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This past weekend we headed out to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the opening night of their all new Scream Break event. I'll be honest, we hadn't planned on going on opening weekend but they opened it up to a limited amount of passholders each night so we figured we'd go check it out. And we are glad we did! I headed up with Gabe from Theme Park Duo to check out the event, but not before doing some update stuff first. I also have some thoughts on how they can incorporate some of the amazing operational things they did for Scream Break into this years Fright Fest event. I outlined them in the video below, but if you "don't have time to watch a video" (actual comment from somebody who had been spending hours looking for info on the event) I'll share my thoughts here as well. You can see that at the bottom of this update. Enjoy!  Looks like they're doing something out on the back parking lot. If I had to guess it's for some kind of commercial shoot in the parking lot. Something that has happened many, many times before.   Looks like they're also doing some work on some of the Hurricane Harbor slides.  It was AVID day, not the video editing thing, apparently for smart kids or something. Obviously not me. =)  Our first stop was to get our Event Wristband. Kind of a slow process, but it was the first night so hopefully they improve this a bit.   The glass shop has been moved up to Rapids Camp replacing some of the games. Still looks like it's getting set up, but this is not a terrible location for this.  Lots of little improvements like this going on throughout the park which is always nice to see.  We wanted tacos. They had no tacos.  Hmm, where have I seen this before?  Oh, that's where!! In New Jersey! We really do love you Six Flags. Don't ever change. =)  Alright, let's get into Scream Break. Which is like Spring Break but with Monsters!   The event officially opens at 9:00pm, but they open up the area with the two mazes and one of the scare zones at 8:00.  The idea is pretty much to keep you in this area from 8:00 to 9:00 so they can clear the park. A great idea, even if it wasn't totally clear to everybody. But it was the first night.  Be. Aggressive. B.E. Aggressive.   This area consists of 2 mazes, Vault 666 Initiation and Condemned House Party. One (Vault) was pretty much the same as Fright Fest, the other was SO much better.  We said this on social media, I mentioned it in the above video, but I'll say it again. They NEED to keep this party theme for Fright Fest!  It's basically a college house party in a haunted maze. And it's super fun!  Lots of talent and lots of photo ops in this area!  Even the demons are all decked out for Spring Break!  Make sure to take a drink from the huge Solo Cup!
   The event also stretches back to DC Universe! Some Vampire Prom thing we think!    Superman has got some balls! Disco Balls that is!  Awesome DJ in front of DC Universe!  They also brought over some props and neon from the Scare Zone that's usually in The Underground.  Did we mention there were rides too? This was the wait for Twisted Colossus!  Goliath was scheduled to be open, but was not. We do think it opened last night though.  MORE OF THIS PLEASE! Not just for Halloween stuff, but all the time! It adds so much to the park at night.  Even the Golden Bear Theater got some lights and fog!  We had an absolutely fantastic time and we hope the word of mouth spreads for this fantastic event! So, how would I incorporate operational changes from scream break to fright fest?Anybody who's visited Fright Fest knows that at least on a Saturday night the event can get overwhelmingly busy with families and teenagers with no supervision. I'll be honest, I've never encountered any major problems at the event other than annoying people who seem hell-bent on ruining everybody else's time with the shenanigans. But I know the talent, blackouts and security have a tough go of it some nights. With Scream Break, they kind of did what I think is a test for the future of Fright Fest. And it worked!! There were essentially three categories of guests at the event.
Basically, if you want to go with your Pass/Membership you need to get there early, but we don't think were all gone the night we went. And this is what they need to do with Fright Fest. You need to have those three groups, and limit the event to a smaller number while doing a "soft closure" of the park. So how do they do this?
