Knott’s Scary Farm has announced their terrifying plans for the 2018 Halloween Haunt. This year’s event will terrorize guests for 25 nights from September 20th through October 31st and offers a special Halloween pass good for every night of the event.
The 2018 event opened with a high energy performance inspired by a song from the new scare zone, Forsaken Lake.
Then Jeff Tucker emerged from his coffin to take command of the announcements.
There will be two new haunted mazes this year, a slew of returning favorites, new shows, and scare zones all over the park – 14 haunted attractions in all. Let’s take a look at what you can expect.
NEW MAZES FOR 2018
Dark Entities (New for 2018)
Teleport beyond earth and into a realm where the darkness is absolute. In the depths of space, a lone station faces terror beyond all imagination. An extraterrestrial mutation has invaded the station, and it’s on the prowl for new hosts. The unearthly inhabitants’ force increases as it feeds on its unwilling victims. Escape the dark entities before its deathly force eliminates all living form aboard the station. There’s nowhere to escape when time is running out!
The Depths (New for 2018)
A heavy fog drapes over an abandoned port village where ancient creatures lurk inside the pitch-black underground caves hidden below the seaside shores. The Nightwatch Mining Crew has mysteriously disappeared and village rumors point to the eerie tunnels the town sits upon. Myths of the terrifying horrors that lurk within the cave have often been whispered but never confirmed. Did the crew meet their demise at the hand of vicious creatures that live within the cave? Journey into the dark caverns and follow the crew’s path into The Depths and discover if the superstition revolving around the cave is true or not. But be warned! All who have entered have never resurfaced
Returning Mazes
The first three haunted houses listed below were all new last year.
Dark Ride
A once pleasant, now abandoned, dark ride becomes home to murderous sideshow freaks hellbent on causing terror. Some of the scenes may look lifted right out of Fantasyland, but don’t get too comfortable, something sinister is lurking around every corner. This attraction fits in perfectly in the CarnEVIL scare zone. Now, before you get too excited . . . this isn’t a real dark ride. It’s a walk-through maze made to look like an abandoned dark ride. It’s getting a few enhancements for the 2018 season.
Pumpkin Eater
This one gives me chills. Remember the nursery rhyme: “Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater. Had a wife and couldn’t keep her. He put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well.” Turns out that it was all about a man murdering his wife after she strayed. Yikes! The things we tell our kids. Now Knott’s is unleashing a murderous 7-foot tall creature that haunts the old woods surrounding The Hollow in this year’s new maze, Pumpkin Eater. To escape the sinister Pumpkin Eater’s wrath guests must go on a quest, face a cave of crawling insects and solve the labyrinth of thorns that blocks the only way out. Now there’s a twist on my childhood memories.
Trick-or-Treat: Lights Out
You’ll step inside the Green Witch’s haunted home armed with only a “faulty flashlight” to find your way out. Face the terrors of the house in complete darkness as your interactive flashlight reveals the horrors hiding in the shadows. We were told to expect new surprises in the dark this year.
The remaining mazes have been at Knott’s Scary Farm for 2 or more seasons. Some of them much more than that. But it would still be very difficult to pick one to cut. It’s a very strong lineup.
Special Ops: Infected
Special Ops: Infected is still laser tag against the undead. It’s a fun and highly interactive experience which has evolved and moved over the years. This year will feature new surprises, including a new ending.
Shadow Lands
Shadow Lands depicts demon samurais whose souls are cursed to rot within the depths of an ancient Japanese temple and into the midst of the Shadowlands. I can’t wait to return to this one.
Paranormal Inc.
This is another MiceChat favorite which is thankfully returning. One part Ghostbusters and one part American Horror Stories, Paranormal takes us on an adventure filled with ghosts, aerial stunts, and digital effects! It’s glorious and we can’t wait to see what they’ve done with it.
The Red Barn
Take a trip to a blood-soaked barn filled with carnivorous animals seeking to prey on human flesh in the Red Barn gore maze. Legend has it the farmer who owns the barn was transformed into a heinous creature that sends his sadistic sons to ensure his legacy. None dare enter the barn, for those who enter never escape
Scare Zones
You might think you are safe once you exit a maze . . . but you’d be wrong. Almost all of Knott’s Scary Farm is a giant outdoor haunted experience. There’s really nowhere to hide. So if the line for the mazes gets too long, you can still have a great time just wandering around.
New for 2018: Forsaken Lake
A new and unearthly scare zone is making its sinister arrival to the park, Forsaken Lake. For the first time, the lake underneath Silver Bullet reveals the horrors and creatures it’s kept hidden, until now. Forsaken Lake will unleash gothic creatures, which have been ravaged by the dark and murky waters, as they wander their crypts preying on unsuspecting visitors, looking for victims to drag back to their watery graves.
Ghost Town Streets
Ghost Town Streets is the original and largest of all the scare zones. Bands of half-human, half-animal monsters prowl the streets and inhabit the fog. Beware the notoriously startling Sliders who lunge from every fog-filled corner of the land.
