Six Flags Fright Fest Proves it's Hard to Replicate the Horror Nights Experience

Plus, new reviews of The Substance, Transformers One and more.

At this point, I’ve made my love for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights clear. That doesn’t mean every house and scare zone they do works or that every year is a home run - sometimes things just don’t come together or feel less inspired. But overall, there’s a certain level of high quality and skill you can expect, along with the knowledge that you’ll see some truly impressive craftsmanship throughout, as a major movie studio puts their considerable resources towards providing spooky good times to their guests.

But that’s not to say there aren’t other great annual horror events out there with lots of well done haunted houses/mazes (or whatever vernacular you prefer). There’s something to be said for the joys of the classics, and for making your way through a sometimes slightly cheesy, yet still creepy — and often scary — house at all sorts of Halloween-themed events, big and small.

But when you actually go so far as to play in the same IP-based arena as Halloween Horror Nights, with officially licensed houses based on popular TV shows and films, you’re asking for direct comparisons. Which is all a preamble to me saying that this year, Six Flags Fright Fest was a lesson in reaching beyond your capabilities. I’d never been to Six Flags’ annual Halloween event before, but couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see what they were doing with notable titles like Stranger Things, Saw and The Conjuring, as Fright Fest went big on familiar IP in a way they never had before - and unfortunately bit off more than they could chew in the process.