Six Flags Magic Mountain has done something I never dreamed could happen by turning my favorite part of Halloween into an actual show showcasing the slider monsters that make you jump out of your skin with only your skeleton left shivering in fear.
The jaw-dropping 10-minute “Sliders of the Night” show takes place nightly during Fright Fest an hour before the Valencia amusement park closes.
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If you’ve been to Fright Fest, then a slider monster needs no explanation. The image is etched in your memory like fingernails across a chalkboard.
For the uninitiated, sliders are the most terrifying part of Fright Fest. A monster runs at full speed, leaps in the air, lands on all fours and slides toward you. Sparks arc from their hands and toes in the darkness. And then they stop on a dime a few feet in front of you.
I love watching the Fright Fest sliders glide across the pavement on their hands and knees like demonic hockey pucks across an ice rink. Sliders are the professional athletes of Halloween — able to control their bodies while gliding on all fours in a way that’s equal parts poetic artistry and pure terror.
Fright Fest sprinkles slider monsters throughout the park’s scare zones — with the central concentration in the clown-infested City Under Siege scare zone in DC Universe.
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The “Sliders of the Night” show takes place in the DC Universe themed land with hundreds of spectators on hand to catch the “slide or die” ghoulish competition.
The show, conceived and choreographed by the slider monsters themselves, begins with a bit of crowd control. Sliders holding candles silently push spectators back until the playing field is clearly defined.
The sliders navigate under limbo bars and through stilt walkers’ legs. Between set pieces, the sliders keep the crowds at bay by sliding in uniform lines — stopping just short of the squealing sidelines.
The best part of the show involved the sliders hopping over each other like leap frogs. The finale featured an amazing clown slider jumping over four other sliders laying side-by-side on their backs in a feat that would make daredevil Evel Knievel proud.
The two dozen Fright Fest monsters slid every which way across the plaza beneath the Wonder Woman Flight of Courage coaster without running into each other. The grating noise of plastic and metal scraping across the cement sounded like dozens of mufflers dragging along the street. What might be a symphony of terror for many was the sweet sound of Halloween for me.
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This is the first year back for “Sliders of the Night” after a few years hiatus. Here’s hoping the show sticks around for many more Halloweens to come.
The annual Fright Fest event at Six Flags Magic Mountain runs on select dates through Oct. 31.