Doing this gives you a smaller crowd, likely gives you more people buying a Fright Fest Ticket/Fright Fest pass than you have now, and makes the event that much more enjoyable. In addition, as we've been saying for years, Fright Fest should have a similar footprint to what they had for Scream Break. Six Flags Magic Mountain is simply too big a park to have scare zones and monsters in every corner. It's just not possible to fill out your mazes and scare zones. Fright Fest should be:
And THAT IS IT! 4 mazes is enough for the event. So what do you think? Related Videos
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It's now getting into the final week of the 2021 Halloween season. In some ways it seems like it's been going on for a long time, in other ways it seems like it just began. It's been a phenomenal season and this week we have so many events to visit or revisit. So it was last Friday after doing some Santa Clarita Valley Home Haunts that we found ourselves at Fright Fest for our last visit of the 2021 season. In many ways it's been a weird season for not just Fright Fest, but a lot of events. But we're so happy to say that the event is firing on all cylinders as they close out their season. Visiting on a Friday is definitely a different crowd/vibe than visiting on a Saturday, and we HIGHLY recommend it. Not a lot of crowds, or teenager groups just wandering around trying to "scare" the actors. Just a really fun night all the way around. Let's head right in and get to the pics! Written by Gregg Condon  At about 10:30pm, this was the wait that greeted us.  Hello Mr. Demon  One last walk through Terror Rising (still don't think they need the Dark Developments tagline)  It definitely is creepy and gives some amazing views of Viper, which was running, well, like Viper.  I don't remember seeing this last time. Hmm.  We of course had to say hi to our friends in Nightmares
 There are so many new and amazing characters in this area. You can tell they really all love working with each other. Look for this scare zone to be absolutely insane in 2022.     The more I think about it, the more I hope the neon Zombie theme extends to the Aftermath maze in 2022.  Some amazing lighting, sets and characters here.  Our first "official" Wonder Woman construction pic!  This was our first time walking through Witches Lair, it had been too busy all the other times we've visited. We really enjoyed it!  That said, would REALLY like to see City Under Seige expand to this area, and the Witches take over the area between Full Throttle and Goliath. They've earned it!   Of course, our main must-see of the night was Sliders of the Night. It's an amazing slider show. But first, some fun with the amazing talent back here.
 Got my awesome noggin-to-noggin what's up from one of the Exile Bros!
 Before the show we took a ride on The Flash, because why not.  Some pics from the show!   Thanks Fright Fest for another great season, they really bring it every night. And that's to be commended given the stresses of the 2021 season. I'll be back at the park on Friday during the day for a proper "park update", it's been awhile, so look forward to that. This week we'll be visiting Halloween events on Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat and Sun. So stay tuned! Related Videos
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This past weekend we were invited out to Six Flags Magic Mountain to take in this years Fright Fest. Coming fresh off of a year off the event features two new scare zones, a few new shows and some updates to a few of the mazes that we've come to know and love. Before we get into Fright Fest though, we've got a quick 2022 Coaster Construction update. Written by Gregg Condon  Welcome back to Fright Fest!  While this is a great idea, wish it was about 3 hours earlier  It was CROWDED!  Before we get into the scares, how about a look at Construction/deconsctruction  Anybody want some ZZA!?  I think this was the Green Lantern queue
 Easily the most crowded we've seen any park in 18 months
 We think this is for us! =) Fright FestBefore we get into our Fright Fest Review, we have to start off with our honest assessment of the crowds. Because it played a big part in our overall enjoyment of the event. For us, the event had crowds that we just were not comfortable with. If you are the LEAST bit concerned or have anxiety about the over-crowding of events or Covid, we unfortunately can't in good conscience recommend this event on a Saturday night. Because Six Flags Magic Mountain does not close prior to Fright Fest beginning, there's no way to thin out the crowds. So what you get is:
While we experienced some kind of crowds at other Halloween events so far this year, nothing even came close to what we saw at SFMM. And this is still mid-September. We really do want this event to be successful, but it just didn't feel comfortable for us. It will also be very interesting to see what crowds are like after October 7th when vaccinations/negative tests are required to visit theme parks in LA County.  Crowds about 10pm  Queue for the food places is a great idea, not using it and the line spilling out into the walkway, bad idea  All that said, there are some truly great things at Fright Fest, and if you aren't bothered by large crowds you will have a great time. So let's get into the event shall we! In case you missed it last week, we took at look at the Scare Zones and Merchandise at Fright Fest. So in this update we'll be looking mostly at the mazes, but a few other pics from around the event as well.  We're ready to get scared!  So great to see Scott Ramp again! His team is truly amazing! See what they did to me a few years back below. The event kicks off with Monsters Unleashed. And we love it!
