Six Flags’ Fright Fest is ready for a Halloween showdown with Universal Studios’ Horror Nights and unafraid to go severed head-to-severed head with the Hollywood theme park chain that built its reputation on bringing terrifying horror film franchises to life.
Six Flags Magic Mountain will bring an arsenal of haunted houses headlined by Stranger Things and Saw to the fight with Universal Studios Hollywood that will have a stockpile of haunted mazes based on Ghostbusters, A Quiet Place and other horror blockbusters.
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The newly supercharged Fright Fest Extreme 2024 will run on select Thursday through Sunday nights from Sept. 7 to Nov. 3 at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Halloween Horror Nights 2024 will feature eight new haunted mazes along with several scare zones and the Terror Tram on select nights from Sept. 5 to Nov. 3 at Universal Studios Hollywood.
ALSO SEE: Universal’s Horror Nights calls the Ghostbusters to save the world from another Ice Age
Is Six Flags’ Fright Fest ready for a showdown with Universal’s Horror Nights?
“It does put us in competition with them,” Six Flags Chief Fright Officer Edithann “EA” Ramey said. “We want to appeal to those fandom communities of people who love Halloween and go there and bring them to us. I think they will love these houses. They’re ‘must see’ for somebody who loves Halloween.”
ALSO SEE: Universal brings A Quiet Place maze to Halloween Horror Nights
Fright Fest 2024 at Six Flags Magic Mountain will feature haunted mazes based on The Conjuring, Trick ‘r Treat and Army of the Dead horror franchises in addition to Stranger Things and Saw.
The new Fright Fest lineup steals a page out of the playbook of Universal’s Horror Nights — which previously hosted haunted mazes based on Stranger Things (2023), Trick ‘r Treat (2018) and Saw (2012).
ALSO SEE: Universal unleashes radioactive zombies for Halloween Horror Nights 2024
Six Flags is teamed up with a list of major Hollywood players like Netflix, Warner Brothers, Lionsgate and Legendary that had largely partnered exclusively with Universal Studios on Halloween mazes over the past couple decades.
Six Flags is working closely with Netflix and their partners on a Stranger Things maze that will take visitors into the mysterious alternate dimension of the Upside Down alongside students from Hawkins High School, according to Ramey.
“Everything that we do is a partnership with the brand,” Ramey said during a phone interview. “They’ve helped us create something that’s going to feel very fresh.”
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Six Flags Magic Mountain tested the waters during a pilot year in 2023 with haunted mazes based on The Conjuring and Saw horror movie franchises.
“It was an idea that we were excited about,” Ramey said. “We thought people would be positive about it, but we couldn’t believe how much people wanted to go inside the houses and what success we would see. It quickly became obvious that we wanted to expand on it.”
New versions of this year’s Hollywood horror mazes are expected to return for Halloween 2025 at Magic Mountain and other Six Flags parks.
“We want to build on the program,” Ramey said. “Next year we would expect to see all these guys come back. That’s not to say that as we continue to grow it, there wouldn’t be any other property. I’m always open. You never know.”
One new addition to Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest 2025 could be a Texas Chainsaw Massacre haunted house. Leatherface will terrorize Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey during this year’s Fright Fest ¯ but will be notably missing from the Magic Mountain lineup.
The Horror Nights mainstay last appeared at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2021. It will be interesting to see if and when the roar of chainsaws echo throughout the night at Magic Mountain once Universal Studios Hollywood relinquishes its grip on the storied Halloween franchise.
