From it’s humble beginnings to the Granddaddy of all haunted attractions, Knott’s Scary Farm has seen it’s fair share of growth, changes, and adjustments over the years. But what always rings true is the pure unadulterated passion for creating uniquely scary experiences for the thousands of guests who walk through the fog year after year. Of course, coming into the 50th anniversary, there was a lot of pressure to not only perform but to exceed expectations for the wildly popular halloween event. With a rather robust offering of entertainment, experiences, food, drink, and merchandise; Knott’s has delivered one hell of an experience for those reminiscing about years passed and those who are fresh meat…*clears throat*…new to Scary Farm’s intimidating atmosphere.
Unfortunatley due to the events vast offerings, we were simply unable to fit everything into a single night. This has been the case for many years now and to us it’s a great problem to have. While having satisfaction in knowing your guests saw everything you have to offer, it’s better to leave them wanting more in our humble opinions. So in this review, we will be focusing on mazes and scare zones from the 2023 season of Knott’s Scary Farm. Don’y worry, our entertainment review will be coming soon! If you haven’t already, check out our podcast all about our experiences on opening night and our second trip into the fog!
SCARE ZONES
In our opinion, the scare zones of Knott’s Scary Farm are the heart beat of the event. It’s what we talk about year round! The need and want to walk through the fog of Knott’s Scary Farm with monsters lurking around every turn…waiting for us! One major thing that needs to be mentioned is how Scary Farm scare zones have evolved past the simplistic idea of what a scare zone is to many people. They’ve become a much larger experience in peoples enjoyment of the event in a fantastic way.
The biggest and baddest scare zone of any haunted attraction is and will always be Ghost Town Streets. The name alone conjures up images of bright purple and green lighting, fog, intense music and just the mere glimpse of creatures lurking within the shadows of Main Street Ghost Town. Let’s not beat around the bush, Knott’s Scary Farm is GTS. Their history is forever intertwined and for us, there is no Knott’s Scary Farm without it.
We love to find a bench and watch the monsters of GTS work their magic on unsuspecting guests brave enough to venture into the fog. It’s probably one of our favorite things to experience while at the park.
I cannot tell you how many incredible memories we both have just from sitting on a bench in the middle of the fog. We highly implore you all to just take a moment out of your night to sit down and just watch the monsters at work. Grab a drink, one of the season food offerings and watch the show.
Another scare zone with fantastic ambiance is The Gore-ing 20’s. These monsters lure you into a false sense of security with their lively atmosphere and scare you when you least expect it. We’ve always loved this scare zone since it’s introduction into the event, but this year was just something else. The scare actors were absolutely perfect! The energy and excitement in the air is palpable and contagious, it just makes you want to drop everything and dance along side these monsters…which you can do from time to time when the band starts to play atop the Walter Knott Theater.
Additionally, the monsters in The Gore-ing 20’s do a fantastic job at creating unique interactions for their guests. Either coming up to you and bombarding you with questions about the police and if you’re a “rat”. Or maybe they might be trying to lure you into The Blind Tiger for a sip of the Devil’s Elixur. Either way, we love how tailored each little moment is for guests venturing through this scare zone and look forward to it’s return year after year.
While you might find yourself giggling at the antics of the monsters within The Gore-ing 20’s, there’s nothing funny about the maniacal clowns you’ll find in Carnevil! Well actually, these clowns are equal party hilarious and scary. No matter when you walk down Boardwalk, you’re guaranteed to encounter some type of shenanigans perpetrated by one of the red haired inhabitants.
Walking through the zone this year, there was a lack of energy that we’ve come to associate with the zone. Last year we said it was “pure energy” but it just seemed much calmer for some reason. Of course our visit was on the first weekend, so there’s a good chance that by the time you read this, things will be a little different.
Moving on, let’s talk about Forsaken Lake! This zones somehow has gotten crustier, dirtier, and darker since last year…and that’s a massive compliment. Not much has changed since last year, but there is a very distinct difference in tone for us. We can attribute this to new talent and existing talent really putting forth an amazing effort to make it feel alive…even though they are dead.
