Fright Fest Review

[JerrodDRagon]

Fright Fest Review

Is it worth the 8 bucks? Yes and no

This is an event for someone who has an AP…..and just wants something to do on a Friday night. The Scarezones and most mazes are just not even close to as cool as Universal and Knotts.

Lets start with the best mazes and work our way to the crap…..

Willoughby’s Haunted Mansion – the ironic part was I wanted to skip this one thing it would just be nothing but it turned out to be the best maze at the park. Its got A lot of differently themed rooms, some good places for the ghouls to hide and just worked well (and was not that short ether) Plus when we went we walked on twice

The Aftermath – This one is not so much scary as it is cool….I mean your on the stage where they used to do the batman show so its pretty well themed. Along with the fire effects, I would go on this just to get to walkthrough the awesome stage.

Bite 2 – was kinda short but had more look at than the other mazes (some cute girls)

Slaughter House – It’s a longer maze with some good scare’s but nothing special about it either

Chupacabra – YOU CANT see anything…..kind of dangerous almost walked in a wall once or twice but some ok scares

Jokersters Hideout – I mean it has a good idea….but the line moves TOO slow to make it worth the pay off….just make it a normal maze u walk through

Crused and Warehouse 13……ahhh these two are just SUCH bad mazes…..funny thing is when we went on Warehouse 13 they were playing the Harry Potter theme as we enter funny yet did not make any sense to the mazes theme what so ever

So is it worth it? Only is you have an AP so your only paying 8 bucks…but would I pay like 40 bucks to get in and then 10 more for the mazes NO way….go to Knotts or Universal instead your have much more fun

[dth316]

I heard a pretty similar review from Freakazoid.
So glad I didn't attend this!

[QuiGonJ]

I was there last night, and the good part was getting on the season pass deal.

Magic Mountain was the first park I ever had a pass for, in the 1992-1993 season. I remembered the park fondly, because back then it was well maintained and themed, from what I remember. I loved Viper, which was brand new back then, Ninja, and I seem to recall liking the food just fine. Was there for company Christmas parties in years past, and the last major visit I went with ten friends and the most fun was at the end of Colossus when a man yelled out "WAIT! WAIIT!!! NO, stop the ride! [paused for a beat] I left my my man parts back there!" So when I offer what's coming up, please know I have a fond history of the place. Oh, and I did a Halloween even back in years past when they had smoked up the entire Ninja hill, and that was scary!

It was the final Fright Fest weekend, so it was probably one of their busiest weekends. I had to go past the main parking lots I remembered, and ending up parking in gravel. There was a tall tower up near where I parked so security could keep an eye on the cars. The flood light was there on my return past midnight, and one could only imagine he had a sniper rifle. I know he didn't, but the scenery, or the lack thereof, gave that impression. Walked up to the "Skittles Parking Lot," which notified us of this fact by means of cardboard signs affixed to the chain link. The tram arrived, no doors on the sides, and it clearly needed to a paint job. Then driving up, we went past and saw tattered, deteriorating nylon drops on the fences, and the metal detectors to get through were new.

Not a great first impression after years away from the park. But I see they work on a reduced schedule now (April-October) and only open weekends for the other six months, and $61 and $50 gets you unlimited visits and parking for a year, vs $499 for Disneyland Resort, and they don't have a timeshare money setup, or on-site hotels, and something like 3 million visitors (MM/Hurricane Harbor) vs a combined 21 million attendance for DLP/DCA, then yeah, the budget structure is completely different.

This is what carried through to the mazes. I give them points for trying and for the efforts to be scary, just wish they could afford maze designers who could have done more. After Knott's, where the mazes were at least 5 minutes each with lotsa scenes, theming and masks. Here the mazes were much shorter, and some were just camo netting with people screaming at you occasionally. And in a few places I get worse scares from nearly tripping because they didn't have walkways cordoned off very well than in the mazes themselves.

Bite II was cute, like Jerrodd said, there was a girl or two in there who were absolutely adorable, and it wasn't badly laid out. The Hotel was probably the best one in the park. I enjoyed Chupacabra well enough, and the actual Chupacabra was scary. Someone came out of the Jokester's lair proclaiming it lame, he was pretty much right. If it had been about twice as long, it would have beat out the hotel.

We tried two of the shows, the dance review and the humor show at DC Universe, but we didn't stay long. The dance review was mostly older songs that none of us interested in, and the humor I am told was much better than the year before, but it still needs improvement.

Full marks to the City Under Siege and the performers just wandering the park. They got me a time or two, and they were really good. I'll go back next year, since I am now an AP holder, just hope the mazes can continue to improve, and that they can get the park back to its former glory in terms of maintenance.