CarnEvil
The Boardwalk clowns are a terrifying and funny classic, perhaps almost as famous as Ghost Town Streets. This is one area where it’s fun to find a place to sit and watch the clowns scare, trick, and entertain other guests. Amazing.
The Hollow
The Hollow scare zone is a war between three covens of witches and their armies of the undead. The fog-filled streets along with the army of the undead treacherously blend into the shadowy night as they frighten all whom they encounter.
Shows
While Elvira will not be returning this year, Knott’s has expanded the number of shows they’ll be featuring.
HACKS – Cutting Room Floor
This show is described as a unique, twisted, improvised comedy antics of “Hacks” returns to Knott’s Scary Farm with a brand new show in the Charles M. Schulz Theatre. This time around, they have taken over a run-down movie theater and with the help of the audience and lots of “B” horror films, they create on the spot, a Halloween show that will have you screaming with laughter.
CONJURE – Magic and Mirth
Join award-winning magicians and Fox’s Masters of Illusion regulars as they take the stage to amaze and amuse. Witness magicians Dana Daniels, Taylor Hughes, and Chipper Lowell front and center as they perform on select nights in the Bird Cage Theatre.
The Hanging: Shhhhh, It Happens
The Hanging returns this year to help drag out all the people and things worth hanging from the last year.
Other Entertainment
Aside from the Mazes, shows, and scare zones, there are some additional things to enjoy this year.
Into the Fog: Art Exhibit
Artists from across the country have been invited to create works of art celebrating Knott’s Scary Farm. You can find them in the Bizarre Bazaar (located across from the Charles Schulz Theater).
Timber Mountain Log Ride: Halloween Hootenanny
Awaken The Dead
A nightly dance party in Fiesta Village offers high-energy fun, rhythmic music, performances by a live DJ, dancing and go-go dancers to help awaken the dead.
VR Experience
Scott was able to try out the new Halloween themed VR experience in the arcade next to the Bizarre Bazaar. It’s very much an overlay of the normal Showdown in Ghost Town, but it’s fun nonetheless. It’s just as solid of an arcade shooter as the original, except now you get to shoot at zombies.
There seemed to be a few different types of zombies. Some are bigger, some run at you, some explode, etc. The only complaint (besides a technical problem that plagued Scott’s partner) was that the implementation of slow motion didn’t actually slow down the game, but cut the framerate in half so it felt slower. That induced a feeling of vertigo/motion sickness that subsided when slow motion ended. The gun now has a flashlight on it, a nice touch, and the play arena is smaller, darker, and tighter, which makes it feel more scary and intimate. The flashlight is there for a reason. You’ll find out if you play. For $5 it’s a good value. The level of difficulty did seem higher than the original game and apparently the hard mode activates something very different from the easy and normal mode.
Scary Farm Merchandise
In addition to what you see above, you’ll find a variety of pins, mugs, t-shirts, hats, and all sorts of other things.
Live Stream
Knott’s streamed this year’s announcement event. If you’d like to see it, view the video below (we have it set to skip the first 10 minutes as nothing happened):
We’ll be bringing you wall to wall coverage of all things Halloween for the next two months, so keep checking back for more . . . more . . . more.
There is no better way to visit Knott’s Scary Farm than as a VIP with MiceChat. Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity:
| Micechat Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt VIP Event – Saturday, September 29th |
MiceChat Knott’s Scary Farm VIP Event Tickets HEREJoin us in the fog-shrouded streets of Ghost Town for the MiceChat Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt 2018. We are once again working with the great folks of Knott’s Berry to bring you a magically scary event. Leave the real world behind and enter a dream-land of spooky fun with fellow MiceChat readers.
This year’s panel discussion will feature animatronic and haunt superstars Garner Holt and Bill Butler (of Garner Holt Productions). We’ll also be joined by Jeff Tucker (Knott’s Entertainment Supervisor, creative, and writer of the Hanging), and John Waite (one of the godfathers of the original theme park haunts). An epic way to launch your haunt!!!
Our VIP event is the ultimate way to experience Knott’s Scary Farm:
- Admission into Knott’s Scary Farm
- Meet and greet with maze designers
- Backstage tour of a new maze before the event
- MiceChat panel discussion with legends and creatives
- All you can eat Private Pre-scare Boo-fet dinner
- Early entry into Haunt
- Unlimited front of the line access to all mazes
- Front of line for Fastlane rides
- A bone-chilling night of MiceChat fun
Have you always wanted to go to the haunt but you were too afraid? Join 150 of your fellow readers who will help keep you safe from the monsters. Not afraid? Help Dusty lead the way through the fog!
Get your tickets now before they disappear!
We’d like to thank Scott Attula, PhotoMatt, and Calvin Barrie for photos and video and Brian Pinsky and Dusty Sage for assembling much of the content. It’s hard to believe folks, but it’s almost the season of pumpkin spice and things that aren’t so nice . . . in the foggy streets of Knott’s Scary Farm.
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