One monster in particular has a gag where he eats a worm and we’ve seen guests running in fear and disgust, which is rather hysterical. And of course, it wouldn’t be Forsaken Lake without the funeral procession that happens nightly. It’s a rather fun and morbid experience that gives the zone so much personality. It also drives home the central story of these undead beings, ravaged by the dark and murky waters of their graves, preying upon unsuspecting visitors.
Then that brings us to our last scarezone and NEW for 2023, that will be The Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is a reimagined version of a fan favorite scare zone from Knott’s Scary Farm past. Camp Snoopy is overtaken by the King and Queen of the realm! Joined by maniacal jesters, barbarians, wizards, and lawless peasants.
The interactions in this zone are stellar. You immediately get a sense of the hierarchy of characters that you encounter. And with each character comes a different form of scaring and completely different interactions. At one point, a peasant fell to his hands and knees pleading for us not to enter the King and Queens realm and that we should run for our lives. It was one of the few times of the night that we were unnerved.
One thing I truly loved about the experience was that the scares weren’t always in your face, they were more about presence. Being approached by a menacing wizard in a large black cloak, calmly talking to you in a tone of voice that we can only describe as troubling, is somewhat intimidating. Especially when you’re cornered by them and another hideious creature of the realm. Which this actually happened to us and Nikki clung onto my arm with a death grip. We were actually being questioned why we came to the realm and if they could take the my arm…the one Nikki was holding onto at the time. While we don’t get scare too often anymore, it’s interactions like these that leave a last memory with us.
The only criticism of the new scare zone that I can convey is it’s decorations. Unfortunately with it’s location being in Camp Snoopy, there is probably little to nothing they could do to make the area feel more in theme. If you didn’t know, during the day, Camp Snoopy becomes Camp Spooky. This area is mainly a family friendly children’s area of the park. So jamming dead bodies and medieval torture devices might not fit well during the day.
MAZES
The mazes of Knott’s Scary Farm have come a long way since the 10 Chilling Chambers back in 1977. From immersion, sound design, set design, and maze design; Knott’s Scary Farm has continuously stepped up their game year after year and the 50th anniversary is no different. While there might have been a couple outliers, this years line up of mazes are phenomenal.
RETURNING MAZES
Let’s start with Bloodlines 1842, Dark Entities, The Depths, and Wax Works behind Ghostrider.
Last year, Bloodlines 1842 made it’s debut replacing Paranormal Inc and simultaneously becoming the new “gun” maze with the interactive laser guns from Infected. Last year, we loved the addition of Bloodlines and felt it was a worthy successor to both Infected and Paranormal Inc. Although the ending needed a bit of work. This year, they’ve removed the key element and made the experience more like a traditional maze. This decision, coupled with little to no changes in maze design have nose dived this promising addition to the lineup.
The first 3 rooms of this maze were once used to establish the story of the maze, hand out the guns, and line guests up to enter the experience. This year, even without the guns, little has changed in terms of it’s layout and drastically reduces the quality of the experience. They scattered a couple characters throughout but that large piece of real-estate could have been used to plus the experience as a normal maze. Additionally, the whole experience was designed with guns in mind. What I mean by this is most of the areas are rather large and open. The complete opposite of the typical claustrophobic nature of Knott’s Scary Farm maze designs. Because of this, the scares simply do not translate. With the guns in hand, you were distracted and your guard was down, which lead to some great scares. The last piece of the puzzle was the sound design in some of the rooms still talked about or referenced the guns. If the removal of the guns was planned, these details should change.
We’ve come to know Knott’s Scary Farm as an event that truly pays attention to every aspect of an experience. So it’s disappointing when it seems as though the details of Bloodlines were overlooked. Now maybe the removal of the guns was a last minute change, but either way it may have been the wrong choice for what we were given.
I’m hoping for next year, Knott’s allocates some TLC to Bloodlines so it can become the best version of itself as a traditional maze experience.
Next up, let’s talk about Dark Entities. This maze, in our opinion, has seen it’s fair share of ups and downs. Undoubtedly gorgeous in it’s lighting and sets, though the scares have always been tepid. We realized very quickly that the maze design itself just didn’t have enough nooks and crannies for monsters to hide in which can really affect how good the scares are during the experience. This can be remedied by a outstandingly energetic cast, but expecting every monster to be at peak energy seems out of the question.
