Last year, we deemed Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest as the best experience in its thirty years of operation. Yet, after attending Fright Fest 2024, we are happy to admit that they have once again surpassed the bar they set in 2023.

Incorporating Intellectual Property into their mazes has always been a barrier that set Universal Studios and their Halloween Horror Nights apart from Fright Fest and Knott’s Scary Farm, but this year, Fright Fest 2024 expands the IP they capitalized on last year, adding Stranger Things, Trick ‘r Treat, and Army of the Dead to the James Wan franchises: The Conjuring Universe and Saw 20^th Anniversary. These mazes not only have the sets and acting to enhance them, but they immerse audiences in their favorite horror films. It’s time to tell Halloween Horror Nights to move over because Fright Fest is a star emerging from the fog.

 

 

Fright Fest 2024

With eleven mazes and nine scare zones, there’s plenty for fans of multiple scare levels at Fright Fest 2024. Three of the eleven are brand new mazes (Stranger Things, Trick ‘r Treat, and Army of the Dead), while three others are adjusted iterations of mazes that delighted us last year (The Conjuring Universe, SAW 20^th Anniversary, and Aftermath: Nocturnal Hunt). Finally, the remaining five mazes are veterans from previous years (Condemned, Truth or Dare, Willoughby’s Resurrected, Vault 666 Unlocked, and Sewer Of Souls). This is incredible because last year, they only had eight mazes and six scare zones—that’s three more mazes and three more scare zones! Talk about expansion!

While quantity doesn’t always mean quality, Fright Fest once again surprises here. There was only one maze that I wasn’t a huge fan of—every single other maze kept me engaged, scared, or simply in awe of the surprises waiting in the dark.

Finally, Fright Fest 2024 expertly handles the scare levels, creating experiences that appeal to all levels of haunt fans. Stranger Things, Trick ‘r Treat, and Willoughby’s Resurrected felt less scary and more nostalgic and whimsical, while Saw and The Conjuring focus more on authentic scares and dread. Finally, Truth or Dare and Sewer of Souls combine humor with the scares to create sets and scares that bridge the two styles nicely.

 

New and Updated Mazes:

Trick ‘r Treat

 

 

I freaking love this maze. It’s the essence of Halloween distilled into a five-minute walkthrough haunted house.

The maze was difficult to find for us—some added signage may be helpful—because it’s behind the Saw maze, but we couldn’t tell if we access it from the left or right (it’s left, near Riddler’s Revenge). But despite our efforts to find it, we did run into Sam, the film’s burlap sack-wearing mascot, numerous times throughout the park, creating a wonderful anticipation for this haunted house.

The maze recreates the film’s anthology feel so perfectly. From the trick or treating with candy filled buckets in front of doorsteps (sadly, they are glued down; I tried!) to the little red riding hood costumed girl staring at the moon (a great jump-scare moment) to Sam’s finale where he playfully emerges from a cornfield before taking his place on the throne of Samhaim. If you’re a fan of the film or just Halloween, this is a perfect maze for you, combining the nostalgia of Halloween with some of my favorite scenes from the movie brought to life.

 

Stranger Things

 

 

The second completely brand-new maze for Fright Fest 2024 is Stranger Things—and this fits perfectly with Trick ‘r Treat to be a less scary and more awe-inspiring maze. Inspired by the most recent season (season 4) of the Netflix hit television show, the maze begins with a Halloween party at the high school before sending audiences into the woods to Castle Byers and to Eddie’s trailer park where he emerges with trash can shield ready to fight anything that would threaten his friends. The experience then twists into Vecna’s house where it ends with Eleven facing off against Vecna in a final showdown.

The experience is gorgeously decorated, immersing audiences into the television show across multiple locations. Yet, the highlight is the particle effects floating in the air against bright blue illumination, really creating the atmosphere of the Upside Down. The Demogorgon and Vecna look perfect, as if they just stepped out of my television. This maze is movie-studio quality.

This is a must-do maze for this Halloween and go through more than once because we navigated the Upside Down twice and experienced different scenes and monsters both times.

