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
Class of 2022
Class of 2021
Class of 2019
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:
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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