Six Flags Over Georgia Fright Fest is entering its 31st season, offering 5 haunted attractions. SAW: Legacy of Terror, Carnival of Chaos, Nyctophobia, Camp Slasher, and new for this year…The Conjuring Universe. There are also multiple scare zones throughout the park where characters will startle, stalk, and pause for photos with park guests. The Fright Fest fun begins at 6 pm on selected nights through November 2. In addition to all of the frightful fun, there is also Kids Boo Fest and Oktoberfest happening on Saturdays and Sundays alongside Fright Fest. And if this weren’t enough, there are, of course, a multitude of roller coasters and rides to entertain you during the day and evening hours with your general park admission price.
The Saw cast consists of silent, menacing pig-masked stalkers and their victims. If you are a fan of the Saw movie franchise, you will have the opportunity to witness many of the filmed predicaments of the Saw victims. Most of the victim actors convincingly portrayed their trauma as we made our way through the dark maze.
The Conjuring found a way to fit in many of the creatures and demons from The Conjuring series of films. We were terrorized by Anabelle, the Nun, Bathsheba, the Crooked Man, and more! The actors took their characters seriously and delivered great interpretations of the film’s demons and monsters.
Carnival of Chaos was populated by deranged and wacky clowns who giggled, taunted, and sometimes pointed us in the wrong direction. We were curious as to whether we would run into other carnival-type characters (such as a bearded lady), but it appears the clowns had taken over this carnival!
Nyctophobia provided us with only 2-3 actors. They were silent and ominous, maintaining the focus on darkness in this maze. Their non-vocal inactivity metaphorically matched the blackness of the walls.
During our walk through Camp Slasher, we encountered a somewhat deranged fellow at the information desk, several camp attendees, and a slasher who seemed to have a preference for axes. While the killer was silent, the campers begged us to help them as they tried to stay somewhat hidden.
Saw: The pig-masked characters wore dark robes. This provided for an ideal focus on their odd, emotionless mask when they made appearances from the darkness. Victims were in a variety of standard clothing, as the focus was more on their particular torture device.
The Conjuring: We found the costuming and makeup in The Conjuring to be spot-on with the movie characters. The makeup for the Nun/Valek was as disturbing in person as it was in the film. Likewise, Bathsheba and the Crooked Man looked as though they had stepped out of their films. There was great attention to the detail in the look of these characters.
Carnival of Chaos: All characters were in some form of colorful, distressed clown costumes. There were a few masks used to exaggerate some facial features, but most of the cast wore slightly warped makeup applications to match their warped personalities.
Nyctophobia: The few actors in this dark maze were clad in dark robes with hoods and wore somewhat colorful, emotionless masks. This was a simple yet effective choice. If we were in a hallway with a character during the few seconds where the blacklight came on, our eyes would be immediately drawn to the mask and this silent presence in the dark hallways.
Camp Slasher: The young camper victims were convincingly clad in t-shirts and shorts. The ominous killer wore a dark, full-face mask and accessorized with axes of various sizes or the occasional chainsaw.
Six Flags’ website provides great information about park rides, dates of operation, directions, and nearby lodging. Ticket options and haunt attraction add-ons can be purchased online. Memberships and season passes include free general parking. These tickets tend to include Fright Fest. Daily ticket options provide access to the park only, so there could be an additional parking cost ($35) as well as the need for a Fright Fest add-on ($35). You could also opt for a Fright Fest Express Pass ($75), which allows you priority access to haunted attractions.
For the more fearful attendees, there is an option to add on a No BOO necklace for a cost of $18.99, which should prevent monsters from attempting to scare you while inside the attractions.
Saw maintained an industrial feel as we worked our way through the maze. Lighting was often dim, flashing, and the silent pig-masked characters stalked us throughout the haunt.
Perhaps our favorite design, The Conjuring Universe, offered rich set design and props which really gave us a feel that we were in a true curio shop, home hallway, bedroom, of course populated by the menacing evil characters from the films.
From the onset, Carnival of Chaos provided an array of zany rooms populated with twisted clowns, which were accompanied by funhouse mirrors. Carnival-style music in the background helped provide a unifying undercurrent. If you’re paying attention, you’ll also note that the haunt uses standing coffins as doorways as you move from one scene to the next.
Nyctophobia is defined as an intense/irrational fear of the dark. With black-painted walls and dark flooring, this maze focused on darkness exclusively. There were brief seconds of light that allowed us to anticipate the pathway and turns coming up, but that dim lighting quickly disappeared and left us to make our way in the dark.
Camp Slasher simulated a dimly lit outdoor trail that is occasionally populated with scenery like a wrecked campsite, trailer, and the occasional camper yelling for your help. The various scenes and settings helped maintain this rustic feel as you made your way to and from the bunkhouse, which is where many of the creepy encounters happen.
The Saw haunt contained lots of strobes, lighting, and technical effects to give the feel of a dingy industrial building. Most of the torture/predicament devices for the actors appeared fairly convincing. Our favorite was the water cube trap. The actor used the prop to give a great performance.
The Conjuring haunt employed well-timed lighting and sound effects in the curiosities room, leading to Annabelle’s case flying open. There was, likewise, great lighting and sound in the seance room. While windows were covered, lighting behind them simulated a lightning storm to set the mood as we continued through the shadowy haunt. Lighting in general seemed designed to highlight the great characters in the best ways to maximize their scares.
Carnival of Chaos played carnival music throughout to maintain the spirit of the haunt. Several rooms had distortion mirrors, again keeping with a carnival funhouse theme. This house can also boast a strong claustrophobia bag experience!
The Nyctophobia dark maze had no added sound effects outside of the occasional screams of patrons. There were mild elevation changes in the floor. Fluorescent lines were briefly visible when the blacklight gave us a glimpse of the pathway ahead. For those clinging to the walls to find your way in the dark, be ready for the occasional change of texture just to make you wonder what you’re touching!,
Camp Slasher’s outdoor walk featured good lighting. Scenes were lit to help keep your attention on the characters. There was a great effect with fog rising through the slats of a wooden bridge. Once we made it inside the bunkhouse, strobe lighting of various colors became a feature as we made our way through a maze of hanging bed sheets.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7.35
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 7.7
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 7.63
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 7.4
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 7.35
Saw provided visitors with several scenes of victimization, offering us brief opportunities to empathize with the various victims caught in Jigsaw’s predicament traps. The pig-masked characters provided jump scares and intimidation.
The cast of The Conjuring house managed to deliver scares in a variety of ways. There were unique takes on the standard drop-panel scares. Monsters and demons were prepared to stalk us from above, below, and around the corners. Characters certainly made use of intimidation scares as they frequently stood eye–to-eye with us and followed us to the next scene.
Carnival of Chaos offered a few jump scares, but for the most part, the clowns just seemed to enjoy laughing at us and occasionally giving us misdirection as we made our way through the maze. Of course, if you have a fear of clowns, this haunt will directly target your phobia! The haunt also briefly targeted those with claustrophobia. None of the clowns were overly menacing. Their zany behavior simply kept our senses a little heightened as we walked through their realm.
Nyctophobia preys upon a primary fear of darkness. Given that, patrons spend a fair amount of their time navigating in total darkness. There are the occasional startle scares if you happen to be in a corridor with a silent actor when you get brief seconds of lighting. The haunt also surprises your sense of touch, as walls can often take on a hairy texture.
While much of Camp Slasher’s walk to the bunkhouse was uneventful, there were a few scary encounters along the way. The bunkhouse used some disorientation with strobes and a maze of hanging sheets, leaving us to wonder if the next sheet we pulled out of the way would hide the ax killer. We encouraged one or two of the terrorized campers to join us, but they somehow preferred to remain in their hiding places as we continued onward. We encountered a few startles as well as some intimidation scares along this nature hike.
Six Flags has various ticket options to attend Fright Fest. Some tickets provide general park admission plus the haunted attraction passes all in one. A basic park ticket plus the haunted attraction pass will cost you $59. Our walkthrough time for all 5 haunted attractions was 27 minutes. This results in a value of .46 MPD (minutes per dollar), which is low for us, but you have to consider that this cost will also give you an entire day of rides and entertainment in addition to the time you might spend in the additional horror-themed live performances and scare zones throughout the park. Your best plan for value is to spend the day at the park to take advantage of all the rides and entertainment that your ticket provides.
275 Riverside Parkway, Austell, Georgia 30168