Six Flags Magic Mountain's Fright Fest 2016: Returning Scare Zones & Entertainment

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, CA

Welcome to our third and final day of our inaugural coverage of Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain!  After looking at the major new additions for 2016 and the returning mazes, we'll be reviewing the scare zones and some of the Fright Fest entertainment.  Both offer some great fun for guests, depending on what they're looking for!  Lets dive right in.

The Surge

Because Fright Fest is not a separately ticket event that closes down daytime operations, there isn't really an opening ceremony at the front of the park.  Instead, the signal of Fright Fest's arrival comes with "The Surge," the entrance of park scare zone monsters through the gates near the SCREAM roller coaster.  With dramatic flair, a horde of monsters trudges out from the regions beyond (i.e. backstage) and begins a reign of terror from rapidly fleeing and gleeful fans.  It's a cool little feature that guests have come to look forward to, and it's a nice way of kicking off each Fright Fest night!

As darkness descends, the monsters come out.

Guests who had gathered to see them emerge now scatter.

And the monsters give chase!

It's a great way to kickstart the adrenaline.

The Surge has become a nice little traditional ritual too.

Demon's Door

Jumping to the front of the park, we have the "first" scare zone guests encounter and the last one they see before they leave at night.  Demon's Door is Six Flags Magic Mountain's recreation of hell.  And I know, some of you are already joking that this basically means the regular park, but as I've mentioned, Magic Mountain and the Fright Fest event have made some great strides in recent years, so "hell" no longer serves as a proper euphemism for the Six Flags experience.  Here, however, hell takes the form of demonic creatures, hulking monuments, and lots and lots of fire.  Hooray flamethrowers in the Six Flags Plaza fountain!

At the front of the park, large, fiery, photogenic things guard the entrance.

This is Demon's Door.

This is a demon.

And this is a great example of craft at Fright Fest.

There are devilish monsters here as well.

They all look great.

Fire erupts regularly by the fountain.

It might have darn well melted this guy's skin off!

But it definitely lends an epic feel here.

Exile Hill

Up at the top of Samurai Summit lies Exile Hill, home to the Willoughby's and a collection of undead that have risen to inflect sinister horror on unsuspecting souls.  This is the home of several particularly popular and exceptionally committed, cuttingly creepy, and incredible looking monsters--headlined by Innocence Willoughby, who slowly creeps upon guests with cold, calculated motion.  This scare zone just feels chilling and haunted, and the combination of talent and eerie lighting and theming makes this one of my favorite scare zones at Fright Fest.

Up on Exile Hill, a hearse welcomes those who aren't quite fit enough to easily make the climb up the hill.
 

The ambiance is quite spooky.

Various iconic looking monsters roam around.

This guy looks amazing.

And he behaves in a disturbing manner too!

Being a zombie in a tree.

And then scaring with a simple drop toward guests, braced by his legs.

The blue lighting gives plenty of dramatic photo ops.

Here is Innocence Willoughby.

She was murdered by her own father.

But she has returned as a vengeful spirit.

So it would seem that Innocence is not so innocent anymore.

A clown in one of the roaming scare zone interrupts my photography.

Whoever the actress is who plays Innocence deserves kudos.

She never breaks character and never even seems to blink.

She just moves slowly and methodically.

Teddy bear in hand.  Tragically.

She'll crawl toward nervous guests too.

She doesn't break character even when gawked at by other monsters.

So creepy!

Sitting. Waiting.

And attracting quite a crowd.

At least one member is quite curious too!

The rest of the area is littered with zombies.

Including this sliding one...

...who was kind enough to do a slide for an action shot!

Nightmares - A Twisted Fantasy

My other favorite scare zone is located over by Rapids Camp Crossing.  Nightmares - A Twisted Fantasy features perverse reimaginations of popular fairy tales, with bright, vibrant colors lit by blacklight and creating a crazy, seemingly drug-induced fever dream of a scare zone.  As usual, the characters here have incredible aesthetics demonstrating Magic Mountain's superior make-up team.  The actors themselves are a lot of fun, interacting in character and really being quite entertaining.  Some even seem to have their own little followings, which is pretty impressive.

Here is Hansel.

And here is Gretel.

Here's a giant spider.

And then Hansel again.

Everything is quite colorful.

And quite twisted, like this piggy.

Hey... that plant looks like a monster head...

The witch prowls this land in search of new victims.

She's quite a talker.

But don't fall for her lies.

This stilt walker is pretty cool too.

Slightly unnerving.

More unnerving when he drops down like so.
 

The Mad Hatter bids us a loony adieu.

And the March Hare has seemingly seen better days.

And finally, here's a toadstool that looks like a d...ecrepid scary creature.

