Universal Studios Hollywood: The Walking Dead Attraction

Image: Jeremy Thompson, Flickr (license)

Runner-up: Revenge of the Mummy – The Ride

The Walking Dead Attraction may not be a ride in the traditional sense, but that doesn’t make it any less thrilling. This immersive walkthrough opened in 2016 as a permanent fixture in Universal Studios Hollywood, and places its guests square in the middle of a post-apocalyptic United States, where they have to fight their way through a walker-infested hospital, prison, and warehouse in order to reach safety and sanity once more. What makes this attraction especially creepy isn’t just the mind-blowing attention to detail—from the sinew-splattered windows to a cabin that really looks and feels as if it’s on fire, with a charred walker to boot—but the way it uses a combination of convincing motion-activated animatronics and scare actors to keep the fear level at an all-time high. Fair warning: If you’re a fan of the show and start dawdling to take in all of the references scattered throughout the attraction (a perpetual challenge for anyone even casually familiar with AMC’s hit show), you might just end up on a walker’s radar.

Far less realistic, though spooky in its own right, is the Universal Studios classic, Revenge of the Mummy – The Ride. You won’t find any scare actors lurking in the darkened corridors of this roller coaster, but animatronic hands reaching through the ceiling, ghostly projections, and the fright that awaits you at a perceived dead end—not to mention the twists and turns of the coaster in pitch-black darkness—are usually enough to inspire a few screams along the way.

Six Flags: Rage of the Gargoyles

Image: Jonrev, Wiki Commons

Runner-up: None

Six Flags theme parks are famed for their high-ranked roller coasters and thrill rides, which aren’t always accompanied with the kind of theming and immersion you’ll find in the other spooky attractions on this list. Over the last three years, however, theme parks across the United States have been sprucing up their open-air coasters with virtual reality (VR) technology, allowing guests to enjoy a variety of interactive and non-interactive stories as they flip, dip, and spin along the tracks.

One of Six Flags’ best VR-enabled roller coasters is Rage of the Gargoyles, which has been overlaid on Demon (Six Flags Great America), Skull Mountain (Six Flags Great Adventure), Kong (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom), Shock Wave (Six Flags Over Texas), Ninja (Six Flags St. Louis), Steamin’ Demon (Six Flags Great Escape), and Dare Devil Dive (Six Flags Over Georgia). Passengers are strapped into the roller coaster of their choice and have the option to don VR headsets, which immediately place them in the cockpits of glass-fronted helicopters as they plunge through a grungy cityscape overrun with ravenous, sharp-toothed gargoyles—one of whom plucks a (digital) pilot from the cockpit and sends him hurtling through the air. Exactly what befalls the actual roller coasters riders in-game depends on the layout and length of the roller coaster, and, to a greater degree, the accuracy with which they’re able to dispatch the creatures.

Six Flags currently offers three other VR overlays: Galactic Attack (found on the aforementioned Ninja and Shock Wave, as well as Mind Eraser), Superman: Ride of Steel (offered only on Superman Krypton Coaster and Superman – Ride of Steel coasters), and New Revolution (Steamin’ Demon). Though they’re just as immersive as Rage of the Gargoyles, they lack the added scare factor needed to really keep you on your toes.

Cedar Point: Iron Dragon

Image: Nick Nolte, Wiki Commons

Runner-up: None

If it’s a good scare you’re looking for, especially outside of the Halloween season and away from theme park leaders like Disney, Universal, and Six Flags, you may have to poke around a bit in order to do so. Family-friendly parks like Legoland and SeaWorld don’t have anything worth writing home about, especially after the removal of a VR overlay on SeaWorld’s floorless Kraken coaster, while most non-chain parks rely on thrill rides or simple haunted houses rather than more elaborate fright-filled attractions.

Enter Cedar Point’s Iron Dragon, a steel suspended roller coaster that offers passengers the option to don VR headsets and lose themselves in a medieval world where danger lurks at every turn. Instead of bloodthirsty gargoyles, angler fish, and sea monsters, ogres and dragons abound in spades, and some emerge quite unexpectedly as riders are cast about from side to side. Unlike, say, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror or the Walking Dead Attraction, Iron Dragon is far more dependent on sudden jump scares than an immersive, steadily creepy environment, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. The only drawback so far? Cedar Point doesn’t offer Iron Dragon year-round. Thanks to the long wait times and loading process that usually accompany VR rides, it’s only been made available to parkgoers during evening hours from June to September so far.

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Which theme park attractions spook you out this time of year?