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SFMM Fright Fest- trip report!!

What's your favorite maze at SFMM's Fright Fest?!

  • Hell Fest

    Votes: 1 50.0%
  • Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Condamned

    Votes: 1 50.0%
  • Sewer of Souls

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Red's Revenge

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Willoughby's Manor

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

kenny cook

Mega Poster
Here's my trip report for Six Flags Magic Mountain's 2018 Fright Fest. Please enjoy!! (spoilers ahead)
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Bumper Cars (2x): I wasn't originally planning on posting reviews for anything except the mazes/scare zones, however, this ride was too good to pass up. We kept our 3D glasses from Sewer of Souls and took em on the bumper cars, and it was honestly the number one ride experience I've ever had. I'm still in shock that these are at a Six Flags park because they were extremely intense, my head psychically hurt from how hard the cars hit each other, a kid smashed his face into the steering wheel he was rear ended so hard, and it was honestly like a series of mini-car crashes for 3 minutes. Plus, with the 3D glasses it was like being on an acid trip, and my vision looked like the photo below, it was absolutely insane, and I cannot stress enough THE BUMPER CARS ARE A MUST RIDE. If you live close, I highly recommend you come on down and try them for yourself before management realizes how insane they're set to, and tone them down. Still did better on this than my permit test tho, so I can't complain
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MAZE REVIEWS:
Welcome to the section of this trip report, called "sarcastic reviews of literally everything SFMM Fright Fest has to offer". If you're easily offended by nothing (like it appears many people are these days), this would be a great time to turn back, even though absolutely nothing in this post is anything beyond PG

Hell Fest (2x): The scariest thing about Hell Fest was the fact that people actually were willing to wait an hour for it. Honestly, I've seen some pretty lousy mazes, and then there's this. You could obviously tell this was a last minute decision, as they even built the Vault 666 facade (the maze this replaced) and then threw some Hell Fest tarp over it and called it a day. But because they barely changed anything to do with the maze, the former storyline makes absolutely no sense, and it feels really out of place. You start at the park's "front gate", immediately move to a warehouse full of props, surprise you're now in a hallway of arms, wait a sec was this maze designed by Universal because all I see right now are black walls, wait so now we're in the next room, a blood chamber that feels extremely out of place and is untouched from Vault 666. If you're confused, great, because we're only half way through the maze. You then head back into a haunt maze where you see the serial killer for the first time (yay!!), you then are in a doll maze, then a white mask, oh wait you're back inside a warehouse again, hold up I guess the serial killer's hideout is in said warehouse as people are sitting on benches screaming to get out, yet they're unrestrained and could leave. At this point, I wouldn't blame them for wanting to get the hell outta here as I did too. Okay, and finally we're at the end of the maze, where there's a bunch of people tied us urging us to escape, where we see the serial killer for the 2nd/3rd time all maze, which also makes no sense as the whole story revolves around the serial killer stalking one group. Anywho, you exit out and get to take a free photo op, moving along

Condamned (2x): HOLY CRAP. WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK!! This maze has absolutely no right to be at a Six Flags park, it's so good. If they had set up a storyline and maybe had some background music playing, I honestly would have thought this was a top-tier knotts scary farm maze. The theming, the jump scares, the creativity in the sets, everything just tied together to make an absolutely phenomenal maze, that I cannot recommend enough. The best part (spoilers) was when you had to climb through a bunkbed, are immeaditely jump scared, and then are forced to walk through the interior of the walls, sideways, where actors can jumpscare you with drop panels and you can't even move away from them. Hopefully Six Flags doesn't do anything stupid with this maze like getting rid of it, because it was absolutely the top maze of the night, and on the topic of stupid...

