Six Flags Great America Fright Fest 2021

Six Flags Great America Fright Fest
Gurnee, IL
Visited on Sunday, September 26, 2021

Vital Signs:
Opened: 1990 (Fright Fest event)
Number of seasons-to-date: 30 (Fright Fest)
Number of attractions: 6 Haunted Houses, 9 Scare Zones, 7 Shows, in addition to park features
Number of actors: 400+
Size: 304 Acres
Setting: Indoor/Outdoor

For most of us in the Chicagoland area, no summer is complete without a trip or two to Six Flags Great America. Certainly, the rides and roller coasters get the most attention, along with the traditional carnival/fair atmosphere. However, as soon as the calendar hits autumn, the darkness of Fright Fest begins to take hold of the park and a transformation takes place each evening.

Starting off our afternoon, we actually did something we have never done before: we attended an indoor show. After experiencing a “lite” version of the Ringmaster’s Cabaret show at the 2021 Midwest Haunters Convention, and meeting the team behind the magic, we arrived early to make sure we could experience the full show. Simply put: we were blown away! This is a professional theatrical show with top-notch talent, lighting, and sound! Designed as a variety show, our host, “The Ringmaster” showcases a cornucopia of dark stars including singers, dancers, cirque performers, and even magicians/illusionists! While we found ourselves loving the entire experience, one of the most memorable scenes was the duet with “Wicked” undertones of the Linkin Park hit, “Numb.” Special credit to amazing performances by both the Ringmaster and Pully the Clown! Don’t miss this! When you come to Fright Fest, plan to make sure you have enough time to put this show on your schedule!

After finishing, we walked across the Hometown Square to prepare for the official opening of Fright Fest with our second theatrical show, “The Uprising: Nightly Call of the Dead.” Filled with several dozen actors and dancers, this is a perfectly choreographed performance that shows the enteral struggle between the living and dead. Spoiler alert: the dead win! Which is fortunate for us. Our reward, the creatures are officially released into the park and the horror can begin. With the infamous phrase, “And now you are going to die,” the hordes of undead scurry into the crowd sending weak souls running for their lives! More great music, phenomenal talent, and a fun storyline make this an essential to kicking off your evening of fear!

From then, we only had a few hours to make our way around the park and experience the haunted attractions. If you haven’t been to Fright Fest before, one of our favorite pieces of the design are the scare zones. Mixed into the normal patron/”muggle” path, several areas are turned into zones where creatures roam free to terrorize all within their proximity. We LOVE these areas, as they add perfectly to the experience and are great for people watching! There are various themes including: dark waters, the demon lair, forbidden forest, henchmen alley, lost circus, lost souls, nightmares, underworld, and wretched meadows. Most of the scare zones are under bridges that connect sections of the park, so keep on the lookout for these fun and fright-filled zones.

While not a scare zone or a haunted house, one of our favorite attractions each Fright Fest is the Six Flags Great America “Six Saints” cemetery. Here, they commemorate all the rides and attractions that are no longer active at the park. They even have tombstones dedicated to different key people that are no longer with the park. While not scary, or fright-filled, this is still a nice Fright Fest-only attraction if you are a fan of the park.

Finally, it was time for the haunted attractions. Six Flags Great America boasts SIX walkthrough haunted houses. So, we started in the Southwest Territory and went to Manslaughter Manor. Hidden behind the façade across from Viper, this attraction is your traditional haunted house. The star here is Sadie, and she is crying and begging for our help. The house is dark, with flickering lights, and old photos adorning the halls. With “home-based” scenes of horror around each turn, we did what we could to help Sadie, but focused on escaping with our lives!

After catching our breath, we ventured to the newest attraction for Fright Fest called Bloodshed. Guests are asked to travel through the woods into a cabin that gets darker the deeper we get. With plenty of gears, chains, and body décor, this isn’t a place most people will want to linger. Actors here are hungry and even our team experienced a few solid jumps!

Next up, we checked-into the hospital at Condemned. Located in the County Fair section, we soon found out that this hospital has been taken over by something evil. Nature has overgrown most of the facility killing and infecting all within. There are bigger props here that served as great distractions setting up solid scares that kept us watching from the corner of our eye!

Of course, no trip to the County Fair is complete without a visit to the Big Top Terror. If you guessed that this would be the home of all the clowns you can handle, you would be correct! Written on the wall to help set the mood, “In the circus, no one hears you scream.” Sending shivers through our spines as clowns cackled, we carefully traversed through fun house scenes filled with plenty of fluorescent-painted walls and wacky mirrors. But, our favorite is certainly the red and white curtain maze. On your way out, make sure you keep your eye out for the flamingos on the ceiling…

After grabbing some popcorn, we found our way to the entrance of the Gates of Hell. This is a long-standing classic Fright Fest attraction and includes the Mausoleum of Terror. With one-part outdoor havoc, and one-part indoor chaos, this was a nice balance of attacks and suspense. We felt that this year’s event was even longer than it has ever been! (AND the music was fantastic!)

Our final attraction of the evening is one of our favorites, 13^th Order. This is a darker, more PG-13 attraction, and scariest of the entire collection. The attraction features 20-foot sets, amazingly detailed scenes with animatronics and props, and a path that twists and turns. With a light theme surrounding a cult, scenes are filled with sacrifices, torture, and some gore. Our absolute favorite scene is the theatre scene with patrons/bodies cloaked in white and chained in their seats. If you are into the traditional haunted houses of Chicagoland, then this will be one of the ones at Six Flags not to be missed.

AND just as we thought we were done, and we were finding our way towards the entrance/exit, there was one last surprise for us. Waiting in the Orleans Place and Carousel Plaza were all the cast and characters from all the scare zones and live shows! Running amok, taking pictures, and getting their last scares in, this was the perfect send-off and way to close our amazing day at the park.

Monsters of Note: The Ringmaster, Pully the Clown, and the entire cast of The Ringmaster’s Cabaret

The Bottom Line: Six Flags Great America Fright Fest is designed to celebrate Halloween at all levels of fright for the whole family. There IS something there for everyone in the family and is a mainstay not only for us at HHC, but for haunters from all over! It was great to see so many actors from other haunted attractions in attendance, enjoying the fun that Six Flags provides. Regardless of if you like haunted houses or rides, if you even remotely like the Halloween season, make sure you reserve a day or two to enjoy all that Six Flags has to offer!

But, don’t just take our word for it, check out media from our visit: