Six Flags Magic's Mountain's Scream Break: 2023 Review

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, CA

Because of scheduling conflicts amongst all the busy mania of last year's haunt season, we never made it up to Six Flags Magic Mountain to check out their Fright Fest. It's an event that we've been covering since 2016, when Westcoaster relaunched, and though Fright Fest is still admittedly a step below the top-tier haunt names like Knott's Scary Farm and Halloween Horror Nights, it has definitely improved over the years compared to its caliber a decade prior.

As Fright Fest has built up its own following and popularity--highlighted by its unique status as the best value theme park haunt by including Fright Fest within regular theme park admission and only charging extra for guests who wish to go through the mazes--the crowds have made some Fright Fest nights less comfortable. Because guests can just stay after dark and still enjoy the scare zones and live entertainment without paying extra, Fright Fest has been overly packed on some nights, which has impacted the guest experience, as such a problem does for all parks.

It stands to wonder if making Fright Fest a hard-ticketed event like its competitors would help. After all, more revenue could help spur more investment and allow Six Flags to increase the quality and the frequency of new additions to its haunted event. But Six Flags Magic Mountain is also more remote from the bulk of metropolitan Southern California than its big-name haunt cohorts, and a sudden shift to a separate admission after so many years of patrons being accustomed to just sticking around to enjoy the scares might have a backfire effect and alienate people who were willing to go to Fright Fest for free but aren't willing to pay extra for the event.

Now if only there was some way to do a test run of a hard ticketed event on a small scale to gauge how well a more exclusive Fright Fest might be received...

Well, good news, because this year, that's exactly what's happening right now with Magic Mountain's brand-new Scream Break event! Consider this a Fright Fest Lite. For $39.99 (or included for SFMM season passholders), guests can attend a condensed haunted event on Fridays through Sundays from 9pm to midnight each night, with access to two mazes (that open at 8pm), three scare zones (one of which also opens at 8:00), some live entertainment, and six roller coasters. It's part haunt, part Exclusive Ride Time, and similar to the premise of the Disneyland After Dark events that have reduced capacity and thus shorter wait times for the featured attractions, Scream Break offers guests an improved theme park and scare fair experience for those willing to pay!

But how is the actual event? And are the mazes and scare zones any good, or just rehashed from the fall with minimal unique qualities?

Well, after attending the Scream Break media night this past Saturday, we're happy to report that this inaugural fear festival is actually a lot of fun! It's not as intense as the hard-scare-oriented Fright Fest. Instead, Scream Break is a college bash meets monster mash. A lot of the talent play goofier, more laid-back versions of what they might normally be in the fall, and they all get their ghoul on within a dance party ambiance.

Guests of the event receive wristbands at the turnstiles upon entry, and those arriving before 9:00pm are funneled to the backstage area at the front of the park that houses the three neighboring mazes near the Full Throttle area. For this event, two of them are open--Vault 666: Initiation, and Condemned: House Party. Meanwhile, last year's new addition, Truth or Dare, is absent from this event. (More on the mazes in a moment.) This area is also home to the first scare zone of the event, an unnamed (or at least we couldn't discern any obvious name) realm themed to an undead university (so maybe we'll just call it that for this update). It's a frat party environment, as zombie-esque jocks and cheerleaders and party girls prowl the premises, and thumping electronic music fills the air.

Fans of Fright Fest will notice props from the previous entry scare zone, Demon's Gate, reused and decorated with Greek symbols and party accessories. One of them is covered in glow string that would be at home at a rave. The other has a giant hat impaled by one horn with the letters Sigma Phi Mu Mu, because, get it? Wink, wink.

The monsters roam around "Undead University" and spend as much interacting and behaving more like atmospheric talent as they do scaring. There are a couple of sliders, but many of the monsters seem more concerned with (in storyline) rocking out and getting smashed and being a little ridiculous while doing so. Those who've been to the L.A. Haunted Hayride over the past few years might notice some similarities between these scareactor personas and some of the high school monsters in Midnight Falls. Certainly, we all know that haunts visit each other and take notes and inspiration.