 

The Conjuring Universe

 

 

This was our favorite maze last year, and it remains as the creepiest atmosphere for any of the mazes at Fright Fest 2024. A lingering sense of dread permeates the entire haunt, leaving plenty of opportunities for demonic infestations to scare you from every corner (and closet).

The maze welcomes you into Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum, and as the veil is lifted, guests explore all Conjuring films, bringing you face to face with The Nun, Annabelle, and some of the other demons (and clergy) from the films.

The aforementioned dread is palpable, as long hallways tease Valak hiding behind her portrait as fingers emerge from the sides of the painting. A woman kneels in front of a grave weeping until the catacombs open and a priest emerges to douse you in holy water. And Annabelle waits ominously as a rotating light changes the shadow behind her revealing the doll’s true form. The effects and vibe here are a stark contrast to the warm and whimsical nature of Trick ‘r Treat, focusing more on tension and build up—and it achieves it wonderfully.

For those who attended in 2023, the maze remains fairly consistent with a few of our favorite scenes removed (the interactive museum curator at the start and the contortionist woman) but replaces it with an entirely new ending that expands the narrative to include more films and create some new favorites for us. This is an exceptional maze and is worth visiting Fright Fest 2024 simply to experience this film.

 

SAW 20^th Anniversary

 

 

SAW surprised us most last year—and this year, it’s no different. Fright Fest 2024 takes the strong start of the maze from last year and expands upon it, adding in new kills, new traps, and new tortures. While this maze reduces some of the jump-scares from last year (pig-masked attackers jumping out of almost every corner in 2023), the focus is more on the set-pieces and traps. This reduces the scares—but creates a different feeling: one of intense voyeurism. This is sure to make some guests feel uncomfortable and others oddly enthralled. I know I wanted to stay in some of the rooms simply to assess the contraptions and ponder if I could survive where the actor across from me clearly couldn’t.

The attention to detail here is exceptional. The blueprints to many of Jigsaw’s traps are displayed on the walls, his workshop shows his tools and machinations, and of course, the traps are brutally horrific. Further, the actors excel at bringing them to life. From the woman screaming out in pain as she saws through the bloody pulp of her thigh with piano wire to the victim whose eyes have been sucked from her face and now watch us, displaced from her body—this maze captures the horror of the films.

There is a claustrophobic hallway that fills with fog, putting audiences in one of Jigsaw’s traps for the first time. This aspect I loved, and I’d love to see it expanded in future SAW iterations. I’d love to see audiences engage more with this maze and increase its immersion in the future.

 

Army of the Dead

 

 

While Aftermath 2 has been a 40k square foot maze that began in a 2016 (following the original Aftermath closing in 2011), it is split up this year to yield half of that footprint to Army of the Dead. Aftermath is one of the more novel mazes because it traverses the old Batman stunt show lot and is mostly outside, but Army of the Dead breathes some new life into this returning haunt by taking audiences into the casinos of Las Vegas.

Army of the Dead may not have the same IP recognizability as Trick ‘r Treat, Conjuring, SAW, or Stranger Things, but hell, Las Vegas zombies is a great theme for a haunted house regardless. The casino rooms and vintage slot machines create a fantastic backdrop to the zombies sauntering around the casino floors. I didn’t see many characters from the film, making this feel more like a much-welcomed face-lift to Aftermath compared to a full recreation of the film.

 

Aftermath: Nocturnal Hunt

As described above, this haunt is reduced for Fright Fest 2024, but for great reason. Yet, this maze is just beautiful to partake in, with massive police buildings, destroyed cars, and fire effects permeating through the fog to create one of the most memorable mazes (especially for first-timers).

 

Returning Mazes:

Condemned Forever Damned

 

 

While Condemned is a prior maze, 2023 saw a make-over for the abandoned home creating Condemned: House Party. This maze was so much fun, inviting horrific nightmarish frat bros to spray beer on guests to sets of fluorescent lights and excessive partying. Like the Nightmare Before Christmas façade placed over Haunted Mansion, Condemned has returned back to its original form (from 2018) this year: a condemned home falling apart around you.

Personally, I like the horror of this version more (House Party is fun, but I prefer a scare). This maze excels in various paths: offering areas to duck or crawl, closets to move through, and even spaces between the walls you can navigate. Combine this with the scents and projections, and this maze becomes a vile, gross dilapidated house that will leave you needing a shower.

