Inked, good vibes highlight strong year at Knott's Scary Farm
Knott’s Scary Farm isn’t the Halloween event you attend looking for tight narrative structure. It’s not the Halloween event you attend hoping to be scared out of your pants. But of all the theme park Halloween events I’ve attended, nobody comes close to Knott’s in capturing the je ne sais quoi of Halloween, or "the vibe," as the kids used to say before we started saying it.
2026 is no exception. Knott’s Scary Farm dropped the curtain on two new walkthrough haunted houses, Unearthed and Inked, replacing Grimoire and Mesmer, respectively.
Unearthed centers on a cursed archeological excavation. I think. The queue videos weren’t entirely clear, but basically you show up at a dig site and are harassed by all manner of creatures along with some sort of temple guardian class.
This maze ostensibly takes place in Egypt (there’s reference to the Sinai peninsula in the queue videos), but there’s some cultural confusion throughout the maze. Without making it a whole big thing, I’m not sure if the team behind this maze fully appreciates the differences between Egyptian and Mayan temple dwellers.
That aside, this is a perfectly fine Scary Farm effort, though it features too many “victim scares” (as in, performers simulating their own misfortune rather than involving you directly in the story) to be truly scary. I was not a huge fan of Grimoire, and this is at least a lateral move, if not a step forward. The pacing is certainly better than Grimoire, which desperately wanted to have show stops inside of a haunted house format that requires everyone to keep it moving.
But the standout this year is undoubtedly Inked. Here too the plot takes a backseat. You indeed start at Mortimer Morbid’s animation studio, but that locale is quickly discarded as you’re sucked into the world of his most famous cartoon. This makes two mazes at Knott’s Scary Farm (the other being the Bloody Mary maze at the front of the park) that involve you getting sucked into some kind of mirror dimension, which is fun.
Inked gets better the longer it goes, as the scenes at sets become more deranged. If you’re not avoiding spoilers, please watch the walkthrough video which features an incredible mirror-tunnel-meets-Mr.-Toad’s-Wild-Ride effect that I’m still thinking about this morning. It’s an amazing use of mixed media to pull off a great funhouse-style effect.
This is going to be a popular maze, so I’d prioritize heading here first if you want to avoid waiting in very long lines. I saw the queue get to a posted 90 minute wait on Thursday night, and Cinema Slasher, though long in the tooth (complimentary) also drew long lines.
But the mazes are never really the stars of the show at Knott’s Scary Farm. The scare zones remain the best in the business. I’ve yet to see a theme park come close to what Knott’s Scary Farm is able to do in the streets. The refreshed circus scare zone in the back of the park, now featuring Mesmer, is filled with talented performers and paired with a wonderful lighting package. It just feels like Halloween.
Of course nowhere is better than the streets of Calico Ghost Town, featuring an eclectic cast of old-west monsters, demons and ghouls in streets blanked with thick layers of fog.
Even if you only show up to Knott’s Scary Farm this year looking to experience its two newest mazes, you owe it to yourself to spend some time enjoying a drink while hanging out in your favorite scare zone. You won’t be disappointed.
Knott’s Scary Farm runs on select nights through Oct. 31. Tickets start at $65.
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