Before the lights went out in the park, we were invited to a bit of a reception with some Fright Fest treats, which allowed us to get some daytime pics of decor.

It was a delightfully chilly evening at the park, which just added to the spooky factor.

Some fantastic photo ops in front of Golden Bear Theater.

Sadly this one had some damage, don't touch stuff!!

Also managed to get a ride on the best hyper coaster on the west coast.

At 7:00 it's time for the monsters to be unleashed! In our opinion, Magic Mountain has the best opening "scaremony" of any theme park haunt. It's just so fun.

Unlike previous years, we only have video of the new mazes on our YouTube, but we'll be posting highlights of the existing mazes on our Instagram over the next few days!

We really enjoyed Saw, the visuals were quite stunning!

The other new maze for 2023 was The Conjuring, this reminded us a LOT of the Conjuring maze that was at the WB event a few years back, which makes sense.

We absolutely loved this maze, so awesomely creepy with some tremendous effects.

While not technically a new maze, we did not get a chance to experience Truth or Dare last year, and based on the videos we saw from last year, this years maze is much improved. We absolutely loved it.

As far as returning mazes are concerned, Vault 666 has received yet another story change, and it's easily the best incarnation of this maze yet. If you'll remember, when the maze first started it was some kind of animal hybrid theme. The maze now features little resemblance in story to the original. So much so, we're shocked they haven't changed the name.

Condemned House Party was back from Scream Break and was just as much fun. Although we missed the party going on outside of the maze itself. Not sure why they didn't bring all that back.

Willoughby's Resurrected was back and received some nice upgrades inside the maze, which was great to see.

Sewer of Souls was also back and gave me my first, and so far only scare of the 2023 Haunt Season. So thank you!

Aftermath 2 also got some great upgrades, and far less soldiers telling you to "go go go". Which isn't scary. Still, we'd love to see the neon lights of the nearby Dead Zone scare zone come into the maze to give it new life.

Nightmares is one of our favorite scare zones at any event

We also got to see our dear Lorraine Lurane

The Dead Zone mini scare zone/walk-through was back, and was full of monsters!

The unnecessary scare zone heading up the hill is gone, but the lighting has remained. We love this choice. Better to use the talent to fill the other areas vs only having 1 or 2 actors here.

The newest scare zone at the front of the park was also back, we love this area so much!

And of course, City Under Siege is back, and is definitely using the entire area this year, which is fantastic!

Definitely the most popular scare zone at the park

We'll leave you a look at some Fright Fest merchandise, which has been upgraded this year!

That said, we'd really love some Magic Mountain specific merchandise.

Just putting it out there, since our dear Innocence has now retired from Fright Fest, we'd be all over a Fright Fest shirt featuring that character.

Some WB merchandise as well, which isn't surprising. Could we possibly see some other WB horror franchises come to Fright Fest in future years?