After a two-hour drive averaging ten miles an hour on the I-405, I found myself walking through the security covered entrance to Six Flags Magic Mountain. This was not because of any threat to the park or its guests, but because of this year’s Halloween celebration: Fright Fest.

This year, Six Flags is tripling its security as a new chaperone policy is being enforced stronger than ever before. The new policy was introduced last year, albeit with less enforcement.

However, this year, the entrance was covered with police and security. 

The new policy states that anyone under 15 years of age cannot enter the park without a chaperone of 21 or older.

There were lines of people getting their identification checked. If they were over 16 and did not have a driver’s license, their birth certificate would be checked. 

Those who were either underage or couldn’t present identification and didn’t have a chaperone present were told to wait off to the side until they got picked up.

The night I went to Fright Fest was very fun, at least after I got through the gates.

This year’s Fright Fest is home to eight haunted houses and nine scare zones. 

Six Flags was able to obtain the rights once again to The Conjuring Universe, Trick ’r Treat, and James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw franchise.

The Conjuring Universe

The Conjuring haunted house, based on the franchise created by the inspiring James Wan, has horror lovers walk through the events of all nine installations in the cinematic universe.

The opening scene has guests walk past an Annabelle doll that looks very similar to the real doll that is featured in the movie series. My group was so focused on the doll that we didn’t see the girl in a white dress standing in a corner waiting to scare us.

Later in the house I found myself in a long eerie hallway with a portrait of a nun near the end. As much as I didn’t want to, I walked toward the painting and toward the next room.

However, before I made it to the next room, hands began to emerge around the edge of the portrait and before I could comprehend, the painting dropped to reveal the evil spirit Valak holding onto the picture.

The climax of the house greeted me with a puppet of Annabelle well over two times my size. With the strobe and chaos of the moment, I found myself outside of the house panting for air.

Trick ’r Treat

The Trick ’r Treat haunted house is coming back for a second year, and in my opinion, it is much better than last year. It is sad that such a good haunted house is in such a bad location—it is so out of the way that park goers will miss it unless they are specifically looking for it.

The Halloween themed house, tucked away near the roller coaster The Riddler’s Revenge, has us explore the events that occur on Halloween night in the 2007 movie Trick ’r Treat. It is very well done and each scene in the house is made with careful detail and great precision. 

The best part of this house is easily that they pumped smells into the rooms so we would smell the scene we are in. Much like at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, the smells, even though they made me gag, brought me into the story as I got chased by Sam through the haunted house.

A fun and interesting concept in this house was the corn field I walked through. It wasn’t any old corn maze though, it was a mirror maze. Of course, even though the right way to go was labeled on the ground, I still managed to get lost.

SAW: Legacy of Terror

Sadly, the Saw haunted house this year let me down. As a Saw superfan, the lack of characters and scares made me frustrated. Last year was very strong for the twentieth anniversary of Saw, with many high end animatronics and actors at every corner, but this year mostly felt like the leftovers.

Even though I am disappointed in the outcome, for any Saw lover this house is still very good. Each scene is based off of a different trap from one of the ten movies in the franchise, and many main characters such as Adam and Lawrence from the original 2004 movie can be seen throughout the house.

I loved seeing the traps I was deathly afraid of in the movies come to life in this haunted house. From the eye vacuum trap from Saw X, to the water cube from Saw V, the traps looked very real and almost as scary as in their respective movies.

Vault 666

In addition to the three intellectual properties Six Flags purchased, they also produced haunted houses of their own original concepts. 

Returning to Fright Fest for the fifth consecutive year, Vault 666 Unlocked has park goers explore the once locked vault of cursed artifacts and possessed relics, whilst being jumpscared by the lost souls that have been locked in the vault at every turn. Vault 666 Unlocked is a really strong house and had me swearing many times over the past three years I have gone.

The experience of one of my favorite houses of Fright Fest is different from all of the others. Beginning in the first room, the story of how the vault was unlocked was told to my group by a tall man with a top hat and a pocket watch. 

After he welcomes us to explore the demonic vault, all hell breaks loose—literally. The house was covered in lost souls and ghouls that were trapped in Vault 666 for thousands of years. 

This was easily the scariest house of the year. In one room, I found myself surrounded as they all screamed into my ears and danced around me laughing. I myself wasn’t laughing at all.

Truth or Dare

Now also returning to Fright Fest this year for the fourth time in a row is Truth or Dare. This original haunted house is really creative and very fun to walk through. 

The story of the house is one of the best original houses I’ve gone through: you and the rest of your group are auditioning for a game show called Truth or Dare, but while you are walking through your audition, you stumble upon the horrifying truth of what happens behind the scenes.

Walking through the house, you encounter many of the past and present competitors, watching them do their dares, or tell the truth and beg you to run.

The highlight of this haunted house was easily when they had my group walk through an inflatable wall (bouncy house–like) with projections of bugs flying all around as the walls squeezed against each other. Pushing through the wall was a very immersive experience and gross at the same time as the sounds of bugs buzzed in my ears.

Truth or Dare was probably the most technological house in the park this year. There is a participant connected to a bungee and they jump at you. Before they hit you, they bounce back to where they started. 

