The scares keep adding up at Knott's Scary Farm
The 51st edition of the theme park industry's original after-hours Halloween event opened tonight at Knott's Berry Farm.
Knott's Scary Farm welcomes two new mazes this year, along with an Elvira retrospective show in the Walter Knott Theater. The newcomers join eight other mazes, five scare zones, three more shows, plus a couple of attraction overlays during the event, which runs 31 select nights through November 2.
I will focus on the two new mazes this year, with links to follow for the returning mazes.
Widows is a punny title for a maze featuring Black Widows spiders attacking the widows in a nursing home. As soon as you enter, it's obvious that we are the real prey here, but it took me a minute to figure out who, exactly, is hunting us. Is it the spiders, the nursing home residents, or the clearly demonic nurses, wielding their very suspicious syringes? Of course, the answer is "all of the above."
This one felt at first a bit too conventional - and definitely not a maze for anyone with arachnophobia. As we move deeper into the nursing home, we pass through into the spiders' lair, which becomes a disorienting twist of turns that led a couple of people ahead of me astray. But then, Widows stepped up with an impressive twist on a classic haunt trope. A creepy - dare I say it, spider man - leads us through a light tunnel deeper into the spiders' realm. The spiders just get bigger as you keep walking. Take that as you will.
The year's other new maze, Eight Fingers Nine, takes us to a colonial American village where a monster with a taste for fingers in looking for its next meal, or several. This is Knott's at its best - a visual feast of placemaking, character development, creepy environments, and plenty of opportunities for jump scares.
I love how Knott's scareactors waste no time getting in your face. In several rooms, just as soon as you push through the heavy vinyl flaps to enter, a character is spieling to you, talking and walking you through the scene. Media, static figures, puppets and imaginative stage sets complete the story, immersing you in one of the best mazes in recent years.
For the returning mazes, click on the maze names for our walk-through videos.
Class of 2023
- The Chilling Chambers: A tribute to 50 years of Knott's halloween events, The Keeper welcomes visitors into a cathedral that pays homage to notable mazes and monsters from Scary Farm's past, culminating in a graveyard of past Scary Farm mazes.
- Cinema Slasher: Celebrate grindhouse and B-movies with this a love letter to horror films that is both heart-felt and heart-ripping at the same time.
- Room 13: An extension of the surrounding Gore-ing 20s scare zone, Room 13 tells the backstory of The Devil's Elixir, concocted in Argive Hotel and its mysterious Room 13.
Class of 2022
- The Grimoire: Enter the world of a mysterious spell book that can turn nightmares into reality. It's a history lesson that take us on a into journey to eternal hellfire.
- Bloodline 1842: Defend the streets of Valdonia by attacking bloodthirsty Valhymphri with the latest Bellatorian weaponry. It's an impressive visual spectacle with the added bonus of shoot-'em-up game play.
Class of 2021
- Mesmer - Sideshow of the Mind: A master class in carnival fun-house tricks, including a magician with an abused assistant, a hall of mirrors, a tilting hallway, strobe lights and a glass walkway over a seemingly infinite pit.
Class of 2019
- Wax Works: A once-prominent plastic surgeon shows off his new work — accomplished by dipping his patients into cauldrons of molten wax.
- Origins: The Curse of Calico: Knott's backstory for its Ghost Town Streets. It all started with the hanging of Calico's Sarah Marshall for witchcraft. But those who judged Sarah were up to some misdeeds of their own, evoking the wrath of the witch, who curses the people of Calico.
This year will the final run for Wax Works and Bloodline 1842, which Knott's will replace with two new mazes for 2025's Knott's Scary Farm.
In addition to Yours Cruelly, Elvira XXperience - a video retrospective of the Mistress of the Dark's 20 shows at the park over the years - Knott's Scary Farm includes:
- Conjurers: Illusionists at the Bird Cage Theatre
- Le Magnifique Carnaval du Grotesque: Stunts and carnival acts on the Calico Mine Stage
- The Hanging - The Errors Tour: Knott's satirical year-in-review show at Wagon Camp
Scares zones this year include the returning Ghost Town Streets, The Gore-ing 20's, Forsaken Lake, Carnevil, and The Gauntlet. The Timber Mountain Log Ride: Halloween Hootenanny and Calico Candy Mine Ride attraction overlays also return this year.
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