Six Flags Magic Mountain is upping the ante in its growing Halloween showdown with Universal Studios Hollywood as the Valencia amusement park continues to build upon its lineup of haunted mazes based on blockbuster horror franchises.
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.
“We decided to invest in making Fright Fest better than ever,” Six Flags Chief Fright Officer Edithann “EA” Ramey said.
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Fright Fest Extreme will add haunted mazes based on the Stranger Things, Trick ‘r Treat and Army of the Dead horror franchises at Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2024.
“All these houses will be inspired by the movies,” Ramey said during a telephone interview.
The three new mazes based on major Hollywood intellectual properties join the returning Saw and Conjuring mazes that debuted in 2023 at Magic Mountain.
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The five Hollywood horror mazes are expected to be paired with three or four returning mazes based on internal Six Flags IP.
The new Six Flags approach steals a page from Universal’s Halloween playbook that relies heavily on classic horror intellectual properties like “Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” along with newer shows like “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story.”
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights has previously hosted haunted mazes based on “Stranger Things” (2023), “Trick ‘r Treat” (2018) and “Saw” (2012).
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The new Stranger Things maze at Magic Mountain will take visitors into a mysterious alternate dimension alongside students from Hawkins High School.
“You’re going to this party that goes awry and then it sends you into the Upside Down,” Ramey said.
The new Trick ‘r Treat maze travels down a Candy Trail lit by jack-o-lanterns where supernatural encounters tap into your deepest fears.
“There may be things that happen to you as you walk through that feel like challenges,” Ramey said. “At the end, if you’ve done it, maybe you survive. And if you haven’t done it, you’ll feel like maybe you were offed.”
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The new Army of the Dead maze visits Las Vegas during a viral outbreak lockdown as survivors battle the undead.
“There is going to be a lot of sensory smell,” Ramey said. “You might be smelling some rotting flesh and things like that.”
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The returning Saw maze tackles the entire horror franchise after last year’s maze focused on 2023’s “Saw X” film.
The returning Conjuring maze expands to incorporate the entire franchise universe that includes 2014’s “Annabelle” and 2018’s “The Nun.”
“A lot of these houses have a little bit of choice,” Ramey said. “You can go one way or you can go another and the experience might change a little bit.”
Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey will also feature the Fright Fest Extreme lineup this Halloween season with the added bonus of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre haunted house. Five other Six Flags parks will get one or two of the Hollywood horror franchise haunted houses in 2024.