 Maze ReviewsI have to say, where our maze rankings for Fright Fest ended up was kind of surprising to us, in a good way. Like all events this year, one issue we did experience at Fright Fest was a lack of actors in the mazes and scare zones. But everybody gets a pass this year. It's been tough for everybody to find talent, and we're just happy events are actually happening. Willoughby's Resurrected Now in it's 8th year (would be 9 if the event ran last year), Willoughby's Ressurected has addressed some issues we had in years past (lighting) and added some amazing new scenes and effects. It's definitely breathed new life into the maze (pun intended).  A new maze façade was the first change we saw, it wasn't the last. They really should keep this up all year.  The maze has a new sponsor this year, and thus has some new scenes and effects  The first room in the maze is completely redone
 We absolutely loved this new scene  It definitely feels more like a "Haunted Mansion" now Vault 666 Unlocked The other maze that had the most amount of changes this year was Vault 666. Gone is the "animal experiment theme" and it definitely has more of a "Haunted" feel now. TBH, the name of this maze probably doesn't fit too much any more and is probably due for an update in 2022. This was the maze we actually saw the most amount of talent in, and they were fantastic!   Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising Easily the largest maze at Fright Fest, this one too suffered from a lack of "scary" talent. There were a LOT of soldiers in here, like a LOT, but not a whole lot of monsters to scare you. I don't really think they need the guards/police in this one, just fill it all with zombies. The entire 2nd half of the maze was completely vacant of talent. Still, this is an impressive maze and has some of our favorite scenery.  Sewer of Souls A few years back this was one of our favorite mazes, not just at Fright Fest but at any event. They did move the entrance of the maze this year and change a few other things, but once again, the lack of any scares puts it pretty low on our list. It's still one of the more visually stunning mazes at Fright Fest. And for that we will always visit this one.     Red's Revenge Don't want to sound like a broken record here, but I think we saw maybe 3-4 actors in this entire maze. And no Red in the climactic scene. This is another one that was revised a bit for this year (no pre-show) but is definitely in need of a major overhaul or retheme for 2022.  Condemned The idea of an abandoned/condemned house maze is something we absolutely love. And there was actually a lot of talent in here, maybe more than any other maze. But this one seems to be overly dark (like Willoughby's had been previously). A couple of lighting tweaks in here could greatly enhance this maze.   Our video for this one was so dark we decided not to post it. But the talent in here was awesome!  We also had a great time in the scare zones on Saturday, despite the crowds, and were able to see some of our favorite monster friends.  RIP Fright Fest? =)   We of course had to visit Lorraine-Lurane!  Neon Zombies! This area felt very "80's" to us, and an 80's soundtrack would enhance this area a lot we think!   Got to get a pic of the hearse without a family sititing on the hood eating dinner (yes, that happened last week)  City Under Siege!   One of us is the fastest clown alive    Still one of our favorite parks to take night pictures at  Lastly, the traffic issues are back due to Fright Fest. There is NO REASON to have this signal red for SFMM visitors. Nobody is living in those houses yet!! End Rant! So that's it for our review of Fright Fest 2021! The talent this year is amazing, as it is every year. Despite the crowds they are giving it their all, because that's what they do! If you are visiting this year, we do recommend going on a Friday or Sunday. Have you visited Fright Fest so far in 2021? Let us know your thoughts below! Related Videos
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