Sewer of Souls (2x): For what was hyped up to be the best maze of the year, I was sorely disappointed. The jump scares were lacking, the sets were nothing more than graffitied walls with neon paint, and overall the maze felt like it had less direction than my mom without her GPS. To start, the chloroform was overwhelming, Toyz of Terror used the 3D as a tool, Sewer of Souls used it as a crutch, there was so much color it was nauseating. Second, the maze lacked any sort of storyline such as what, and why, and it really felt like a section of a maze, and not a standalone thing (similar to Willoughby's Garden of Darkness). While the actors were really trying, there was simply too much to make in, and most people had severe motion sickness which led to them half running out of the maze instead of enjoying it and getting scared. I will have to admit, the walking over a sewer on a narrow bridge was an extremely cool effect, and I think that toning down the maze a little bit could really, really make this one of the best mazes that Six Flags has ever done

Aftermath 2 (2x): Overall a really solid maze, but the theme was almost as forced as the jokes that are to come. The idea of running through a giant maze with zombies chasing you is a great concept, and Six Flags actually executed it perfectly, the only reason it's not the #1 maze is simply due to the lack of jumpscares found in Condamned, although this is still a fantastic maze that I'd say is pretty much tied. You head through some ginormous sets with fire, and through some tight corridors that are nice, but don't provide a ton of places for the actors to hide, which was a tad sad. The zombies really took the advice of Crazanity ops when they say "slow and steady wins the race" as they were moving lethargically and weren't chasing you which I thoroughly appreciate. Also, for a note, the amount of fog was insane, you couldn't see 5 feet infront of you at most points, which meant there were several points where actors stood right infront of me, and still scared the crap outta me. Good job Six Flags, you have a winner on your hands

Red's Revenge (2x): *cue Into the Woods theme song* The way isn't clear, the light isn't good, the maze was mediocre, as all Six Flags' mazes should. I see something in the glade there, it's a scare actor on there phone, that's fair. Jokes aside, it was a maze that went from great to meh faster than you can say Chic Full A Throttle. It starts out with an amazing preshow, stellar opener, chloroform section where I actually screamed because the lady got me so good, pitch black scream out section, the cottage, and then it just kinda melts apart. After this you head through a part where you finally see Red poorly lip-syncing to a super long script you never fully hear, then walk out through a couple painted plywood halls, and then out the maze, with only a single actor for the last 15 seconds. Honestly, I wish they'd just cut the last section, as it doesn't add substantial length, and really kills the very good maze beforehand.

Willoughby's Manor (2x): Last and certainly least, we have Willoughby's Manor Haunted House. Begin your scary adventure by making a turn through an unthemed hallway with no scareactors, before heading down a dark hallway with some storage boxes clearly sitting on the side. Bop on down a couple steps before entering a super scary hallway filled with lots of very scary pictures and no scare actors (ahhhhhhhhhh) before finally entering the good part of the maze. From here it's a nice mix of darkened sets, character actors, and scare actors before you head to the finale, the attic of the house, before briskly strolling to the best part of the maze, the Garden of Darkness. Here, you'll walk for about 10 seconds through strobe lights and hedge vines where a very scary single actor might jump out and get ya. Or maybe they just might not, ya know, that could easily happen as well. So anyways, I kinda ran out of jokes, so lets end this review here
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SCAREZONES ALL IN ONE:
So overall, the scare zones were a mixed bag. Twisted Territory had some good sets, but very few actors with little scares, Nightmares was okay, but not a ton of attempts at scaring either. I did not get to experience The Shadows, however it looked cool, and Demon's Door was an attempt at a Knotts-esque scare zone per usual, but with a lack of staffing, sets, and places to hide, it fell a bit flat. The real standout was Witches Lair, the maze like design of it really helped keep Witches Lair and Metropolis their own separate areas which was great during the daytime, and the lighting, costumes, and the pop-out boxes really maze a mini-scarezone that was like no other, with really great staffing. Overall, I'd skip all the scare zones except The Shadows and Witches Lair, and just spend a couple minutes wandering around that.
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OVERALL:

This year was much better than 2017 for Fright Fest, however, as usual the scare zones could be improved, and a maze or two was weaker. If you're a season pass holder, I highly recommend you come on down and hit the mazes at least once each to see how they are for yourselves, and just see how much the park's improved since their big push to become a legitimate contender in the haunt industry in 2014. Onto the picture!!
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3D Glasses from Sewer of Souls + Beach Boardwalk's lights = Perfection
 
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