Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest 2019: General Review

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, CA

Welcome, folks, to the second part of our opening weekend coverage for the 2019 edition of the Southern California haunt season. Every year, Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights kicks off the screams with their event, but the past few years, Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest has been next in line to open, ahead of even Knott’s Scary Farm! So it was that we found ourselves up at the Mountain last Saturday evening for opening night of Fright Fest’s 2019 event.

On the promotional side, we didn’t come in expecting much. The park had quietly announced a new monster sliding show called Sliders of the Night, and the maze line-up remained at last year’s 6, with 2018’s new maze, Hell Fest, reverting to Vault 666—or so it seemed. Little did we know that the maze had been almost completely remodeled, so that even though its physical layout and elements were identical to Hell Fest and the original Vault 666, the theme and aesthetic looked completely and refreshingly different.

Vault 666: Unlocked completely surpasses expectations this year.

Fright Fest is the only theme park Halloween event in the area that isn’t a separate hard ticket. Instead, on weekend evenings at 7:00pm, Six Flags Magic Mountain transforms into Fright Fest before guests’ very eyes. Although an upcharge wristband is required for the mazes, the scare zones are open to general guests, and the transition is marked by the ceremonial unveiling of the monsters. Called Unleashed this year (and formerly The Surge), this traditional running of the creeps has become an eagerly awaited part of Fright Fest, with fans crowding sidewalks of the main thoroughfare in the DC Universe to see the clowns, zombies, creatures, and beast come hurtling out of their realm. It’s an exciting moment of adrenaline, chaos, and scares.

Monsters are Unleashed from the back of the park at the 7:00 hour.

From there, we headed off to tackle the mazes. Unfortunately, operational issues plagued the event’s opening night early on, as at least two of the mazes did not open on time (Sewer of Souls a bit after 7:30, and Willoughby’s Resurrected around 7:45). We also saw exceedingly long lines for a couple of the front three mazes, with even the Express line stretching an almost unbelievable length and surely delaying the stand-by line even further. This seemed to suggest that the event as a whole has gained enough popularity that the park can afford to separate the pricing structure between a regular maze wristband ($18 online) and the express band ($38 online) more than its current difference, in order to mitigate the increasing numbers of front-of-line holders that seem to go up every year.

Opening night maze ops aside (and if you wanted much shorter waits, mazes were all basically walk-on’s after midnight), this year’s Fright Fest again offered an assort of fun thrills featuring a passionate and energetic group of monsters who breathed life and enthusiasm into their roles. From scare zones to mazes, we really didn’t see talent taking a moment off or breaking character (well, except for one maze run-through at the end of the night).

Speaking of mazes, Fright Fest has been slowly improving the quality of their overall line-up over the past half-decade, and this year was a continued step in the right direction. Last year’s new maze and surprise hit, Sewer of Souls, continued to shine this year. And Vault 666: Unlocked felt like a brand new maze that greatly exceeded our modest expectations of a return to the old theme. Rather than an asylum aesthetic, this maze was transformed into a repository of cursed relics and artifacts. Of course, when guests enter, all hell breaks loose. Come to think of it, theme-wise, it was similar to Halloween Horror Nights’ Curse of Pandora’s Box!

Sewer of Souls is back and ready for more Magic Mountain toilet humor jokes.

Vault 666: Unlocked has been remade and is a haunting reimagining of a great maze.

In addition, Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising and Red’s Revenge continued to put forth solid showings. Our trek through Aftermath was littered with talent—a happy turnaround considering the maze seemed emptier last year than its debut year (we could have just hit a bad break in the scheduling, though). In any case, with a sea of military personel, victims, and creatures, plus the most impressive and spectacular scale of sets of really any haunt maze in SoCal, Aftermath 2 was a thumbs up for our visit. Meanwhile, Red’s Revenge remained unchanged since its 2014 inception. Though the maze could use a refresh simply because six years is a long time to go without anything new, the overall maze design and strength of story was enough to keep this an enjoyable maze.

Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising remains on an unparalleled scale.

Red Riding Hood continues to exact her revenge.

On other end of the spectrum, Condemned: Forever Damned (new last year) saw some lighting and scenic improvements, but it still felt like a maze falling short of its potential. A lack of any soundtrack still plagues the guest experience, making the maze feel hollow, and the walk-through feels more like a walk through a haunted house’s various rooms, as opposed to a cohesive story.

Condemned: Forever Damned is less dark this year, with some improved contrast in scenes put forth through last season’s adjustments.

Lastly, Willoughby’s Resurrected had energetic and engaged talent, but its scenic design is such an outdated vestige of Fright Fest’s former identity as a clear last fiddle in the Southern California haunt market that the maze desperately needs a new theme, or at least new lighting and effects to bring it up closer to the level of its haunted house cohorts in the park.

Another year, another Willoughby’s maze.

The scare zones continued to shine, however. This year, there were “only” six, and talent-wise, they were all fantastic, with scare actors constantly lurking in the dark and looking for new victims. At some points, like in Witches Lair or Demon’s Door, the action seemed to be constant motion, with monsters hitting and moving on. Other areas, like Exile Hill, had a mixture of more creeps and slow moving action and the sneak attack of sliders emerging from the Fog.

