As a spooky feeling fills the air and Halloween descends upon us, people are starting to travel to Six Flags Great America for “Fright Fest.” The annual event started Sep. 14 and goes on to Nov. 3 this year where you can ride all the roller coasters and enjoy the fall treats sold during this time of year. One unique thing about this event is the haunted houses that are set up throughout the park.
Walking into the park, trees are decorated with spiderwebs and smoke machines fog the amusement park for a more haunting feel. The first haunted house is inspired by the show ‘Stranger Things ‘. This is one of the shorter houses and did not have as many actors doing jump scares. The house was decorated like the high school in the show. Although, I really liked how this house was decorated, it really wasn’t that scary. It still gives that haunted house feel without being too extreme.
The next house was the ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ themed one, which was located farther into the park. This house was high on my list because of how it was decorated. As you walk through there are pigs hanging and lots of jump scares. There is an actor who follows peoples and jump scares them throughout the house. This house ranked higher on the jump scares and is decorated very uniquely what makes this house one of my favorites is the location of it. It isn’t in the populated area of the park so you have to walk to get to this one which gives you more of a feel like you are in the middle of nowhere or you’re stranded. One thing about this house that was different was the smell. Throughout the house I had to plug my nose because they want to give the house the sense that it smells like “dead bodies.” This definitely wasn’t my favorite house because of the smell, but it kept me on my toes the whole walk through the house.
The third house was the ‘Saw’ house, located near all the games in the park. This house wasn’t my favorite, there were some jump scares but the decorations didn’t really give me a scared feeling and walking through this house you were able to tell when an actor was going to jump out to scare you. This house was definitely ranked lower for me and I do wish this one was better because of the excitement in the name.
The last house I went into was the Big Top Terror which was my favorite house. This is a clown-inspired one and it is decorated very bright and doesn’t give off a scary vibe but the jump scares make up for this. There are two clowns that greet you before you walk in. There were many jump scares that I never expected which made the house ten times better. Walking out of the house you are scared by the clown that greeted you which makes it so much better because I never would have expected him to be there.
If you are into haunted houses, you should definitely check out Fright Fest this year. Alongside the houses, you are able to go on the roller coasters and eat the delicious food at the different stands.
