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The best and worst of Halloween 2009 at Southern California theme parks

Fright Fest 2009 at Six Flags Magic Mountain

As we reach the midpoint of the Halloween season, it’s time to take a look back at the best and worst of the Southern California theme park scare fests.

I found something to like at each of the parks. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood clearly had the best haunted mazes and scare zones. Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Berry Farm — with 13 mazes and seven shows — simply offers too much to do in just one night. And Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain serves as a great introduction for tweens testing the mazes and monsters for the first time.

Check out my previous posts for detailed descriptions of all the mazes, shows and scare zones at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, Knott’s Halloween Haunt and Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest.

What follows is my subjective thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of each of the haunted mazes at the Southern California parks:

Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios Hollywood)
The Best
* Saw: Game Over
* My Bloody Valentine: Be Mine 4 Ever

The Rest
* Halloween: The Life and Crimes of Michael Myers

The Worst
* Chucky’s Funhouse

Halloween Haunt (Knott’s Berry Farm)
The Best
* Terror of London
* Lockdown: The Asylum
* The Slaughterhouse
* Pyromaniax

The Rest
* Alien Annihilation
* Dia de los Muertos 3-D
* Labyrinth
* Black Widow’s Cavern
* Club Blood

The Worst
* Uncle Bobo’s Big Top of the Bizarre
* The Doll Factory
* Quarantine
* Cornstalkers

Fright Fest (Six Flags Magic Mountain)
The Best
* Willoughby’s Haunted Mansion
* Lecter’s Slaughterhouse
* Warehouse 13

The Rest
* Bite

The Worst
* Escape of the Zombies
* Jokester’s Hideout 3-D

Have you been to any or all of the Southern California scare fests? Tell us your take in the comments section below.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photo: Six Flags Magic Mountain

This entry was posted on Friday, October 16, 2009 at 10:00 am by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, Family & Kids, Knott's, Los Angeles, Magic Mountain, Orange County, Theme Parks, Universal Studios Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

4 Comments on “The best and worst of Halloween 2009 at Southern California theme parks”

David Says:
October 16th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I’d swap VALENTINE and HALLOWEEN at Universal… haven’t seen Knott’s yet… and couldn’t disagree more about WAREHOUSE 13 and JOKESTER’S HIDEOUT at Six Flags, Jokester’s was the highlight for me (loved that they paced it with pulsing groups and actual scenes, rather than just a march through), and Warehouse just seemed cheap.

Here’s my full rundown:
http://e-ticket.livejournal.com/529157.html
Vicki Says:
October 17th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Hi–Your column is very interesting and I follow it on my RSS feed. I’ve never felt the need to comment until today…when you claimed that Universal Hollywood has the best scare zones. Huh? Do we live on the same planet?

Granted, I haven’t been to Universal yet this year; maybe things have changed. The sub-par scare zones last year are one factor in making me wonder if I’ll go back this year.

Scare zones stand on the strength of their monsters, and Knott’s monsters are better both in terms of great individuality as well as personality.

Knott’s monsters each dress individually; every one is a completely unique character. While some are “slackers,” most see it as their fiendish responsibility to try to scare the visitors.

Compare that with year at Universal; all of the chain saw guys, for example, were dressed alike. What’s that supposed to be? Are they part of a cheerleading squad or something?

Last year, the scare zones which weren’t on the main path were all but deserted of guests on the night I went. Did that mean the monsters had time to give my group an extra scare? Ha! No, it meant that the monsters figured that they had “time off” and barely looked our way.

I would suspect that the Knott’s people read your column & might make changes based on what you say. I hope not!– Knott’s monsters and scare zones are great just the way they are!

Vicki
Destiny Newton Says:
October 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
This is great!
durian jam Says:
October 31st, 2009 at 8:56 am
I went to last year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal and it really was amazing. The best part was watching the guys with chainsaws chase the girls that continued to scream.