Monsters slinked up to the stage, peeling back the the puzzle-like box  to reveal… Jeff Tucker, the P.T. Barnum of Halloween.  He played master of scare-e-monies, guiding the evening through to its inevitable end.

Returning Mazes

The presentation began with the returning mazes. To explain, Scary Farm is of a time that rewards not just repeat customers, but those who are new to the event. Each year the best mazes from the previous year are picked up for renewal, as it were.

PARANORMAL, INC. 

It was no surprise that last years competitor for Best Overall Maze is returning. Yes the wildly original Paranormal Inc. The Haunting of Hayden Hill is back. Now, here is a haunted attraction that addressed several conundrums. Personalize the experience, make multiple paths, and keep the throughput numbers high. Yes, Paranormal Inc. wowed us last year with its incredible opening scene, ariel stunts that left us speechless, and intimate scares that were found nowhere else in the park. We are insanely psyched to have this near perfect maze return.

The Haunting of Hayden Hill: Last year’s groundbreaking Paranormal Inc. maze will return to Knott’s Scary Farm this year. Featuring high flying aerial stunts and scares, guests investigate a haunted hospital where the patients were tortured for decades by deranged doctors and nurses. Demonic spirits of the murdered victims have been detected throughout the mysterious halls, while evil medical staff prowl for new patients to torture.

The Dead of Winter: Revenge of the Wendigo

Let’s be honest. The Dead of Winter, last year, was a missed opportunity. What was supposed to be a high-contrast, ice-cold, terrifying experience, turned out to be a climate controlled, dimly lit, meet and greet with an albino Mrs. Butterworth. Mildly entertaining, The Dead of Winter needed a redo.  they got it.

This year the Windigo creature has taken over the frozen tundra. The evil snow queen has been overrun by the horrific wendigo. She may be dead, but her evil spell hasn’t been lifted. As the monstrous Windigo attacks villagers their zombie-like corpses seek revenge in their own right. Much like the Werewolf overlay of Gunslingers Grave, this adds a cynapehobic element to the icy realm that may just be what this walkthrough needs.

Trick-or-Treat

There has always been that creepy house at the end of the block.  This classic maze, now in its fourth year is quintessential Halloween.  Even if they changed nothing in this maze, it would be just right.

The Tooth Fairy

Daniel Miller’s vile creation returns just as it was last year. While we wish that they could get the darkness room at the beginning of the maze to from properly it is still a ferociously effective experience.  This twisted tooth fairy steals more than just baby teeth as he drags his victims out their bedroom window and into a world of deranged dentistry. Unbelievable special effects include a blackout room through which guests must feel their way out, a disorienting x-ray strobe light room, and a final encounter with the massive tooth fairy, himself. Say aahhh.

Voodoo – Order of the Serpent

The haunting legend of Papa Legba continues as guests follow him on his foreboding journey to conjure the serpent demon goddess in the outskirts of New Orleans. Trudge cautiously through the cursed swamps of the Deep South, where creatures search the murky bogs for their next bloody sacrifice and demons curse the innocent with Voodoo hexes.

The Gunslinger’s Grave: A Blood Moon Rises

Deadly howls and a full blood moon mark your impending doom as werewolves overrun the crime stricken old west town. Walk in the bloody footsteps of a betrayed and left for dead gunslinger on his path of retribution against the Skinwalkers.

ScareZones

Back again are two amazing, classic scare zones, Ghost Town Streets, CarnEVIL, and one that has yet to find its footing, Dia De Los Muertos.

Ghost Town Streets

Of course, it is no surprise that the original and largest, most terrifying scare zone that started it all is back.   Bands of half-human, half-animal monsters prowl the streets and inhabit the fog, while the notoriously startling sliders, lunge from every fog-filled corner of the land.

Fiesta De Los Muertos

We want this to work, we really do. This has the foundation for a scare zone that is funny, scary, even sexy. Let’s hope that this year the area is able to with fuse dance music, colorful costumes, and larger than life stilt walkers in a dance party scare zone. This is a solid concept, but one that, ironically, needs more life in it. Instead of a DJ we need live bands riling the crowd up. Fill the air with the sound of fireworks and festivities, give it a lively feel.

CarnEVIL

Clowns.  Dammit.  Why? These guys are still here to utterly destroy the preconceived nothin that these modern day jesters are here to make us laugh. The talent in this section is, without question, some of the very best improve talent in OC. get there, get insulted, run screaming.

The Hollow (New for 2016):

From within the fog, the legendary Headless Horseman and his army of the undead are ready to unleash a reign of terrorin the newest scare zone, The Hollow. Guests entering the frightful 6-acre area will be terrorized by the souls of fallen soldiers and local farmers that have escaped their shallow graves.

The Deadly 7

A sadistic crew of terrifying monsters representing each of the seven deadly sins, return to the fog of Knott’s Scary Farm this year. Together they prowl the darkest corners of Scary Farm’s midways and scare zones serving their master, The Green Witch.

Shows

Elvira’s Danse Macabre

We LOVE Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She is, and always will be the undisputed queen of campy, vampy horror, surpassing even Vampira. But Let this be her farewell show.  Returning as a novelty for the 40th anniversary of Knott’s Scary Farm, Elvira is back again with Elvira’s Danse Macabre.  In a rather uninsured announcement she appeared on the video screen above the stage to declare her return.  Sad.

