Category: Fright Fest Extreme

9/18/2024

Review: Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest Extreme 2024

Happy Wednesday everybody and welcome to our review of Fright Fest Extreme 2024 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. In this update we'll take you through this years event and give you our overall thoughts.

We have lots of pictures and video to share with you as well, including walk-throughs of all of the new mazes for 2024.

If you'd like to check out the event overview (no review) that I posted on Thrillgeek, you can check that out here.

Welcome to Fright Fest Extreme 2024!

The event features a few new Scare Zones which is great to see!

Not sure what we were creating, but here we go!

Apparently Fright Fest is dead, and is now exclusively "EXTREME".

A look at the merchandise for this years event.

Fright Fest Extreme Review

Before I get into my thoughts on this years event I want to start with this. I know how much the creators of Fright Fest Extreme love this event. I've known them for years, some for 10-15 years. They absolutely love this event and want it to be as good as it can be.

That being said ...

We've said this in the past, but we're going to have to say it again. The event is too big. I realize Six Flags Magic Mountain is the EXTREME park, but you can be Extreme by creating a smaller footprint.

I don't know where the decision came to add 3 new IP mazes and also keep every single maze that has been there for years, but I'm guessing it came from very high up. Just so they could say they have the most. I will say I was honestly shocked when they announced that all of the mazes were coming back at Midsummer Scream.

New Mazes:

Trick r' Treat: This maze/house was featured at Halloween Horror Nights in 2018, and to be honest, we weren't the biggest fans of it. I absolutely loved the version at Fright Fest. Easily my favorite maze of this years event. It has the heart and fun of Trick r' Treat with some great scares. Kudos to the team for this one, and for getting it built in record time.

Saw 20th Anniversary: Saw was featured at Fright Fest in 2023 and at Scream Break earlier this year. The maze features some of the same scenes as the earlier version, but has definitely been enhanced for Fright Fest Extreme. We all really enjoyed this one and it is highly recommended.

The Conjuring Universe: Another maze that is a repeat from 2023 but that has been completely revamped and plussed for 2024. This maze was super fun, had some fantastic effects and great scares. If we had one thing to suggest for this one, the effects in the first room need to last a bit longer when a new group enters. By the time we got to see Annabelle, all of the "Conjuring" effects were done.

Stranger Things: This was a real "get" for Fright Fest Extreme and Six Flags, and I was really looking forward to it. I will say that the "upside down" sections were fantastic. However, being that this was just featured at Halloween Horror Nights last year, the comparison has to be made. I think the rooms here are too large and there is a lot of dead space. There are some very inventive scares here but I hope that if they bring this back next year they tighten it up a bit and make it a bit longer. They have plenty of room in this warehouse to do so.

Army of the Dead: Based on the Netflix movie of the same name, Army of the Dead takes up the first half of Aftermath 2 that has been at Fright Fest for a number of years. If you've done Aftermath you know what the first few scenes look like, but once you get into the "hotel" the maze really shines. Some fantastic scenes and some funny stuff in here. They did seem to have some issues with the maze throughout the weekend, hopefully they've gotten them resolved.

Returning Mazes

Here's a quick rundown of the returning mazes, we all know what's there, but I definitely have some thoughts.

Willoughby's Resurrected: There was a new entrance this year, gone is the intro room where you had to walk down a few stairs, which is fine. Nothing new in here and a little light on scareactors.

Sewer of Souls: Another returning maze that actually seemed to be much better this year. I don't think there were any changes in the maze itself, but this was packed with scareactors.

Aftermath Nocturnal Hunt: I know the park is labeling this as a 'NEW' maze, but think of the second half of Aftermath 2, but reversed, and a few new twists and turns, and there you have it.

Truth or Dare: Now in it's 3rd year, this really promising theme of a maze really doesn't deliver. We did do a video walkthrough of this maze, it was 4 minutes long, there were 4 total scareactors in the maze.