The Ruins

This extention of the Aftermath 2 maze wasn't much special, and I neglected to really take photos.  But trust me when I say that the maze is much more impressive than the scare zone.  Although that's probably okay, given Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising is practically a scare zone in and of itself.  On my visit, I saw a couple instances of monsters scaring.  But the bigger issue is that this scare zone doesn't really span across much area.  Plus, its staffing seems rather frugal.  It's a bit of a shame, since the area seems like it has a lot of potential, if only additional investment is made.

Caught this eerie, fog-filled scene of Cyclone Bay coming over the hill.

The Ruins itself is pretty much an extension of Aftermath 2's post-apocalyptic theme.

Zombie Xing

The other smaller scare zone occurs through Bugs Bunny World.  As you can guess by the name, it's populated by the undead.  I can't say much about this scare zone, as it didn't seem to be in operation during the walk-throughs that I made.  The theming seems to be a slight effort, but it definitely doesn't compare to the big three discussed earlier, or the next area...

Warning!

Cute.

TERRORtory Twisted

This macabre version of the Screampunk District features a steampunk aesthetic gone wrong, with monsters roaming through a bizarre mechanical world.  Visually, this area is quite beautiful, but there's not too much immersion.  It's more like props and theming scattered about.  But what is there looks and is lit great, and perhaps further refinements in the future will make this scare zone really pop.

A large archway marks the entry into TERRORtory Twisted.

The land is a wonderful play on words.

Filled with very hideous characters.

They wander about, in search of prey.

It's basically just a midway area with a few displays thrown up.

But the lighting that floods the space is quite photogenic.

The lights change and perform almost like mini-shows too.

It's all very much haunted steampunk.

I think it looks nice, though.

Sacrificial skull?

Right before the end of the night, I spotted a group of monsters leaving the area.

Fortunately, they stuck around long enough to allow for this photo.

Voodoo Nights

Finally, for those looking for less intimidating fare, there's the nighttime stage spectacular known as Voodoo Nights.  The easiest way to describe this is to call it the Magic Mountain version of Mad T Party (or ElecTRONica)--there's a live band that plays half hour sets of pop and rock cover songs, and then the entertainment switches to something dance related.  Of course, some of the band members may have actually come from Mad T, so I suppose there's a certain fitting feel to this.  Though monsters may try to scare inattentive guests, overall, Voodoo Nights is a safe zone geared more for music and dance entertainment as opposed to anything terrifying.

Voodoo Nights is nighttime outdoor entertainment.

The "Voodoo Dolls" dance in between sets of the band.

The live band, however, plays pretty frequently.

Stage lighting and lasers and fog have been set up to further the spectacle.

The band attracts a decent crowd.

They cover a variety of pop and rock songs new and old.

And, of course, to suit the theme, they're all made up like the dead.

Or maybe undead.

I used this opportunity to work on a bit of my concert photography.

The stage lighting makes for some nice scenes!

The lead male vocalist, with Thriller-esque jacket.

If cover bands are your thing, you should love Voodoo Nights.

Apparently, that is the keyboardist's real hair.  Pretty awesome.

Singing with passion.

Getting the crowd involved.

Urging guests to sing along.

They definitely have passion. Or show it.

Focusing on the drummer...

Guitar too?

Alright.

I'm realizing that I may have allotted too many photos for this.

Since I'm running out of things to say.

But I liked the way these photos turned out.

So I'm sharing each one of these.

The band wraps up their set.

And then it's time for the dancers again.

And so the Voodoo Dolls do their thing.

Apparently, every night around I think midnight, there is also a big "Thriller" dance-off.

I wasn't able to witness it on this visit, but I'm told it's a lot of silly fun, with even monsters joining in the fray.

There you have it--a recap of this year's Fright Fest!  As you can see, visually, the event is no longer the Halloween runt that everyone else can make fun of.  By all reports, the quality has really ascended over the past few years, and my experience left me impressed in the same manner than I enjoy heavy hitters like Knott's Scary Farm, Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, and Dark Harbor.  Magic Mountain now has a line-up of mazes and scare zones that really hold their own against the big dogs.

The only concern about Fright Fest's continued improvement is speed.  Unlike Knott's, which usually introduces three new mazes each year, or Universal, which almost always comes up with completely new themed mazes each year, Six Flags hangs onto their mazes for a while.  The best expectation for maze turnover is really about one new maze a year, which means returning guests may not find as much revisit value if most of the offerings won't be new. 

But that's sort of nitpicking.  The strengths are clear.  With make-up, Six Flags Magic Mountain's Fright Fest is unparalleled, thanks to Scott Ramp and his amazing Scream Team.  And with talent energy, Magic Mountain similarly leads the pack, since the monsters provide entertainment even when they're not actually scary. 

So if you haven't made you way up north, but you have some free time, I do recommend a visit to Fright Fest.  The wristband to experience mazes isn't much of an upcharge, and the Express Line pass is a much better deal than at Knott's or Universal.  Indeed, if Fright Fest is any indication, things are looking up for Magic Mountain.  And that's devilishly great!