of parents in line took this to mean that the maze was kid friendly. But let me tell you, this is not kid friendly, so I have no idea why they rated it any differently.
This maze is one of the last remaining vestiges of Fright Fest’s plywood past. However, this maze was the darkest one we went through so it was hard to notice. It’s a tight corridor maze with some decent scares.
My main gripe with this maze is that the name is misleading. This maze would be better branded as a Dia de los Muertos maze as many of the actors have sugar skulls painted on their face or dressed in traditional Mexican attire. Not a single Chupacabra was to be seen–only the carnage that he caused.
Overall, the maze was decent. The darkness was a nice change and some of the scares were good, but the aesthetics need work and the theme needs an overhaul.
Willoughby’s Garden of Darkness
This was the last of the new mazes from last year. I started this article saying that Fright Fest probably spent the year refining and perfecting the mazes instead of adding a new maze. However, Willoughby’s Garden of Darkness was the maze that they missed in this perfecting process.
It wasn’t a fan favorite last year and they didn’t do much to improve that. The garden is essentially a short maze covered in ivy, leaves, netting, and ghillie suits. Monsters wearing the same material hide in the walls and do little to scare creatively. This would be fine for a section or two, but this is the entire haunt and there is no finale. It just ends.
The only other scares apart from the camo actors are a couple statues that come to life as you approach and one girl (the daughter from the legend) who told me “they’re coming to get you” my first time through and “want to play?” my second time through. I’m still confused on who’s coming to get me, but if they are getting me out of this maze, then I’ll gladly wait.
Final Thoughts
Fright Fest is a force to be reckoned with this year. They’ve taken some basic haunt themes (e.g., mad scientist, fairy tale gone wrong, zombies, and 3D) and created some really unique and novel haunts based off of them. Although there are no new mazes this year, they are focusing on creating their own niche in the theme park haunt world. Rather than taking the serious tone of Universal or creating temporary haunts like Knott’s, Fright Fest is blending high production values, scares, and fun together in a beautiful mosaic of fear. Further, this is the only haunt in which you can spend the day at the park, and then stay for the Scarezones and shows. You will need to pay an extra $20 to do the mazes ($15 if you’re a passholder), but that’s a small price to pay for a day full of fun and frights.
Fright Fest is terrifying fans for 17 terrifying days: September 26 – November 1.
For more infomation check out: https://frightfest.sixflags.com/magicmountain/frights/