But the EDM soundtrack and high-energy rollicking are enough to avoid any accusations of direct plagiarism, and the greater emphasis is one of spooky fun and revelry. In some ways, the atmosphere is similar to the final hour of Fright Fest, when all of the park's scare zone talent migrates to the front gate area and participates in one big melting pot of themes and interactions and scares and entertainment.

As mentioned earlier, the only two mazes of the entire event are located in "Undead University."

The first has a sinister, hazing-referencing title, Vault 666: Initiation. Though the title suggests a story related to the darker side of Greek life, the scenes within don't really support this story. The maze itself seems to be largely unchanged from its normal sequence and ambiance, except that the monsters are more frat bros than sinister cult members.

Initially, the tone of the maze is a little lighter, as guests pass a silent curator at the entrance who simply scowls at them but then encounter a very talkative enthusiast of rituals in the overgrown, vine-laden second space. This scareactor is none other than fan favorite Loraine Loraine from the Nightmares scare zone playing an different character who is part of the maze. But her ever-loquacious personality is identical, even if she's not quite as witch-like as she is in the fall, and she has morbid puns for days.

Partway through the maze, guests encounter a gruesome body being eviscerated by a manic fiend. It seems like someone has taken Anatomy class a little too fervently, and he's looking for more subjects! Through our three passes through the maze last Saturday night, the last third was noticeably empty--either it was a little understaffed that night, or we just had poor timing and hit the area when actors were on break--but the result was a bit of a letdown in energy. We expected some sort of climactic ending, but none ever came.

Unfortunately, Vault 666: Initation doesn't seem to play off the story that its name suggests. It's largely kept its theme as a haven for dark cultists out for blood--even the audio at the end references an auction for souls, same as the regular Fright Fest production--and we were hoping to see something better adapted to the higher education motif established for this front-of-park area. Perhaps the scenes could have been adapted to campy portrayals of Greek life or the tribulations of academia. Studying could be literal torture. The hallway of hands could be holding calculators or little textbooks. The room of dolls could be a weird sorority pledge. There's definitely potential here, but it felt unfilled in our experience.

Fortunately, the other maze, Condemned: House Party, absolutely knocks its altered theme out of the park in a presentation that is superior to its Fright Fest iteration and demonstrates the apex potential of the Scream Break event. In September and October, Condemned: Forever Damned, is basically a maze about a cursed haunted house (which we have found a little odd, given that Fright Fest already has Willoughby's Resurrected to fill that category). In this springtime edition, the zombie college students have taken over the property and have decided to throw a massive house party at this damned abode. The result is an exceptional amount of fun, an improved visual environment, and simple but effective storytelling that suits the theme presented.

The layout of Condemned: House Party is exactly the same as in the fall, with the same rooms and sequence. However, the house has been draped with a slew of colorful string lights that actually bring contrast, illumination, and pop to the maze spaces. We've noted in the past that Condemned was actually too dark and dreary, with plenty of detail but not enough light to really appreciate and admire the theming. Thanks to this overlay, that is no longer a problem!

In addition, a plethora of red solo cups, monsters calling the rats literal party animals, and comedic positionings of added skeleton figures enhance the maze into a convincing haunted frat house of boos and booze (not real alcohol, of course). The talent has an absolute blast here, playing up the drunken merrymakers. We got a big kick out of one of the scareactors calling a slumped-over skeleton a loser for not being able to study. We also loved another scene where a skeleton thoughtfully holds up the hair of another skeleton bent over and puking into a toilet. What a gentleman!

A pulsating soundtrack of a techno beat also pervades throughout the entire maze, addressing another past years' critique--the utter silence of the normal Condemned: Forever Damned. The catchy dance beats highlight the goofiness of the Scream Break event, which uses the haunt structure more to support the nature of partying up spring break than the other way around. All of this adds up to a spectacular maze that might be the most enjoyable we've ever been through at Six Flags Magic Mountain. We wouldn't mind this taking over Condemned full-time, though saving it for a spring-only version would be wise to keep the event more unique.