Vault 666: I'll be honest, I've never been the biggest fan of this maze, and it doesn't really bare any resemblance to it's first iteration which was some Island of Dr. Moreau thing going on, and now it's just a mish-mash of things. It's well passed time to retire this maze.

Condemned: They have abandoned the "house party" theme for Fright Fest and gone back to the original theme of the maze. I'm not sure why, but this is another maze that should be retired.

Scare Zones

Scare Zones are really where Fright Fest (Extreme or otherwise) has always shined. And this year is no different.

New Scare Zones include:

Plaza de la Muerte – Step into the spectral celebration of Día de los Muertos, where vibrant colors blend with eerie shadows in an immersive dance of spirits and traditions.
Underworlds of Oz – Journey through the dark side of Emerald City and the mystical realms of Oz, where twisted enchantments and ominous shadows consume the golden path, and the line between fantasy and nightmare blurs into a chilling adventure unlike any other.
Grimmlore Ridge – Enter a chilling realm where fear takes root and grows wild, leaving the daunting calls of ravens and crows echoing through the twisted branches and shadowed alleyway.

And the classic returning scare zones including Nightmares, Devil's Triangle, City Under Siege, CarnivHELL, The Deadzone and Exile Hill.

One of our favorite characters from any Haunt.

City Under Siege

Waiting for the next victim

Absolutely loved the new scarezone Underworlds of Oz

This year you are forced to go through CarnivHELL

The lighting team at Fright Fest is second to none

Trick r' Treat can be found all around the park, a very nice touch.

The lighting in Grimmlore Ridge was absolutely fantastic.

Final Thoughts

The question always comes down to "would you recommend this event", and this year the answer is yes. Despite a lack of scareactors in a few mazes and a few mazes that have been around for more than a few years too long, the event is always a blast.

That being said ...

Six Flags Magic Mountain is simply too big to have haunts and scare zones in every nook and cranny of the park. It's literally exhausting trying to get everything done in one night. I ran a 1/2 marathon the weekend before in the extreme heat and I was honestly more tired from Fright Fest than I was from that race.

Not only does having a large footprint for Fright Fest require an amount of scareactors that are simply not available in the busy Southern California Halloween market, it also requires makeup artists, costuming, line control staff, maze security and more.

I would much rather them concentrate on QUALITY over QUANTITY. And for too long, they've been concentrating on quantity.

If I was in charge this is how I would change Fright Fest in 2025.

The Willoughby's are a Fright Fest staple, and they should always be represented at the event. They are as classic to Magic Mountain as any of the parks classic coasters. That being said, Willoughby's Haunted Mansion needs a complete facelift. In fact, I would completely abandon the existing location and move it to where Vault 666 or Condemned are.

In addition I would retire Sewer of Souls and Exile Hill. Meaning no haunts or scare zones up on the hill.

Truth or Dare, Condemned, Aftermath and Vault 666 should be retired. If Trick r' Treat is coming back, let's give it a permanent location in the warehouse where Truth or Dare is. I'd love to see what they could do with that space and that IP.

If Willoughby's is moved to Condemned, The Conjuring should be moved to the Vault 666 location.

This means that instead of 11 mazes with varying levels of quality and some devoid of talent, you have 6 mazes (Saw, Trick r' Treat, The Conjuring, Stranger Things, Army of the Dead and Willoughby's) where you can move those resources to. All of your mazes are located from the front of the park to back near Apocalypse. No more Exile Hill and no maze near Tatsu. The only scarezone outside of that area would be Nightmares, which definitely should not ever leave.

Lastly, abandon superfluous scare zones just for the sake of having "more than any other park". If you can't fill the scare zone with scareactors, it shouldn't exist. So while we loved the lighting of Grimmlore Ridge, it's simply not big enough and there weren't enough actors there. This also applies to The Deadzone. I'd much rather them concentrate on filling up the centralized scare zones with monsters than having 1 or 2 monsters in a scare zone.

Have you visited Fright Fest Extreme this year? What were your thoughts?

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