Knott's serves up a deranged Disney for Scary Farm
Knott's Berry Farm tonight announced its two new mazes and entertainment for this year's edition of Knott's Scary Farm. The theme park industry's first after-hours haunt event opens for its 53rd season on September 17 and continues on select nights through October 31.
This year's new mazes will be the archeology-themed Unearthed and the old-school-animation-themed Inked. That one is giving Walt Disney vibes with an animator bringing a very Mickey-looking cat to life with a drop of his own blood. Knott's even introduced the latter with Silly Symphony-style dancing skeletons during its Nightmares Revealed event in the park tonight.
This year's Class of 2026 mazes joins eight returning mazes.
Class of 2025:
The Zoo
Mary: The Haunting of Worth Home
Class of 2024:
Widows
Eight Fingers Nine
Class of 2023:
The Chilling Chambers
Cinema Slasher
Room 13
Class of 2019:
Origins: The Curse of Calico
This will be the final year for Origins: The Curse of Calico and the 50th anniversary maze The Chilling Chambers. That should get Knott's back on its pre-pandemic pattern of retiring mazes after their fifth year.
As for entertainment, Knott's is partnering Los Angeles' Magic Castle for a new show, Occultum, in the Bird Cage Theatre. The park also will be offering a new show on the Calico Mine Stage, Voodoo Bayou's Edge. And, yeah, The Hanging is back for a new production, "NooseMaxxing." Finally, Knott's is bringing back its Mesmer character to oversee a reimagined CarnEvil scare zone.
Replies (6)
They had me at Magic Castle.... and then that Disney thing. LOL.
@Robert Niles I jumped when they mentioned the Magic Castle. What a great pairing.
Magic Castle!!!! I know it's a members-only/by-invitation venue, but every theme park fan should find a way to visit the Magic Castle at least once in their life (we're lucky to have been twice). It's a shame so many theme parks have ditched magic shows as part of routine and seasonal entertainment (SFA used to have a resident magician - Aaron Radatz - as part of Fright Fest every year), because it's a great way to fill a theater as a change of pace from traditional singing/dancing and acrobatic/cirque-style shows.
Neither of the new mazes this year really grabbed me, but that Occultum show could be quite cool. Shame it's not a larger production as the park had a pretty solid temporary illusionist show last summer in the main theater, but this year it's been completely empty.
As someone who has attended the 2025 and 2026 Nightmares Revealed events, it's disappointing that Six Flags raised the price of attending the event from $35 last year to $50 this year. People who post on various forums said that the event was no longer worth the money this year, and since they sold out again this year, expect another substantial price hike for next year's Nightmares Revealed. Remember, this is an event that used to be held inside the Charles Schulz Theater on a specified date in August and didn't cost anything extra.
Equally bad was that although the event was advertised as 7 to 10 pm, on the afternoon of the event, Knott's announced that the program on the Calico Mine Stage wouldn't start until 7:45 pm, with everyone standing around backstage near GhostRider for 30-40 minutes. By the time the announcement for the new mazes and entertainment was over, people had less than two hours to visit the two lights-on mazes, walk around Ghost Town and Boardwalk and see the monsters, see the handful of shows, and shop in the Scary Farm legacy store which opens to attendees that night before it opens to the public the next day.
People are saying that this event is really for the bloggers and social media people and no longer for regular fans. Every year the event seems to have more crowds, yet Knott's/Six Flags just raises the prices and caps the attendance at a higher level.
At least Knott's did a good job with handing out the poster for attendees at the exit this year-- last year, they stopped handing them out well before 10 pm and people had to file a request and show up at a later point to get their poster.
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Still nothing in the Charles Schultz Theater is not a surprise but it is a tremendous bummer.