|
SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN
& Six Flags Hurricane Harbor
Valencia, California
Six Flags Theme Parks
Read Screamscape’s Official Review of WONDER WOMAN: FLIGHT OF COURAGE (2022)
Read Screamscape’s Official Review of WEST COAST RACERS (2020)
 Park News - (9/23/2024) Six Flags Magic Mountain invited Screamscape to attend the opening of this year’s Fright Fest Extreme event, and we sent our local man on the job, Rob, out to test his mettel against the park’s horde of monsters and report back.
--
Magic Mountain's Fright Fest was always the underdog among Halloween haunts in southern California, but this is the year that changes. Boasting a gourd-splitting eleven haunted houses, nine scare zones, a midnight sliders show, and a bevy of seasonal food options, the roller coaster capital of the world may be adding yet another trophy to its mantle.
In addition, a number of houses are also well established franchises in the media landscape. Stranger Things, The Conjuring, SAW, Trick 'R Treat, and Army of the Dead all have dedicated attractions this season, rivaling that of Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights. Perhaps the one anticipated drawback to all these offerings is that guests may not have enough time to see everything during a single evening's visit. Is too much of a good thing a bad thing?
Fright Fest has a number of long standing houses that get resurrected each year, but there are also some new ones on offer, and they're worth checking out. Stranger Things has proven longevity, so it's quite a coup to have a presence this year, after moving on from Horror Nights in years past. Hawkins High School sets the scene for a series of iconic setpieces from episodes past, complete with floating spores in the air as guests venture through multiple uncanny visions.
The most fleshed out house of the night comes courtesy of the Conjuring Universe. Enter the Perron house and climb into the children's wardrobe with Annabelle and all the things that come along. Sheer dread permeates this highly immersive house tour. Valak, the nun, also recreates her terrifying debut from the film in glorious fashion. It doesn't get better than this.
Trick 'r Treat brings the 2007 film to life in creepy fashion with some effective scares. Come face to face to the Halloween School Bus Massacre and other scenes from the film, all including Sam, the little trick or treating demon.
A mix of indoor and outdoor, Army of the Dead makes a valiant effort to boost zombie representation in the park. Of particular note is the intermittent fire ball that spits out of the casino as visitors enter. Hot stuff, as they say.
The remaining houses are mostly holdouts from previous years, with varying degrees of quality and execution. Willoughby's Resurrected remains one of the most endearing trips, due to the plucky cast of scareactors who populate the mansion. SAW 20th Anniversary remains a favorite, though there isn't quite the sense of intimacy a house like this deserves. As with Stranger Things, many of the rooms are too large to easily cultivate dread out of visitors.
The most enjoyable aspect above all, and one thing that sets Fright Fest apart from its competitors is the degree of interactivity of the scareactors in the scare zones, often indulging guests with full conversations, in character, of course. Plaza de la Muerte is a lovely tribute to the annual Día de Muertos, where the dead, decked in fluorescent colors, cautiously approach. Also new this year is Underworlds of Oz, inspired by the Oz series of books, with a dark spin of course. Nine zones, all with distinct themes, provide ample opportunity for spooky and humorous interactions with guests.
Overall impressions of Fright Fest result in a mixed bag. Having more choices is a real plus, though it's clear that staffing in the haunted houses suffers, as actors are spread a bit thin. This results in some rooms having little to no activity, perhaps depending on the time of night. Houses carried over each year get nice little plus ups as well. It's always pleasantly surprising to encounter a new feature in an established maze.
Fright Fest Extreme is open select nights September 7th - November 3rd.
(8/29/2024) A few more Six Flags theme parks have officially added new Chaperone Policies over the past several days, ahead of the start of their Fright Fest haunt events. Six Flags Magic Mountain confirmed on social media that they would put one into effect starting Saturday, Sept. 7th, 2024.
According to the statement, the Chaperone Policy goes into effect at 4pm until closing on Fright Fest nights only, allowing guests age 15 and under to remain in the park only if they are with a chaperone who is at least 21 years old. The chaperone here can accompany “no more than 10 guests age 15 or younger per day”. Underage guests found in the park without a Chaperone will be ejected from the park.
2024 - Nothing is known or expected to be added at this point in time, other than the large solar energy farm to be build across the parking lot.
(11/6/2023) A new piece of concept art posted shows that the new Solar Canopy system is indeed intended to cover most of the regular parking lot at Six Flags Magic Mountain, as well as the employee lot in the back.
(4/29/2023) Six Flags Magic Mountain may not be building a new roller coaster this year, but the California theme park has announced a rather epic new project is going to begin construction. According to the press release Six Flags has confirmed in a partnership with Solar Optimum and DSD Renewables, a plan to install a massive 12.37-megawatt solar energy carport and energy storage system at the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park. “Six Flags Magic Mountain will be home to the largest single-site commercial solar energy project in California and largest for any for-profit organization in the world.”
