The Greatest and Worst of Six Flags Fright Fest 2025

Warner Bros. and Legendary horrors have taken over Six Flags Fright Fest so as to add extra thrills to the nationwide coaster theme park chain. Combining scares with metallic behemoths of adrenaline-pumping rollercoasters is the principle draw, however through the years, as rivals started to depend on main IP to up the ante, Six Flags has made some effort to catch up. Yearly tends to enhance upon the final; it’s nonetheless outpaced by the larger names within the theme park business, however with its 2024 initiated merger with Cedar Fair (which runs Knott’s Scary Farm), we had been hopeful that issues could be altering for the higher.

io9 was invited to attend media evening for the opening of the annual Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California, which this 12 months featured haunted homes from a number of cinema greats, together with the Conjuring universe, Trick ‘r Treat, and Noticed. Whereas the latter two are repeat mazes from 2024, this 12 months the Conjuring home was up to date to replicate the most recent movie, The Conjuring: Last Rites. Right here’s what we thought concerning the Halloween choices at this 12 months’s fright fest.

The Good

The Conjuring Universe: This home performs as a Warren household investigations biggest hits. It’s good, although; as you enter, you’re met face-to-face with Annabelle behind the glass (at first) earlier than venturing via a number of the scariest moments from the Warren recordsdata. It’s Fright Fest’s greatest home that completely evokes the scares of the Warrens’ most horrifying circumstances. You get to stroll via their assortment of haunted relics as they’re summoned round you. Sure, there’s a nun behind the portrait, however although you already know it, you’re merely not ready to have that have.

Like within the movie, Valak comes out of the partitions proper at you, and your soul flies out of the room quicker than you may get your physique to observe. It does really feel somewhat far and wide, because the fearsome highlights embrace the Perron possession case among the many chaos of the long-lasting demon entities, an old-school filmstrip of the Crooked Man being expanded on partitions warning of his presence, and Annabelle being freed in so many kinds. Then, after all, there are devilish forces ready to get their claws on you, which find yourself manifesting as a darkish hidden type throughout the shadows that reaches out to you with lengthy black claws as you make your escape.

Trick ‘r Deal with: Primarily based on the Halloween anthology movie, this home feels so festive and enjoyable as you enterprise into its horrors. Fright Fest did a very good job at establishing the vibe of an inviting spooky season neighborhood home you need to enter that solely will get increasingly more nightmarish as you make your method additional in. You encounter teases of the long-lasting Sam, the mischievous pumpkin-headed demon youngster that connects every of the tales in Trick ‘r Deal with, whilst you relive the creepiest moments from the film, which is a style spookshow. There’s the teenage werewolf occasion within the forest the place a lady dressed as Purple Using Hood hides a darkish secret. One other nice recreation consists of the varsity bus haunting of children who died on Halloween years in the past that included the crashed car, in addition to the creepy masked youngsters who spring up on you from past. The fog in that room is completely deployed to make you discombobulated sufficient to not see them coming. But it surely’s the tip, the place Sam chases you thru a mirror maze (I looped it twice) earlier than assembly him in his throne room, that basically shines as one of many park’s most enjoyable Halloween experiences.

The So-So

Scare Zones: There have been a number of new attention-grabbing ideas this 12 months! The twisted Wonderland space was a pastel fever dream with mad hatters and demented-looking rabbits chasing you. And simply in time for the Oz renaissance, there was a steampunk tackle the lore with an evil witch, tin man, lion, and flying monkeys lurking about. Nonetheless, whereas the make-up designs had been a spotlight of impressed monster creations, the settings had been actually sparse, and there weren’t very absolutely shaped environments to really feel immersed in. A minimum of there was a yellow brick street projection, however each Oz and Wonderland wanted a showstopping backdrop. If there was one, it was too darkish.

Noticed: The Noticed home performs up the torture machine set items in inventive and showstopping methods because of the actors within the homes, nevertheless it’s the scares which might be missing. The monsters that come at you might be principally the pig-masked hooded figures, which acquired actually repetitive. And there was a giant lack of Billy the Puppet. He solely actually seems as soon as on his trike, if it’s working, which undercuts why he’s so scary when he’s purported to be the figurehead that asks, “Do you wanna play a sport?” After we went via, he was caught on his automated observe, and we almost missed him. There was extra Billy on the merch!

The Merch: Fright Fest shines with its unique artwork merchandise primarily based on the park’s unique homes and roaming characters, such because the clown sliders, Medusa-inspired psychics, or retro zombie women. These designs actually seize the power that makes Fright Fest distinctive and are normally an immediate purchase. This 12 months it launched some spooky Looney Tunes gear that was nice regardless of there not being something Looney in Bugs Bunny World in addition to a creepy carnival space. I used to be excited to purchase a very unhinged shirt that options Sylvester because the Bride of Frankenstein and Tweety as Frankenstein’s monster, which in a very bizarre method I form of get. The merch for the film properties, nonetheless, was a combined bag; it could have been cool to get the Six Flags artists to do a tackle the characters in The Conjuring, however these shirts principally felt like licensed advertising and marketing photographs slapped on issues.

Carnage: New for this 12 months is a home that takes you into the fortress of an anarchic clown’s hub of insanity and recruitment in a “metropolis below siege.” Whereas the home was enjoyable and full of chaotic bounce scares, I couldn’t assist however assume this was possibly meant to be a Joker home. It doesn’t assist that it was actually within the DC Universe space of the theme park! Whereas going via, some set items jogged my memory of Joker moments from Suicide Squad and even Joker in aesthetic. At one level the clown chief jumps on a automobile and talks to you. So I used to be very distracted by how cool a Gotham run by Joker and his goons may have been to expertise as a maze. The rights that Fright Fest has on the way it can use DC characters stay so complicated, so possibly it could’ve been higher to try to keep away from the parallels right here.

The Unhealthy

Themed meals/drinks: There was quite a lot of objects primarily based on simply Halloween, however none impressed by the most important IP homes, which I used to be wanting ahead to. However I’ll preface that with I used to be setting myself up for that disappointment right here: I noticed the official Six Flags Instagram promote drinks primarily based off The Conjuring universe and thought they’d be at Magic Mountain. I imply, it’s the park closest to Hollywood and different main hang-out rivals, so it could have made sense, proper? So I used to be very shocked once I realized that the drink in query, Valak’s Vice, was nowhere to be discovered to symbolize the very best home on the occasion. 

Previous homes: The final time I went to Fright Fest was earlier than I had my now one-year-old youngster. So I used to be somewhat bummed to find {that a} good variety of homes I’ve already skilled had been nonetheless there. And if there have been latest additions, they felt so generically just like older homes that I couldn’t let you know what’s new. That is one thing I hope modifications, as I hope there’s extra collaboration throughout the merger, permitting for a little bit of the Knott’s Scary Farm magic to get sprinkled onto Fright Fest. Knott’s traditionally is the primary park to essentially flip haunted homes into immersive storytelling you possibly can expertise via its legendary Scary Farm choices and stands other than the parks that depend on solely film and TV properties. Six Flags has the chance to be the very best of each worlds with its WB and DC horror connections and its unique homes throughout the sheer quantity of excellent area they got to construct on. Right here’s hoping the potential of the Knott’s merger sees an improve in years to return.

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