Six Flags over Georgia #FrightFest: Yes, It Will Scare You
As a child, my brothers used to get a kick out of scaring me, telling me stories about the Boogie Man and jumping out from behind the next corner, and being at Six Flags Over Georgia for Fright Fest is like being surrounded by those brothers times one thousand.
It’s going to scare you. I promise. Especially if you set foot anywhere near Bloodbath Bayou or Mummy’s Curse.
Being that I’m such a scaredy-cat, I really don’t enjoy the fun that is Fright Fest, but my kids do, especially my oldest daughter, who ADORES Halloween and all the frightful fun that goes with it, so I go to see the kids have fun—even at my own expense sometimes.
We jumped at the chance to attend the media night of Fright Fest recently. The invite only included those over 13 years old, and I’m a little glad, because there’s no way my 11 year old would have been able to go and not come home with nightmares for the next month straight. That said, there are definitely younger children walking around Fright Fest. I’m not sure how they handled the scares, though, because there really is someone jumping out at you, mostly when you least expect it, over and over. Even when you’re not in one of the haunted houses, odds are you’re walking through one of the 12 ‘scare zones’. You learn to be cautious of creepy creatures jumping out at you, but just as you think you’re safe and let your guard down, something pops up from the ground, or the corner, or the wall behind you. They call these areas scare zones, but I honestly feel like the entire park is a scare zone. Just know that going in.
Six Flags Over Georgia Fright Fest now has more than 20 haunted attractions. 20! That includes six different mazes. Want to know how many I lasted through? One. And even in that one, I admit I peed my pants a little bit… twice. Yep. It’s embarrassing to share, but I want you to understand this is for real. The scare, that is. The haunted houses are fake, of course, but your mind plays tricks on you when you’re walking through Bloodbath Bayou. I had my brave daughter walk first, because she thinks this is all amusing…meantime, I was steps behind her, praying something wouldn’t ‘get’ me. I even had her dad walk behind me. I should be safe sandwiched in the middle, right? But no, I wasn’t. So, my logic was to move fast—because the quicker I moved, the harder it was to see me coming, right? Isn’t that how the zombie stuff works? Well, no, I was still scared out of mind—my heart was literally racing—and this attraction felt endless. I can’t tell you how many bridges we crossed, or hanging flaps we had to walk through, but I can tell you something seemed to be jumping out every three seconds and my poor heart couldn’t take much more. I was so relieved to reach the end.
That also was enough for me to skip the other haunted house/maze type areas. I’m told you should not miss the Mummy’s Curse, where it’s so dark you can’t see your own hands or feet in front of you. Yeah, I pass.
The only things that didn’t really scare me were the shows.
The award-winning Dr. Fright’s Dead Man’s Party was great entertainment. Fabulous choreography and fun talent throughout. The Uprising show was harder for me to get into…it features some scary clowns and, right now, that’s a bit of a sensitive subject with me and my kiddos (and much of the rest of the country).
There are also rides, but we simply ran out of time to do more than Acrophobia and the Georgia Cyclone. We wanted to also do the Rage of Gargoyles Virtual Reality ride and some of the other roller coasters, but the lines were too long for the time we had left. My tip is to maybe ride those when you get into the park and save the mazes for later.
As media, we were treated to a behind the scenes tour of the makeup tents. I really hope they open this up to the general public in the future. There are some crazy-good talented makeup artists (20 of them!) getting all the cast ready for their frightful faces. They explained to us how they make the magic work, airbrushing most of the makeup on, adding prosthetics when necessary. They even made my face up like a zombie, and my daughter like a zombie survivor, and the transformation in under ten minutes is mindboggling. In fact, they did such a good job that the Six Flags security asked us to remove it while still behind the scenes. Only kids 12 and under are allowed to wear costumes into the park. And that’s good, because I can’t imagine what a nightmare it could become if older folks in costume decided to scare us, too. In fact, even the employees in costume are supposed to follow strict rules—like never touching a park attendee…and if following us in costume, to keep a three step distance. Knowing that information is about all that kept me calm during some of the biggest scares.
If you go, you have to buy Fright Fest tickets, on top of park admission tickets. However, if you buy a 2017 season pass (which costs less than the day of admission currently), the Fright Fest ticket is free, and park admission the rest of the year is free, too! That’s totally worth the investment if your heart is set on getting a scare or two at Fright Fest.