If you have ever been to Six Flags Magic Mountain you know just how brutally HOT it can get as the sun beats down on the California park, so building a solar farm on top of a carport structure in the main parking lot does make a lot of sense. The system will feature a battery storage system able to produce “1.958 megawatts of power, with 7,886.3 kilowatt hours of capacity that can be deployed daily”, producing 20.8 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. This is the equivalent to the power consumption of 2,874 homes and 1.79 million smartphones charged. The end result is that “The park will be able to offset 100% of its energy usage with solar power”.
This is not the first attempt at Six Flags to set up a solar farm at their theme parks. The first project saw a group of smaller carport systems installed across various lots at the Six Flags Great Adventure property in New Jersey and then a larger carport system installed over the guest lot at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in central California.
2025 - Park Improvements - (11/14/2024) Nothing new is expected to be added for 2025 at this time... though the Hurricane Harbor waterpark is expected to get some improvements and upgrades over the winter for the 2025 season for the waterpark’s 30th Anniversary.
(8/18/2024) The Six Flags Hurricane Harbor waterpark closed at the Six Flags Magic Mountain complex will be apparently getting some love for the 2025 season. While it doesn’t sound like this will result in a new attraction, Blooloop reports that Hurricane Harbor will receive upgrades for the park’s 30th Anniversary season, that will “include expanded shaded areas, seating, cabanas and more amenities.” Look for this along with some upgraded landscaping and some slide refurbishments that may bring about some new bright colors throughout the park as well.
2026- New Roller Coaster - (11/14/2024) A press release from Six Flags today confirmed that the company is planning to spend over $1 BILLION on the parks over the next two years. Some of this will come in the form of enhancements to the guest experience, such as new themed areas, dining upgrades and technology enhancements. While we’ve seen the 2025 capital projects ($500 million) already announced, they decided to post a list of teasers of what they are already confirming will come to some of the parks in 2026 as part of another $525 million capital investment plan.
Six Flags Magic Mountain was listed as adding “a first-of-its-kind coaster in North America” to the park for 2026. This is likely going where the former Golden Bear theater venue sat, which was cleared out completely in 2024 as if it was going to be a 2025 project, and then all work just suddenly came to a halt. Now we know to expect something finally in 2026, but I’m thinking that this could possibly be a very different project under the NEW Six Flags management than what the old Six Flags may have been previously planning, as the timing of everything seems to indicate that the new management team may have hit the E-Stop on whatever previous plans were in the works to come up with something even better.
(6/13/2024) It has been quite some time since we’ve heard anything at all about the construction that was taking place at Six Flags Magic Mountain, clearing out a former theater to make way for a yet-to-be-announced future attraction. Unfortunately, it seems the reason we haven’t heard about any new progress in weeks is that it appears that all work had entirely stopped on the site once they cleared everything down to the “slab” foundation of the former venue. You can see some current photos of the site, and construction walls posted here.
Given that Six Flags parks in general have been very slow to start actual construction on most projects over the past decade, often waiting until the later part of the year, mixed with the fact that it’s hellishly hot at Six Flags Magic Mountain all summer, I’m not too surprised by this at all. Add in that we still don’t know what is coming to the park, the demolition job would have been an entirely separate project (with separate permits) from the upcoming construction project, so it is most likely the crew that was hired to clear the site has completed what they were hired to do and moved on.
That said… there does appear to be some new activity taking place next to Wonder Woman however. Click Here for that update.
(3/15/2024) It seems that it was an interesting day at Six Flags Magic Mountain on Friday. In addition to Wonder Woman being reported as valleying at some point, it seems that the first 2025 teaser has been posted onto the construction walls outside the former Golden Bear Theater site. It’s got the typical park logo and tagline, “Thrill Capital of the World” along with a picture of a strange robotic/cyborg bird above the words, “Epic Thrills Are Cycling In’ along with a multi-color background in tones of blue, orange and gold, which are the same colors on the bird.
I don’t recognize the bird at all as being something from an existing IP that I recognize, so anyone else have a guess? Since the park already has Tatsu and Batman, the use of a bird wouldn’t indicate a Flyer or Inverted coaster, so for now I’m going to start thinking along the lines of something tall, or maybe fast… since I’m also not seeing any wings on this bird, but there are cybernetic leg joints, so perhaps it’s a techo-roadrunner. Of course there is the use of the word “Cycling” to consider as well, so could this be something motorcycle themed?
(3/11/2024) With Six Flags Magic Mountain hard at work clearing out the former site of the Golden Bear Theater, the speculation and rumor machine is ramping up about what could be coming. As you might expect from a park like Six Flags Magic Mountain, which has made a reputation for itself by building giant crazy sounding roller coasters, the rumor mill is going to run a little wild before we know what is coming.
