As they do year in and year out, Six Flags Great Adventure’s “Fright Fest” (NJ) kept it fresh and delivered another exciting visit. It exceeded my yearly expectations, as I came in expecting the normal good experience but this year it felt overall better.

The entrance at night looks amazing with the fountain’s orange water, and the orange light-up heads too. When I first walked in I got to see “The Arrival Ghoul” which is a parade where there are a lot of scarers walking in a purple chariot, followed by a funeral car behind it.

Fellow Six Flags member James Fudge said “my overall favorite part of the day was the parade, definitely set a sort of tone for the entrance.”

 After this, I went on rides.

The two rides I chose to go on were “Nitro” and “Justice League”, as the ride lines were long and I wanted to be able to do mazes too. The rides were normal and had no real decorations, lights, or additions in general.

Fudge said, “I was hoping to get on more. But it was so crowded and lines made it so I couldn’t get on anything.”

The mazes were good this year. The two I will point out are “The Conjuring” and “The Manor.” The Manor was based on a creepy run-down old house, where you are inside and you walk through with the red low lights on so it already paints a low brightness setting, and with a good amount of scarers throughout the maze.

“The Conjuring” was also an inside maze. To me, the setup and scene the house paints in general gave more of a scary effect. From start to finish, you are walking through with the lights barely flickering enough for you to see. The sound effects make for a better experience too. Throughout the walk, there is a notorious kind of effect sounding similar to an engine, and people screaming. The best actor was a woman in a bed who jumped up. Unless you went before, you will not see it coming. 

The main criticism I have is the lack of scarers. I felt like scare zones and mazes didn’t have enough scarers and made some of the park experience underwhelming. I will add that one of the characters “Saw” walking around had a cool pug mask on. Along with another character with a bucket on her head running around screaming which set a good mood around them. And secondly is just how insanely crowded it was. Which made it stuffy to get around, and hard to get on ride without lines for hours. 

Fudge said, “I think it has improved since last year. The big thing is just how unengaged you get at points when there aren’t scarers around.”

All around the trip was good. I think it could’ve been a little better with some additions. Still, it was fun to be there with friends nonetheless and I recommend going to experience Fright Fest for yourself.