Six Flags Magic Mountain, the well-known top destination for thrilling roller-coasters, opened their popular Fright Fest Halloween Event for 2016! The opening weekend was the perfect time to check out all the new terrifying entertainment the park has to offer guests this Haunt season. The park debuted their largest maze ever created, as well as an outstanding Suicide Squad scare zone that is definitely one of the highlights of this year’s event. Join me right here, right now, as we take a look at this year’s Fright Fest opening!
Fright Fest 2016: What’s different? What’s better?
Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain opened a weekend earlier than in the past, but drew a significant crowd for the mid-September opening. Plenty of reason to, as this year’s event is yet another level above last year’s! Many of the returning Scare Zones and Mazes have received new props/theming or special effects to enhance the experience. The entrance plaza of the park has received an awesome new scene, which directly leads into Demon’s Door, the park’s entrance plaza Scare Zone. 
Six Flags Magic Mountain also brought back their popular VOODOO Nights. A high-energy pyrotechnic, laser and lights filled spectacle featuring Ricky Rocks and DJ Nel (Dr. Fright). In addition to the popular show, which is located next to Full Throttle, the park’s also bringing back the popular High Sierra Hypnotist at 8:00 and 10:00 pm nightly!
The park added a brand new Scare Zone this year, the Ruins. Which feels more like a quick introduction to the park’s gigantic new maze: Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising (which we’ll discuss in a little bit). The Scare Zone is small but perfectly matches the area it’s in, with the park’s Wooden Coaster ‘Apocalypse’ right next to it. 
The park also introduced another new Scare Zone… the very-popular Suicide Squad: A Six Flags Fright Fest Experience, which we’ll touch on later. But first let’s note that the park’s large “TERRORtory Twisted” Scare Zone has returned, with more theming, better lighting, and is every bit as amazing as it was last year. The only thing different, the image mapping on the building was having opening-day issues, and there’s no show in the Gearworks Theatre this Fright Fest season, you’ll have to return for some amazing Holiday in the Park stuff coming shortly after 😉 
Scare Zones
Let’s continue the Scare Zone talk! This year’s Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain features seven scare zones, which is the largest number of Scare Zones in California, BY FAR! The line-up of Scare Zones includes Demon Door at the entrance of the park and The Ruins, which is located in front of Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising. As discussed this Scare Zone is new, and will need some work, so for this year’s event make their other new Scare Zone your priority! The park’s largest Scare Zone, TERRORtory Twisted is back as well. If you’re looking for awesome steampunk inspired props (as seen below) don’t miss this Scare Zone! 
The other Scare Zones include Exile Hill, where guests find the two Willoughby mazes (Samurai Summit section of the park), Zombie X-ing, one of our original favorite zones, and… NIGHTMARES: A Twisted Fantasy! Which is a 3D painted, black light based, fog filled, messed-up fairy-tales Scare Zone, which received a lot of additional theming this year. Make sure to visit this Scare Zone, which is located in between Viper and Tatsu. (Full Scare Zone Reviews are now available HERE).
Mazes
Of course Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest has a quality line-up of haunted houses/mazes as well! This year the park welcomes you to SEVEN mazes, some of which you may have experienced in the past. The thrilling yet guest-friendly Chupacabra and Willoughby’s Garden of Darkness have returned, of course! This year guests are also able to return to the Toyz of Terror 3D, which is the park’s 3D maze. Make sure to get 3D glasses and wear them during your ‘trip’ through the maze! 😀 
The line-up of the event’s mazes has become particularly strong over the past few years, and the next mazes we’ll be discussing are proof of that. The park’s Willoughby’s Resurrected maze is an old-school haunted mansion with an insane amount of actors. Everywhere you’ll go, through all the state-of-the-art scenes you’ll encounter scares.
The same goes for the park’s incredibly popular Vault 666, where the human-animal mutation lab theme is accompanied by highly-detailed scenes, after having been through this maze countless many times, it still manages to scare the cr*p out of me, each and every time!