Nearby, at the Full Throttle plaza, a live DJ plays music for guests who want to dance. Christened Deadman's Party, this music area is similar to Voodoo Nights at Fright Fest--minus any live band or performers. Instead, it's the DJ spinning beats and an emcee organizing some oversized college party games from time to time. This area was actually a little listless during the part of the night that we passed by, attracting relatively low crowds. We did enjoy the lone fire tower and the "Ghouls Gone Wild" banner in this area--more appreciated tongue-in-cheek humor for the event.

As guests move around the park, they can encounter the second scare zone between Bugs Bunny World and Goliath. This one does have a title: Bloodborne Hollow. And it feels like a combination of Fright Fest's Terror Rising: Dark Developments and Exile Hill blended into one--with some dance music thrown in to impart a bit of a Michael Jackson "Thriller" vibe.

Here, Gothic monsters and stilt walkers prowl an eerily blue and indigo-lit ambiance. A graveyard is arranged up a hill to the side, while low washers spread a line of illumination across a swath of fog. From the hauntingly beautiful visage of the Golden Bear Theatre, bathed in supernatural purple, to the magenta-layered gnarled trees accenting the landscape, Bloodborne Hollow is moody and mysterious. But similar to the spirit at "Undead University," the eldritch appearance of this scare zone doesn't stop the monsters from indulging in the silly. Occasionally, scareactors will dance to the beat of the music and even make a graveyard performance of it all.

The last of Scream Break's scare zones can be found at the DC Universe, centered around a second DJ stage set up at the plaza area anchoring the entrance of what comprises City Under Siege during the fall. This scare zone, however, appears to be called The (G)Rave, because it is a rave. The clowns have taken over, but they're far more interested in boogying down with guests than subjecting them to terror and trauma.

The (G)Rave is the smallest of the scare zones at Scream Break, but it was also the most energetic when we passed by because of the loud music, high activity, and bigger throng of crowds. Elements of The DeadZone scare zone have also been incorporated, with the graffiti art of The Underground and the glowing, radioactive-green glow string lights wrapped around chainlink fencing. Past this area, though, along the path to Batman: The Ride, there's no scare zone atmosphere at all. It may have been nice to extend this third scare zone further, but ultimately, the presentation of what's there points to Scream Break's primary identity as a celebratory nighttime event as opposed to a spine-tingling one.

During Fright Fest, most of Magic Mountain's attractions remain open much like they would during a regular operating day. For Scream Break, only six roller coasters are available for guests. Fortunately, Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage is one of them. This big boy RMC single rail roller coaster absolutely hauls at night, and a ride on the back seat is more adrenaline-inducing than any of the mazes of scare zones! Unfortunately, the second newest SFMM coaster, West Coast Racers, is closed for this event. However, guests can ride Batman: The Ride, Scream, Twisted Colossus, Goliath, and Full Throttle. Given the separate ticket and reduced capacity, lines were very short in our observation, even on a Saturday night, which adds value for haunt fans who are also coaster lovers and are looking for short waits for these thrill rides.

All in all, we're pleasantly impressed by how Scream Break has managed to consolidate and condense Fright Fest into a smaller size event while also densifying the quality and enjoyment factor. With the exception of Vault 666: Initiation, the themes and haunted attractions are different from Fright Fest, and even though elements of Fright Fest scare zones are evident in the new scare zones of Scream Break, they're still put together very well. Shout out to our friend, Zach, for yet another excellent lighting job, bringing extra vibrance and visual drama to Magic Mountain's haunted event.

For $39.99, the combination of the solid scare zones, fun mazes, and effective ERT on half a dozen roller coasters makes Scream Break a pretty good value, especially in a post-pandemic haunt price economy. Magic Mountain also offers an all-event Scream Break Pass good for all 14 nights (well, 9 remaining nights now, as of this writing) for $159.99. Limited Magic Mountain season passholders can also gain complementary access each night on a first-come, first-serve basis. More information can be found at the SFMM web site.

Scream Break runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through April 16th. We're curious how this might translate to Fright Fest operations come this fall. But as a Half-Halloween event occurring on the opposite side of the calendar, Magic Mountain's newest adventure is simply a spooky, pleasing, wonderfully ludicrous way to satisfy that haunt fix. We didn't know exactly what to expect going into this event, but we commend Magic Mountain for their enterprise and creativity in crafting what promises to be a new spoopy springtime tradition!