If anyone can phone it in and still be better than 90% of the freaks out there it is Elvira.  It just would’ve been nice to see her.

The Hanging®: Finding Gory

Then out of nowhere the Calico Lawman arrived and fired his bug gun in the air.

Yes, the annual tradition of The Hanging has returned with “Finding Gory: Just keep Killing” Absolute genius.

A live stage show in Calico Square irreverently looks back at the year’s pop culture with killer comedy. Notorious for its special effects, pyrotechnics and high-flying stunts, The Hanging is a no-holds-barred assault on pop culture’s most infamous moments of the past year. A must see parody!

Standalone Skeleton Key Rooms

This year, the skeleton key rooms have been pulled from the mazes and dropped into different areas of the park. Four all-new skeleton key rooms will invite guests into their realms of horror for a more personalized experience.  This is an odd move.

The original idea behind Skeleton Key rooms was to give an extra added, personalized touch to those who paid a little extra. Conceived as “bonus features” to existing mazes, the Skeleton Key rooms added to what others already had access to.  Here they are being broken off, becoming entities in their own right. Instead of having one uncharge maze in Trapped, they have created four breakaway experiences for those willing to pay a little more.  This is an interesting approach and one that will, in the end, be far more manageable from an operations standpoint.

Visions

Guests must investigate the Green Witch Museum in Ghost Town where it is not the building that is haunted, but the various items contained within. Using a Phantom Finder augmented reality device, guests will be able to identify and witness paranormal activity connected to items from the Sarah Marshall Witch Trial.

ZOZO

People from all over the world claim to have been visited by the demon ZOZO after a spirit board session. Is the demonic entity known as ZOZO real or are spirit boards just a myth?

Slasher

Guests are invited to step into an 80s’ slasher horror film. The masked Angel Maker Killer is on the loose. Every lead has run cold and that’s when you step into the picture. Will you become his next victim?

Prey

Navigate a hay maze full of dead ends with only a faulty lantern as your guide. You are not alone. Mutant beasts are lurking around every corner.

New Mazes

Of course, what we were really interested in were the new additions. Jon Cooke, designer of last years Paranormal Inc. took the stage and brandished his gun. Telling the attendees about the all-new, Black Ops: Infected.  Here, Cooke explained, “We built a wall city backstage” in which guests will face close quarter combat with the infected that have overrun the area.

The evening culminated with the announcement of three, brand new, original mazes.

Black Ops: Infected (New for 2016):

Armed with cutting edge laser guns, brave guests will face off against hordes of zombies in the groundbreaking all-new Black Ops: Infected interactive maze. Small units of guests will battle the zombie apocalypse through blood soaked city streets and an underground sewer system crawling with nearly one hundred ravenous zombies. The high tech innovative experience thrusts guests into the middle of a live-action video game complete with live actors, real time scoring system, kill streak rewards system and interactive targets, including a juggernaut boss zombie. The new attraction is one of the largest mazes ever created in Knott’s Scary Farm history so form your squad and put your zombie apocalypse survival skills to the test in this action packed, one-of-a-kind experience.

Shadow Lands (New for 2016):

Out of nowhere, the sound of Japanese drummers filled the air. Performers paraded up the aisles waving ceremonial banners. An entirely new experience was upon us.

This is what Knott’s Scary Farm does best.  Original concepts that terrify and are alluring at the same time. Here Jon Cooke conceived the idea of Shadowlands while visiting Japan in his youth. Visitors will make their way through the depths of purgatory past demon samurais and other netherworld creatures that attempt to stop passage into the next life.

As mentioned before, this is the unique selling point that Knott’s has over all other haunts.  They have original concepts that are unparalleled in the haunt industry.  Last year, the idea of a Ghost Adventurers type maze seemed odd, until we saw that it was a virtual fight for survival against ghost in an insane asylum. Here we are navigating the afterlife of purgatory where honor is key.  What does Knott’s have in store for us here?

The bracing original concepts are what sets Knott’s apart from other local theme park haunts and we are more than excited to venture in to the eerie world of Shadow Lands.

Red Barn (New for 2016):

Daniel Miller then sauntered onto the stage to share his latest creation. Wholly original and inspired by the gritty, nasty grind house films of the 70’s, comes The Red Barn.

The idea is simple and nasty as hell. Sometimes all that you have to do is gross people out and make them fear for their lives.  Isn’t that what haunt is to begin with?

The Hollow (New for 2016):

With Infected being moved backstage over to where Forevermore was, we now have Camp Snoopy back as a scare zone.  What better theme to grab onto than the traditional scares of the Headless Horseman in the creation of the all-new scare zone, The Hollow. New England, puritan inspired ghost stories are the best.

From within the fog, the legendary Headless Horseman and his army of the undead are ready to unleash a reign of terror in the newest scare zone, The Hollow. Guests entering the frightful 6-acre area will be terrorized by the souls of fallen soldiers and local farmers that have escaped their shallow graves.

What is it that sets Knott’s Scary Farm apart from the other haunts in the area? Originality. This is a team of creatives that are willing to take risks on strange ideas that many wouldn’t try.  The afterlife in eastern cultures. An abandoned barn at the edge of town. The Headless Horseman and his army of scarecrows. They are all here to terrify and delight. Are they intellectual properties we are connected to? No, not really. Therin lies their audacity and the possibility that they will connect with visitors in ways unexpected.  I say, cheers to Knott’s team of creatives and their ability to create. Here’s to hoping the show comes together.