As for the site, as we previously mentioned the Golden Bear theater building and stage itself have been removed and cleared out, but the concrete seating built into the hillside is still there. It would take a lot of work to break up all the concrete to remove it, so I can see them just sort of leaving it in place, and only working on the areas that they may need to break up to add in new footers or whatever is necessary. Pictures and videos of the site clearing show a staircase leading up and out of top of the hillside from there, to an network of old maintenance pathways that wind around and under Superman: Escape from Krypton. It’s also worth mentioning that there seems to see some clean-up work and a little clearing to the trees on the hillside on the opposite side of Superman from there, heading down towards Crazanity. Between all that and the huge section of open space still left open from the removal of the Log Jammer that was never re-used when they put in Full Throttle, we are looking at a fairly large potential space that could be put to use here.
Soi what is coming? We really don’t know right now to be honest. The one persistent rumor I’ve heard for the longest amount of time was that Six Flags may be working with Vekoma to build some kind of custom mega-coaster project that could go here. Something tall, very fast, and could quite possibly have a very large number of inversions. A few other oddball rumors have also been floated in that I’m not very confident about right now, involving other companies that may have submitted proposals or have been trying to get a successful bid on the project, but have since falled by the wayside. One other name did come up this weekend however as a potential competitor to Vekoma for the project that I think might have a little merit… Gerstlauer.
Six Flags have worked with them on and off over the years on a number of projects, including a batch of spinning coasters, the Dare Devil Dive coaster at Six Flags over Georgia, and of course they made the trains for the first two RMC IBox conversion coasters, The New Texas Giant and Iron Rattler. While that relationship came to a sudden end when there was an unfortunate incident on the Texas Giant, that did not stop Six Flags Fiesta Texas from buying a new spare train from them for their Iron Rattler over the past year.
So while we still don’t know exactly what it is, those two are my top contenders for the moment.
(12/9/2023) Remember back in August when I told everyone to keep an eye on the Golden Bear Theater, because our sources reported that it would be leaving? Well, this is all now officially coming true, as Six Flags Magic Mountain has filed the necessary demolition permits to take down the theater completely to the slab. Our last update about the rumored removal also indicated that the site would likely be repurposed for a new roller coaster for the 2025 season, so as before, keep your eyes on this location over the next 18 months.
(10/4/2023) While we don’t know much yet about what Six Flags Magic Mountain has planned, sources tell us to keep an eye on the theater spot, as we previously indicated. The park’s next coaster is expected to go in this location, and is expected to open in 2025 if all goes as planned. While there have been lots of rumors about finally brining a Giga style coaster to the park, the latest rumor actually claims Vekoma may be involved. While Vekoma has never built a Giga (or a true Hyper) to my knowledge, they have started to work with Six Flags lately, adding the family Rookie Racer coaster to Six Flags St. Louis just this past week, and the new Super Boomerang was announced for 2024 at Six Flags Great Adventure. So more Vekoma products may be planned for Six Flags in the years to come.
(8/25/2023) Is Six Flags Magic Mountain making early plans to add something new? I don’t have a timeline, or even a hint yet about what may be in the works for Magic Mountain’s next big attraction, but instead the focus is more on what may be leaving the park. According to a source the park may be preparing to remove the Golden Bear Theater.
The removal of this theater would open up the entire hillside from Full Throttle down to Swashbuckler and Buccaneer for future attraction development. Now the question is, what would you like to see put here instead?
???? - DC Universe Construction - Rumor - (6/13/2024) You may recall that we reported that shortly after the Wonder Woman coaster was built, crews were seen clearing out a rectangular space that was curiously left untouched before that sits just between Wonder Woman and The Riddler roller coasters. Access to the site is essentially blocked off on the North end by the Wonder Woman station, but would likely be accessible along the route where guests exit Riddler, just past the Justice League dark ride. The site was initially just sort of cleared out and left empty… until now.
Based on a new photo, crews and some grading equipment are now on the site, prepping the space to build something. Since there is great access to the site from the backstage road, I wouldn't be surprised if this is some kind of new park service or storage building, or perhaps a dual-purpose structure that could be use equipment storage for part of the year and cleared out to install a haunted house in the fall. Of course there is always a chance it could be for a new restaurant as well, but in general, I’m not thinking this will be used for a new ride of any kind at this time.
(2/4/2023) While this may be some time off, current rumors suggest that a Phase 2 expansion of the DC Universe area could be in planning for Six Flags Magic Mountain. We know the oldest section was just revamped as part of the addition of Wonder Woman, which also saw the removal of the Flash Speed Force ride, and theming of the former Wonder Woman ride into Teen Titans.
While there is still a little bit of open space to deal with in the old DC Universal area, the placement of Wonder Woman also left a very interesting pocket of space between the new coaster and Riddler’s Revenge that could be used for a possible second phase of the park’s DC Universe plans.
Our reader also noticed that the old midways games area across from Crazanity that was just repainted a few years ago, is now fenced off and the game booths gutted, so revamping this area to be more DC Universe themed may be the idea course of action going forth. We’ve seen several others Six Flags parks slowly begin to expand their own DC Universe themed areas in the past few years, adding small groupings of new DC themed flat rides, as well as rethemeing some nearby existing rides to have DC theming, such as SFOG, SFGAm, or even SFDK. Keep your eyes on this section of the park for future developments.
|