Condemned – Forever Damned

It is hard to top Truth or Dare, but the third haunted house returning to Fright Fest this year is Condemned – Forever Damned, and they might have done it. This haunted house explores the most haunted house in the park where the walls are even alive with the souls of those who lived there.

This haunted house is easily the scariest in the park, second to Vault 666. With the best scares of the night, I was jumping around the house I was walking through. Be careful though, you will get scared when you don’t expect it.

Heavy spoilers here, but once you exit the house, the scaring isn’t over. I went with some friends before I went by myself and once we exited the house, we were all sighing out of relief that it was over. But as we walked through the backyard towards the next house, someone in a ghillie suit jumped out at one of my friends and he went running.

Carnage

Back to the line up, Fright Fest’s newest addition to the haunted houses this year is Carnage. Guests will enter the fortress of Carnage and are turned into a disciple of the chaotic clown.

This house is based off of the clowns that haunt the DC Universe area of Six Flags in the scare zone called City Under Siege. 

The haunted house is covered wall to wall in clowns as they take control of the city. The house is labeled to be a stronger house, but to me, it shows the reality of the budget cuts at Fright Fest this year. The sets are mostly reused and repurposed from last year’s Stranger Things house and I even noticed the same, barely rethemed stairs from the Creel House.

The house’s story isn’t strong enough and it relies too heavily on the clowns to make this a good haunted house. However, if you are even slightly coulrophobic, this will be the scariest house you go through this year.

Still, I got scared and even had a shouting match with a clown in one of the rooms. I may have lost, but I take the loss with pride.

Willoughby’s Resurrected

Now the final house of the spooky season at Six Flags Magic Mountain is called Willoughby’s Resurrected. This haunted house has been at Fright Fest for thirteen years and is the longest running house at Six Flags this year and of all time. 

Originally called Willoughby’s Haunted Mansion, this house has been a staple of Fright Fest since its first year in 1993 where it was the only attraction. 

The house has been at the top of the Magic Mountain for so long, it is starting to show. I agree it is an iconic house, but it was more of a fun experience then scary.

The walk through was located in a Victorian style mansion that is haunted by Willoughby’s family. There are many scenes that tell stories of the time periods this house and family have survived through, and the sets are very realistic and well done.

At one point, I walked into a room, a dark living room with no one living inside. In the living room appears to be a crashed carriage of sorts that looks like it has been there for years. And then there were two family members, who successfully distracted me from the other member of the family hiding in the driver’s seat of the carriage. 

Jumping out of fear, I ran to the next room faster than ever, finding myself in the shrubs, a room covered in leaves and bushes, the last room. Of course, while I was making my way to the exit, two ghillie suits jumped out of the bushes and so I continued to run, right out of the house.

As much as I wasn’t a fan of Willoughby’s, the house still pulls off the old concept and it is turning into more of a nostalgic house that is worth the visit only for that.

If it is nostalgic for me, it isn’t for anyone else. The times I went through the house at Fright Fest, the lines were completely empty and my group was the only group in the entire house.

Scare Zones

Scare zones at this year’s Fright Fest are easily the best part of the Halloween season at Six Flags.

The nine scare zones explore different themes, from the dark side of the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz to a celebration of Dia de los Muertos where the vibrant colors of each skeleton’s dress or suit blend well with the amazing design of the lights in the scare zone.

Easily the best experience from my night at Fright Fest was all of the characters I was able to share conversations with the characters in different scare zones. Sometimes I would walk by and simply say “Hi!” In response, I would get an in-character “hi” back. 

I also had whole conversations with some of the characters, while they stayed in character, they would ask me questions and one of the characters even asked me to go to her spa which is located in a cauldron.

Wrap Up

After my night at Six Flags, I would gladly go again in an instant. Don’t tell anyone, I went the next day as well, and the Friday after that. 

I admit, there were many downsides of Fright Fest this year; because of a recent merge with Cedar Fair Company, Six Flags has cut down on its budget, affecting Fright Fest immensely.

Sadly some of the best haunted houses at Six Flags Magic Mountain were forced to be retired for this year because they would not fit the budget. 

We have lost the amazing, once 3D haunted house Sewer of Souls as well as the high budgeted Army of the Dead and Aftermath outside attractions. From eleven haunted houses last year to eight this year, the budget cuts can be felt by patrons of the park. 

Walking through some of the haunted houses, I could tell that they didn’t have too much to work with, and maybe even not enough people.

However budget cuts affect the park, Six Flags Fright Fest is still always the most fun Halloween event, not because of the haunted houses or scare zones. Not because of the shows they put on or the Halloween spirit in the air. 

It’s because of the people that put the whole event together and have kept it alive for over thirty years. The crew behind the scenes, like always, has done an amazing job putting together Fright Fest this year. Working with budget cuts from the merge, the crew still managed to put on a great and memorable spooky season.

Not only does the behind the scenes crew create a great environment for us Fright Fest fans, but so do the actors that show up everyday, put on many pounds of costume and makeup, and run around and scare us for our enjoyment all night. The actors bring Fright Fest to life. From the haunted houses to the scare zones, scare actors keep the night entertaining and fun.

I will be going again and again this Halloween season—I mean, we still have so much time left in the month. I would recommend you go to Six Flags Fright Fest this year. It may not be as good as last year, but it still is a scary event and a perfect Halloween environment. The memories you will make there will always be great, or greater.