The terror of Fright Fest starts at Demon’s Door.

Witches Lair is one of the less extensive and immersive scare zones, but it has good energy in its localized area.

Innocence Willoughby once again leads the creepy crawlies of moody Exile Hill.

Favorites like Nightmares: A Twisted Fantasy and City Under Siege continued to deliver, both visually and interactively.

In Nightmares, demented characters from everyone’s favorite fairy tales were free to interact with guests as they pleased. Memorable characters such as the Witch displayed incredibly witty and constantly improvisational banter to entertain, while the colorful, dark lighting of the woodsy scene lent an unnaturally bizarre feel to the scare zone.

Nightmares lights up the wilderness path between Viper and Roaring Rapids again, bringing fairy tales to life in dark, perverse ways.

The clowns of City Under Siege were delightful as always, causing chaos and mischief. Whether it be through active scares or just engaging silly and distractive shenanigans, this classic zone was a joy to simply stroll through and observe. Not unlike in Knott’s Scary Farm’s Carnevil area, the shear presence of clowns was enough to unnerve some guests, and the talented and observant monsters were quick to pounce on those who showed any sign of weakness.

City Under Siege has once again gone to the clowns. The colorful, colorful clowns.

TERRORtory Twisted also proved to be an interesting area to stroll through. Though less immersive than some of the other scare zones, the steampunk aesthetic still allowed the characters there to be odd and disturbing, or sometimes even just obnoxious.

A fiend from TERRORtory Twisted.

On the entertainment front, Six Flags Fright Fest has started to evolve a pretty nice selection of shows that appeal to guests of all varieties. This year, there were four “shows” total. In addition to the opening Unleashed moment, The High Sierra Hypnotist continued to offer family-friendly comedy and a bit of magical conjuring. Voodoo Nights was the dance party spot the entire night, situated just outside of the entrance to Full Throttle, near the front of the park. Alternating between a live band, electronic music from a DJ, and dance performances, this macabre version of ElecTRONica provided guests with a break in the scare action while still maintaining performances to take in.

Voodoo Nights rocks the evenings of Fright Fest.

In our eyes, however, the big hit of the event was the new Sliders of the Night slider show. We’ve covered slider shows before. A vestige of the unofficial “Slider Olympics” that was originally put on by the slider monsters at Knott’s Scary Farm, these have been carried through via Decayed Brigade’s performances at Midsummer Scream and other special events at which they perform, and at Dark Harbor, which features twice-a-night shows caring the same “Slider Olympics” name.

Sliders of multiple scare zones converge in City Under Siege for Sliders of the Night.

This year, the Fright Fest monsters have decided to take their turn at the play, and they absolutely knocked it out of the park. Bolstered by a raucous audience despite the late midnight showtime hour (the show plays only once a night, at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and 10:00pm on Sundays), monsters from City Under Siege, Exile Hill, and Demon’s Door converged in a 15+ minute, highly choreographed, technically dazzling display of sliding tricks, jumps, and acrobatics.

It was fun to see the style of the Fright Fest team in their take of a sliding show and how it differed from Decayed Brigade or Dark Harbor. The tricks and pacing was very in synch, with actions that required more concise timing mixed with the theatrics of having sparkers literally light up the ground, as opposed to more technically grueling challenges like extended jumps and more tag team slider tricks. There were familiar favorites, though, like the limbo and the tunnel and short and medium range monster jumps. Backed by a hopping (though relatively faint) soundtrack, Sliders of the Night thrilled audiences from beginning to end, and the park would do well to keep the show and feature it more heavily this season and in upcoming seasons!

The slider tricks at Sliders of the Night were literally dazzling.

Ultimately, Fright Fest provided another very enjoyable evening for us to take in the solid maze line-up, entrancing scare zones, and great entertainment. With its wristband pricing model, the event remains the best deal one can get for a theme park and haunt experience. Those who don’t purchase maze wristbands can still experiences frights in the scare zones and the shows throughout the night, because the park does not close down prior to Fright Fest commencement.

There are certainly improvements that can be made to the event, of course. We’d love to see greater attention devoted to the mazes, and some level of enhancements given to returning mazes similar to what Knott’s and Dark Harbor do, rather than the literal exact iteration each year. The direction the maze quality has been trending has been great, and we definitely hope that continues. On the scare zones side, layering more props and scenic dressing each year can continue to enhance the attractions. Fright Fest will add a seventh scare zone next year called the Underground to feature the area around West Coast Racers—that much has already been announced. But continuing to push the quality around the scare zones instead of just quantity will make them that much better.

Fright Fest is not going to fool anyone into thinking it’s at a Knott’s Scary Farm or Halloween Horror Nights level of detail and sophistication, but it has closed the gap more than most people give credit, with enjoyable mazes, scare zones, and entertainment options. And if the crowds that packed opening night were any indication, people are starting to notice that Six Flags Magic Mountain is no longer the punchline of the SoCal theme park haunt debate—it’s a respectable contender.

Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest runs on varying weekend dates now through Sunday, November 3. Tickets are available online.