The Los Angeles area has plenty of competition for the Halloween Haunt season. You’ve got Halloween Horror Nights, Knott’s Scary Farm, Haunted Hayride, Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, and other smaller haunts that are regional. So where does Six Flags Fright Fest fit into that pantheon? Is it up to par with the other events of the season? They made big strides in bringing in more movie and TV-based IP for the 2024 event, but it seems they’ve scaled that back for 2025, decreasing the number of haunted mazes and cutting back on IP.

This year, there was one new maze, taking the place of Stranger Things from last year, Carnage. Returning to round out the lineup are The Conjuring Universe, SAW: Legacy of Terror, Trick ‘r Treat, Truth or Dare, Condemned: Forever Damned, Willoughby’s Ressurected, and Vault 666. Joining those haunted mazes are nine scare zones, which are themed areas for you to walk through and be scared by scare actors. They include: City Under Siege, Underworlds of Oz, Thunderbolt Alley, CarnivHELL, Devil’s Triangle, Exile Hill, Grimmlore Ridge, Plaza De La Muerte, and Nightmares: Reign of Blood.

Finally, for things to do, there are three live shows that go on nightly: Unleashed, Margo Rita’s Monster Ball, and Sliders of the Night. Two of the three here are in the DC Universe area, and the Monster Ball is right when you enter the park by Full Throttle.

So is Six Flags Magic Mountain: Fright Fest a value-filled Halloween night of fright? Or is it an empty, scareless nightmare of boredom? Well, it’s somewhere in between.

Normally I’d Rank All The Mazes, But They’re Mostly The Same, So I’ll Talk About Carnage Instead

The newest maze at the event tasks visitors with joining the cult of Carnage the Clown. He’s taken over the DC Universe area of the park and wants to shape the world in a new image of violence and death. This one takes over the old Stranger Things slot, and its a marked improvement over that maze last year. It actually has a story! You go through as a recruit into the cult and even get a stamp of Carnage’s logo on your hand to show off as you go around the park. My only real complaint, besides the biggest one that I have for the event that I will get to later, is that Carnage only really shows up once, at the end of the maze. Outside of that, this one has some nice effects and scares, especially for those who don’t like clowns.

You can check out our ranking of the Scariest Houses At Six Flags Fright Fest 2025 here.

What About The Other Seven Mazes And Scare Zones?

The other mazes range from not great to good. Trick ‘r Treat was my favorite of the year, going through the movie and adding some new scenes with everyone’s favorite character, Sam. This one took the longest of the night, because they have to stop every group going in to tell them to not touch the scare actors. That really should be a given, but some people out there, especially at Halloween haunt events think they’re the main character of life.

The biggest thing that I can complain about at Fright Fest is the lack of scare actors throughout the mazes. There might be between five and ten scare actors in a maze and that’s kind of unacceptable for an event of this size. Plus, some of the scare actors are doing the classic “scream and jump out” but others aren’t. It really depends on the individual actor you’re getting. Universal has sound effects and lights to accentuate the scares, making them more potent. Fright Fest really doesn’t do that, and you’re left with a cheapened experience.

The other big thing that sticks out for the event is that you don’t really need to go down to The Underground section of the park if you only care about mazes. They don’t have any in the Apocalypse section of the park this year, while I went down to see the scare zone there, it felt empty as a whole.

It’ll be sad to see Willoughby’s Resurrected go after this season, so let’s hope they replace it with something just as cool. The Halloween vibes are off the charts for that maze, even if the scares aren’t all there.

That feels like the biggest issue with Fright Fest. There are great ideas, the Truth or Dare maze has some fantastic theming, and ideas for how to scare people, but it’s empty. The scare zones all look cool; they even have scented fog, but they’re empty. For what amounts to the most expensive haunt of the season (you have to buy either a season pass or a ticket for the event, AND on top of that, a Haunted Attractions pass, which sometimes goes up to $100+), you’re getting the least scares for the dollar.

There’s a lot of potential for the Fright Fest event, but it just feels like budget or something else is holding it back from being the best it can be.

The one thing that does separate this event from something like Halloween Horror Nights is the wait times. I checked the wait times to compare on a Sunday night for both events, and while Six Flags doesn’t post wait times for mazes, you can eyeball test based on the line. The longest I waited for a maze was Trick ‘r Treat at around 30 minutes. For comparison, the SHORTEST wait time at Halloween Horror Nights for a maze at the same time was 30 minutes. So if you want an event you can go and not have to worry too hard about getting everything done, Fright Fest might be for you.

There’s plenty for Fright Fest to improve on for 2026, but its still a decent event, and one that you can take people who might be a bit too scared for other events to.

Six Flags Magic Mountain: Fright Fest 2025 is open on select nights through November 2nd. Grab tickets here.

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

Keep Reading:

Halloween Horror Nights 2025 Review – Main Events, High Highs, And Clowns [Fright-A-Thon]