 

Vault 666: Unlocked

Born in 2019, Vault 666: Unlocked replaced Vault 666 when it closed in 2017. This maze explores an antique shop that collects haunted, macabre, and cursed items. It’s become a catch-all for many of the ideas that don’t fit in other mazes, creating some of the most iconic moments of Fright Fest history. The long hallway with arms reaching out from the walls, a massive room filled with cloaked and masked mannequins (and a few real people), and a torture gallery in the far back. It’s a great maze and a favorite every time I attend.

 

Truth or Dare

 

 

In its third year, Truth or Dare follows a canceled television show akin to Double Dare from our childhood. Every room reflects this theme wonderfully, bringing guests through make-up and costuming, before bringing them into the various “dares.” This has some physicality, putting actors on bungie cords where they can jump at the audience before flinging back to their starting position.

Yet, some of the memorable rooms from last year, like the introduction video, the laser room, and the toxic fume section were not functional this year. This led to a quick walk through this haunt where I felt rushed through, rather than having actors and scenes to engage with and build up that narrative. This was my least favorite maze of the night, but perhaps we caught it at an inopportune time.

 

Sewer of Souls

 

 

Resting atop the hill (near Ninja), this 2018 maze had no line when we attended. But don’t let the lack of audience fool you—this is one the most fun mazes at Fright Fest 2024. The actors had plenty of room to follow us room to room, engage with us, interact, and even set up some fun scares just for us. Yes, we had a great time due to the lack of audience, but regardless, this is still such a fun maze. There are inflatable areas to navigate, there’s neon colors everywhere, and there’s even some optical illusions to delight your senses. It’s a classic 3D maze (without 3D glasses this year) that delivers a good maze that doesn’t reinvent the wheel.

 

Willoughby’s Resurrected

 

 

The first Fright Fest maze—and its resurrected variant returned in 2012 and has been going strong for the past 12 years. I love this maze, and it’s the epitome of the vintage Victorian haunted house. It’s perfectly gothic with actors that utilize the sets to craft their characters and bring the world of Willoughby’s to life.

 

Final Thoughts

Magic Mountain Fright Fest 2024 has IP mazes—and they are incredible!!

Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights has drawn huge crowds due to them capturing the “movie magic” for years, leaving Fright Fest, Knott’s Scary Farm, and others to create their own mythos and maze backstories. These mazes are often more-creative, less constrained, and incredible in their own right, but there’s a certain recognition that IP haunts offer. The stories that scared us as a child hit just a bit differently when you can attend a haunted house based on it. Now, Fright Fest 2024 has the best of both worlds: popular IP mazes and their own brand of creative non-IP forays into different styles of horror. This creates experiences for kids and families (Stranger Things and Trick ‘r Treat) as well as more hardcore horror fans (SAW and The Conjuring) and plenty of originals for those that love creativity and originality (Willoughby’s, Aftermath, Vault 666, and Condemned).

I meant it when I said this was my favorite year of Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest—and it also means something that I’ve been saying this for the past few years. Each year, Fright Fest is learning from the past, expanding the quality and quantity of their mazes, creating the most memorable experience for their audience. I’m truly blown away by just how great this year was and I urge you to attend this year and see what Fright Fest can do across a spectrum of horror themes and stylings.

For more information on Fright Fest 2023, check out Six Flags on Instagram, Facebook and their website. For information about similar events, check out our Event Calendar.

 

Haunting is a resource for immersive theater and horror fans in Los Angeles and across the world, promoting art and community. Want to help us reach even more people, and get some cool perks and experiences? For as little as $1 a month, you can join our Patreon and help us keep bringing content to life.

If you like the above article and want to find more like it, make sure to join our community. If Facebook is your favorite, follow us there and become a part of our groups for Immersive Horror fans and/or Immersive creators. We’re active on Instagram, posting evocative imagery and informative stories to promote our reviews and recollections; follow us there. You can even find us on twitter; click here to follow. And subscribe to our event calendar to get emails for all or specific events (look for the link right under the calendar)! Finally, we have a newsletter that comes out once a week; click here to sign up.