One of the most popular mazes is Red’s Revenge, themed after the horrifying take on Little Red Riding Hood. The maze is unique because of its sound-stage set-up. There are numerous large scenes, such as a little village, cabin, forest, etc. The lines get ridiculously long for this quality-production maze, so make sure to tackle it as soon as the event starts. (Full MAZE Ratings and Reviews are NOW AVAILABLE HERE).
Suicide Squad!
The seventh Scare Zone for this year’s Fright Fest is the exclusive Suicide Squad: A Six Flags Fright Fest Experience attraction. Which was incredibly popular both days I was there this opening weekend, and righteously so. Six Flags Magic Mountain has proven once again, that they battle the Theme-Park Haunt war in Southern California, and this is something everyone will love when they visit. 
Let’s take a look inside… shall we? This Scare Zone heavily relies on technology, which is awesome. Projection mapping on the side of the facades recreated real life mass-destruction as found in the film, which was accompanied by a light show around the area, as well as flame-throwers! 
Besides the spectacular edge you find with the movie-related soundtrack and state-of-the-art technology for the light show and projection mapping, there’s an astonishing amount of scenery to be found in this area, this is one of the many cars. The area features several scenes/themes from the Suicide Squad movie, including the crashed helicopter! 
But perhaps even more amazing… MOVIE CHARACTERS! They all look just like the blockbuster movie that recently came out, and every single guests was loving them! Need more reasons why you can’t miss this new Scare Zone? Here’s one: HARLEY QUINN!
And if that weren’t enough… there’s the JOKER too! Don’t worry, there are even more Suicide Squad characters, including the Joker’s Henchmen and Killer Croc!
AFTERMATH 2: Chaos Rising
The seventh maze at this year’s Fright Fest is the immense Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising maze. You may have read our day-time walk-through report that I published earlier this week after a private tour, and in that case… you’ll have a good idea of how AWESOME this new maze is. 
Guests need to watch out as the city of Ash Valley is threatened to lose all livable space because of a dangerous toxin seen below. As you make your way through this 40,000 square feet large maze that’s half a mile long (yes, THAT long), you encounter explosions (Fire-effects are the best), crashed aircraft, cars, collapsed buildings, etc. The maze includes a lot of pyrotechnic effects, the first-ever in-maze Scare Zone, where you roam the crumbling city freely while actors roam around with you. There’s a choose-your-own-path section, indoor sections, a bunch of scares and the return of an all-time favorite scene that some of you may remember from the original Aftermath. 
The maze had no line all weekend, which is a shame! Good for you, but a shame! This maze is the highlight maze of the park’s line-up. You will want to experience Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising simply because of the enormous sets, effects, and grand feel. You will feel lost in this apocalyptic scene, and it’s a crucial part of this year’s Fright Fest!
VISIT
Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest runs September 17, 18, 24, 25, 30, and every single Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night in October! The sooner you visit, the shorter the lines will be (Sundays are usually less crowded), be sure to buy a maze wristband. Regular wristbands are $15 for pass holders, $20 for one-day admission guests. To wait in shorter lines, you may purchase an Express Pass which is $30 for pass holders, and $35 for those without a season pass or membership. The event hours are 7PM-1AM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 7PM-11PM on Sundays! Don’t miss out!
Start planning your fun NOW and download the Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest 2016 Park Map/Guide here: six-flags-magic-mountain-fright-fest-2016-guide
Check out for FULL MAZE RATINGS AND REVIEWS and FULL SCARE ZONE REVIEWS! In addition, follow along as I hit all the theme-park Haunt events in California:
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So is the express pass $30 on top of the maze ticket or $30 total??? So if I wanted the express pass would it be $45 or $30???
Maze pass is $15, an express maze pass is $30, so to upgrade from regular maze pass to express, you pay $15 more (Pass holders).
So, how much is a maze pass for Gold season pass holders?
$15 for Regular, $30 for Express
We got the Express Maze Pass for 10/9. When the tickets came, it had the following in the instructions: This 2016 voucher is only good for a Fright Fest express maze pass on 9/17, 9/18, 9/25, 9/30, 10/2, 10/7, or 10/16.
It’s either an error or shady sales. I’ll try to call tomorrow to figure it out…