We’ve had phenomenal run throughs of this maze and I guarantee that we will again this season. It’s unfortunate that Dark Entities never truly found it’s footing during it’s time at Knott’s Scary Farm, especially since it’s the last year we’ll be seeing it. If anything, it was successful in creating one of the most claustrophobic experiences we can remember at the event.
Moving on, let’s now visit Dr. Augustus Scratch and his WaxWorks. Again, similarly to last years review, WaxWorks continues to be a strong experience and especially this year with some minor tweaks. In previous years, there was a “wax museum” section. But this year, it’s been completely dismantled and you’re met by a monster torturing a victim in a chair. While a small change, it was enough to throw me off, which then lead into the biggest scare I’ve had.
One aspect of this maze that we love is how the lighting design and sets create so many different shadows thrown everywhere. It creates a sense of unpredictability when it comes to where the scares are coming from. Even for seasoned visitors like me, things are always changing when it comes to the scares and we appreciate it for that.
WaxWorks has always ridden this perfect balance between completely grotesque and beautiful visuals. Mix that with a anxiety inducing sound design and the scares just come so easily.
Next up is The Depths, another maze that is fading into darkness after this season. While not unbelievably strong in story, The Depths captured everyones imaginations with its beautiful sets, creepy monsters, and overall aesthetic.
This year, the minor (or miner…get it?) change they made to it’s layout was a nice surprise. Instead of the “pre-show” elevator scene, that footprint is now used as part of the maze. It actually holds a couple really cool visual gags that work really well. Additionally, the scare actors throughout the maze seemed to be having a ton of fun exploring the sets for their scares. We had plenty of scares come from shadows and sections we’ve never seen! We joke all the time that we are dead in side and never get scared, but when scares are changed up much like WaxWorks and The Depths, we are much more susceptible to these scares.
While not perfect, it’s easy to forgive The Depths on it’s short comings because its jaw dropping moments and scenes that keep guests guessing. This fun monster filled romp will be missed at next year’s Scary Farm.
Returning for its Sophomore year, The Grimoire invites guests to once again turn their deepest nightmares into reality. Last year, we regarded this maze as “…the strongest narratively driven maze experience Scary Farm has produced to date…“. While the story is still interesting and complex (for maze standards), the adjustments made from last year make it much harder to follow. Instead of hearing the story being told to you by the kids in the first scene, you’re now swept past them directly into the maze. Without a proper understanding of the story, The Grimoire can come across as a random assortment of vignettes that house the same type of monsters. Visually, the maze doesn’t tell the story coherently enough to allow guests to skip the opening scene.
Story aside, The Grimoire is still absolutely stunning in its presentation. Creating moments that still have me completely impressed. Our favorite scenes from The Grimoire have to be the 1950’s black and white home and the war torn bunkers.
While one is incredibly impressive with it’s lighting, sets, and sound design; the other is much more simplistic but effective. Leaning heavily into something much more sinister and creepy rather than outright scary. If anything, the great variety of scares within The Grimoire keep us coming back for more. Some more subtle than other and plenty that are in your face.
Since this experience is so heavily reliant upon understanding the story, including some type of QR code which leads to a video telling the story might be beneficial. It would similar to what Dark Entities is doing, but instead of ancillary content, it’s the main story.
Onto it’s third year, Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind is back to torment guests willing to venture into the dark and dilapidated circus tent. While this year included little to no changes from last year, we didn’t really mind because this maze is incredibly effective.
A true visual feast for the eyes, while still maintaining a coherent story, Mesmer revels in it’s ability to simultaneously give guests the creeps and put them in awe of it’s beauty.
Much like WaxWorks, Mesmer has so many shadows that it’s easy for monsters to hide in plain sight. We think these scares are incredibly effective since it defies guest expectations on where scares traditionally come from. Meaning they typically come from around a corner, behind a door, or in the less frequent cases…from above! But scares in Mesmer come from the darkest shadows and it feels so fitting for this maze.
