SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN FRIGHT FEST 2016

3 Stars (of 5)

Over the past several years I’ve been a huge supporter of Fright Fest even encouraging people to attend over Knott’s Scary Farm & Universal Halloween Horror Nights. Last year I was disappointed in the lack of creativity and not changing the mazes, but this year I was so excited to come and experience everything again with the small changes that were made.

However, if every night this year is like opening night then I would just say to skip it.

The lines were poorly managed: We purchased the express pass and still waited 30 minutes in most maze lines while the general line appeared to move almost as quickly as express at times. I watched employees send people in 1:1 ratio on the 2 lines but express was similar in length at times.
The mazes have been changed, but not for the better: Toyz doesn’t have the impressive scenes that it used to. They also didn’t even offer glasses for the first half of the evening, so the first time we waited 25 minutes in the express line and it was just a blacklight maze without the 3D option. (We did return at the end of the night and were given glasses which changed the entire experience.) The Willoughby’s maze cut the awesome opening with the butler. The Garden maze was more of a dark sauna than a maze. I was mostly scared of passing out from the heat in it than the actors.
And what about Scare zones? Where were they? DC was just basically Suicide Squad photo ops. There were a handful of scare actors walking around attempting scares near maze entrances but no real scare zones except the zombie scare zone which I walked through several times and not one zombie even attempted to scare me and Terrortory Twisted. Also there was no hypnotist show. Apparently there was a Christian Revival or something happening in the theatre that night instead.

Overall I was very disappointed in the event. I had really high hopes for Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest and really looked forward to going only to be let down and reminded of the not-so-good old days of Fright Fest. I hope they step it up again next year so they can be back in the same league as Knott’s Scary Farm and Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, but unfortunately this year they are not.