Fright Fest begins to take over Six Flags

Six Flags Great America was undergoing its annual autumn metamorphosis Wednesday as crews moved skeletons and corpses around the park and changed fun houses into frightening haunted houses in preparation for Fright Fest.

The ghoul fest in Gurnee begins Sept. 16 and runs for seven weeks before concluding on Halloween.

"The biggest thing about this year is that it is the longest Fright Fest that we have ever had in our history," said Tess Claussen, communications manager at the park. "It is really going to be an incredible experience for our guests who say they want it to be scarier."

There are more than 20 attractions with two new scare zones and a new show called the "Ringmaster's Cabaret" that mixes a freak show, illusions and song and dance.

One of the new scare zones introduced this year is "Underworld" emulating a post-apocalyptic society and combining humans with machines.

Back at Fright Fest are the haunted houses, with "Gates of Hell" highlighting the group of multiple houses that are bigger and scarier than previous years.

"People are going to get scared from the coasters, they are going to get scared from the shows and they are going to get scared from the haunted houses," Claussen said Wednesday as she walked past a bloody corpse standing on a corner. "It's altogether just terrifying."