Again, similar to the last two years of Mesmer, the ending still lacks in comparison to its experience. The maze is so strong that its ending will inevitably not live up to what guests experience in the maze. One change we noticed this year, was the addition of another monster at the end, placed to distract guests from the bungee scare. While incredibly effective, we’d love to see something more fitting for the fantastical nature of the experience.
In the heart of Ghost Town, you’ll find Origins: The Curse of Calico. I’ve coined this maze as “meta” since it’s a maze at an event, whose story explains why the event became the event…wrap your head around that! Even though this maze has seen little to no changes, it’s still one of our favorites. From the music, the claustrophobic scenes, and it’s incredible attention to detail; Origins is still a certified Knott’s Scary Farm classic.
The biggest compliment I can give to Origins, is its ability to seamlessly transport guests to various locations in Ghost Town while under the roof of the Wilderness Dance Hall. From our first time experiencing Origins to today, we are still impressed and constantly find ourselves looking up to understand how the designers were able to do it all. It’s the best kind of haunt magic trick!
Being the massive nerds of Scary Farm that we are, it’s no shock to anyone that Origins remains at the top of our list for mazes at this years Scary Farm. Like all mazes, its life will be short lived. So we know someday Origins will fade into the fog like so many before it. But until then, we will continue to enjoy this Scary Farm classic.
NEW FOR 2023
One of the three new mazes for the 50th Anniversary of Scary Farm is Room 13! This is a maze based around the Gore-ing 20’s scare zone and expanding upon the story of the Devil’s Elixir.
Room 13 is a perfect expansion of the scare zone in theme and aesthetic. But unfortunately it doesn’t expand the story of the Devil’s Elixir as much as we’d hoped. As opposed to expanding the lore, it feels just like a maze version of the scare zone.
While the story might be light, Room 13 continues the trend of extremely impressive visual mazes. Each room has fantastic sets with some really fun visual gags. One of them is made to look as though guests have exited the The Argive Hotel via a window and begin to walk across scaffolding. There is a terrific mirror effect that truly makes it feel as though you’re up in the sky, walking on the outside of the building. It’s simple yet extremely effective. Much like Origins, Room 13 does a great job making you forget the maze is located within the arcade under Bear-y Tales.
Additionally, while the sound design for the maze is rather simplistic, it’s consistent beat makes for an almost anxiety inducing experience. It made me feel as though I had to peek around each corner, which I loved. I would also be remise not to mention the fantastic cast of monsters inside this maze. Their timing on scares were absolute perfection and they owned their rooms.
Moving onto the second of the three new mazes this year, we have Cinema Slasher. After exiting this maze, I had to stop and gather myself. After a small breather, I was in complete disbelief at how sincerely badass this maze actually was. No other maze has left me speechless in Scary Farm history. Of course we’ve had emotional experiences in the past (which happened this year but we’ll get to that), but NEVER have we ever been left with no words to describe how we felt leaving the maze.
It felt as though each room we entered, I was in awe of the sets. Whether they were small or large scale, each one was so detailed and impressive. From the Camp Gonnagetcha scene with a large scale boat, to the Slaughterhouse room with moving circular saws, and the Sorority Party house; each one impressive for different reasons. The maze also feels so long! It’s rather shocking that this maze feels tremendously longer than Dark Ride yet resides in the same footprint.
Cinema Slasher’s visceral violence and gritty realism sets it apart from the rest of the mazes at Knott’s Scary Farm and brings a fresh take on a “traditional” slasher themed maze. While mazes at Scary Farm have been violent, intense, and scary; no other maze has been able to encapsulate those descriptives while simultaneously being…for lack of a better term, so damn cool. I immediately wanted all the different movie posters, a replica mask of the slasher himself, and much more!
While Cinema Slasher isn’t the anniversary maze this year, it has so many different easter eggs to Knott’s Scary Farm past that made me smile each time I found a reference. From Slaughterhouse, Trick or Treat, and Camp Gonnagetcha; there is plenty for fans to keep their eyes peeled for while going through. the maze.
