Across Los Angeles every single Halloween season, there are events big and small that can capture your attention, provide frights, bring in the Halloween spirit, and then some. For the sake of this ranking, we’ll only be doing the biggest ones in Los Angeles; otherwise, we’d be here all year round trying to figure out the best home haunts and smaller regional-specific ones throughout the largest county on the West Coast. Here’s the list of everything that we’ll cover in this ranking: Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights, Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest, Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, and Knott’s Scary Farm.

Picking the best haunt has a lot that goes into it. There are criteria like lines, value, scares, food/drink, ambiance, and of course, the quality of the mazes/haunted houses. With all of those criteria considered, let’s dive into the best Halloween Haunts in Los Angeles!

5. Six Flags Fright Fest

Six Flags Fright Fest feels like it’s at an inflection point. The event went all in for IP-based mazes last year, and this year, they’ve replaced some of them with original mazes. They have even more plans to change up the event next year by getting rid of their classic Willoughby’s haunted house. They also lost Sewer of Souls this year. So the event ends up feeling a bit empty in certain sections of the park. The new house, Carnage, is cool and on the interactive side, but there needs to be some bigger changes to maze design and other elements for this event to be up there with the big boys again.

They have eight haunted mazes plus scare zones at Fright Fest.

Read our full review of Fright Fest 2025 here.

Six Flags Fright Fest is open through November 2nd, grab tickets here.

4. Los Angeles Haunted Hayride

The Haunted Hayride took an event that needed some tweaks last year, and made it better for 2025. The Hayride might not be the same as you remember it when it was at the old LA Zoo, but they’ve made real strides with the actual hayride and some of the newer elements to their mazes. Add in new food options, and the return of Monty Revolta and his band, and you get one of the best Halloween Haunt events for beginners. They definitely need to make some upgrades to their mazes for next year to avoid being stagnant, but if you have someone who wants to try out Halloween events, this is the perfect way to do it.

This event has the best Halloween vibes of any out there, it truly feels like you’re transported to another place with all the fog, the ambiance of Griffith Park, and the roaming characters and charm of Midnight Falls.

This has 3 haunted mazes and the Haunted Hayride for scares.

Read our full review of Los Angeles Haunted Hayride here.

Los Angeles Haunted Hayride is open through November 2nd, grab your tickets here.

3. Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor

Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor takes you to one of the most historical and haunted landmarks in all of Los Angeles. The backdrop of the event is the ship, and she’s the main character. While the houses here might not be as scary as Horror Nights or other events, the mystique and mystery of the ship keep them firmly in the great category. The event does feel like they’re bleeding customers dry with all of the add-ons, and to get into the mysterious “speakeasies,” you have to jump through hoops or just pay up. The mazes on land aren’t quite up to snuff with the ones on the ship.

Dark Harbor has six haunted mazes and other rides and attractions at the event.

With all of that considered, this is still a fantastic Halloween event for anyone to go to.

Read our full review of Dark Harbor.

Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor runs through November 2nd, you can grab tickets online.

2. Halloween Horror Nights

For many out there, Halloween Horror Nights is the main event of the Halloween season. This year, it seems that the number of people is even higher than in any previous year. The lines, wait times, and just the number of people in the park for the event are insane. With three haunted houses that would be main eventers in any other year (Terrifier, Five Nights At Freddy’s, Jason Universe), the wait times are the biggest issue with Horror Nights. Five Nights At Freddy’s and Terrifier both reach upward of 2 hour waits for non-trivial amounts of time. The scares here are the best in the region and you’ll at least get your moneys worth being scared.

This event doesn’t reach the top spot because of the sheer number of people they’re letting in and a lack of things to do outside of those haunted houses.

Halloween Horror Nights has eight haunted houses (and the Terror Tram) with scare zones, two live shows, and rides open in certain parts of the park.

Read our full review of Halloween Horror Nights here.

HHN runs through November 2nd, you can grab tickets here.

1. Knott’s Scary Farm

Knott’s Scary Farm is the oldest and longest-running Halloween event in the area, and it shows. They know what it takes to make a great Halloween haunt. Between absolutely smashing set design, plenty of scares, and some of the best haunted houses ever (I’m looking at you, Cinema Slasher), this event has it all. During the event, rides are open, there are hundreds of scare actors out and about, and there are live shows to enjoy. All of that alleviates plenty of stress on the various haunted mazes and makes for an event that is manageable to get through everything.

Read our full review of Knott’s Scary Farm here.

Knott’s Scary Farm is open through November 1st. Grab tickets here.

So that’s the ranking of the various large-scale Halloween haunts in Los Angeles for you to enjoy this season. What was your favorite? Did you make it out to all of them? Let us know in the comments.

For more on Horror, make sure to check out Fright-A-Thon.

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