The only two thing that have me perplexed were the ending and the “camera monsters”. On the surface, this maze seems pretty straight forward. Guests enter the Midnight Theater and are walking into horror movies and experiencing each one. But on a deeper level there is a story that I think isn’t clear. At one point in your experience you encounter a camera monster. While it’s rather creepy and off putting with it’s sound design, it’s rather abstract compared to the rest of the maze that seems very much based in realism. How does this monster play into the story? Is it some type of supernatural monster that leads you into the movies? I think a better understanding of it’s inclusion would help clear up the story, but with that being said I don’t think many people care since the experience is so fun.
Lastly, much like Mesmer, the ending lacks in terms of story because of the great experience that comes before it. It’s actually quiet similar because it has a bungee scare, but with a rather large scale animatronic monster. The bungee scare is actually really effective because you’re blinded by a “projector” light, but it also makes it really hard to see the large monster until you’re right up next to it.
Even with these two minor issues, Cinema Slasher is a phenomenal addition to the Scary Farm lineup. It takes what we love about Scary Farm mazes and amplifies it to 11!
The last of the three new mazes at Scary Farm is The Chilling Chambers. A nod to the first ever Knott’s Scary Farm maze, The 10 Chilling Chambers, celebrates the history of Knott’s Scary Farm.
Instead of focusing on many mazes throughout Scary Farm’s history, this maze focuses on 4 massively popular mazes. Those mazes are: The Asylum, The Underground, Doll Factory, and Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns (C3). I think maybe some people might be disappointed that their favorite mazes weren’t included in the anniversary experience, but realistically the way this maze was designed from a story stand point works so perfectly that including more might have spoiled it. Of course we want to see more, but I’d rather be left wanting more instead of wanting less.
The creators behind this maze ingeniously created a character based on Sinister Seymour, the first host of Halloween Haunt. Instead of having someone play Seymour and it coming off as a bad impression, they’ve taken the darker side of the character and ran with it. Out of this, The Keeper was born and he is the catalyst for us traversing the realms of Knott’s Scary Farm history. He narrates the experience from beginning to end so guests who may be unfamiliar with older Scary Farm mazes, understand what is occurring within the experience.
I’ll be perfectly honest, this maze made me cry. While this sounds rather dramatic, I think this maze visually and audibly stuck a cord with me that I simply wasn’t expecting. Going through this maze was almost like seeing a good friend that you havent seen in years. The level of happiness I felt being able to see The Asylum again, or hear the Doll Factory and C3 music, was simply unmatched. Realistically, for the most part when mazes leave Knott’s Scary Farm…you don’t get to experience them again. And in a small way, we get to relive some of those amazing memories tied to these old school mazes.
Much like Cinema Slasher, but on a much larger scale, there is so much in this maze that Knott’s Scary Farm super fans get to dork out on. This includes iconic characters, recreations of scenes, updated versions of scenes, and general references to many experiences. To try and list them all would be a tall task! But this maze is easily repeatable simply to try and find all the references.
From the incredible facade and opening church scene, to each and every reference, Chilling Chambers is perfect. It’s gorgeous, it’s fun, it’s scary, and it perfectly honors the event that we all love so very much. It’s a home run for all involved that should be applauded.
OVERALL
While there were a few missteps with this years maze lineup, there is so much to love and appreciate for the 50th anniversary in terms of maze and scare zones. Knott’s continues to push the boundaries of what is expected of them, and theme park halloween experiences as a whole. Either with story, visual gags, or maze designs. And that’s one of many reasons why we love visiting Scary Farm each and every year. We know without a shadow of doubt that the experiences will be fun, unique, and terrifying.
I think a big part of that comes from the passion of the people behind the scenes. Everyone truly cares about creating a product that not only fans of the event would love, but what they would love too!
Last year, we talked about how the warmth that we’ve come to associate with Knott’s Scary Farm was surprisingly missing. It almost felt stagnant and cold. This year couldn’t be more different. Ingrained in each aspect of Scary Farm is love and warmth. From Ghost Town, Gore-ing 20’s, Chilling Chambers, Origins, and Cinema Slasher; that intangible aspect that ties it all together is back with a vengeance. Only proving once again who the Granddaddy of all haunts truly is in Southern California.
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