The time for spooky fog, scary monsters, and the annual Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt has returned! It seems like we’ve been waiting for this forever, but it sure was satisfying to walk through the streets of Ghost Town once again and witness all those clever monsters doing what they do best. sliding toward unsuspecting guests with sparks flying.
We’ve been to a lot of Halloween events this year already, all of the parks seem to be moving their starting dates earlier and earlier. What’s too soon for Halloween? We’re not sure, but it sure was great to have it back early this year.
Join us as we take a look at a well-rounded event that is a bit tighter in some ways and even more professionally produced in others. While other parks may have a lock on the family crowd, or well-known movie tie-ins, Knott’s runs away with the Halloween crown this season with a great mix of mazes, scare zones, and entertainment.
Knott’s Scary Farm opened its 48th season on September 16th and will run select nights through October 31st, 2021. Let’s take a look…
First, a general walk around the event with Dusty Sage. We’ll take a look at all the scare zones and give you an overview of what to expect:
Knott’s Scary Farm Mazes 2021
There have been few changes in the scary farm haunted house lineup this season compared to 2019. As we speculated earlier this year, the returning mazes include the newer additions, plus some of the fan-favorites from the last few iterations. Although there is just one new maze this year, “Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind,” it is a spectacular one.
Here’s our look at the all-hit list of mazes this year. Spoiler alert, we loved every single one of them. That’s saying something… though, we always notice room for improvement somewhere…
New for 2021 – Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind
The new maze this year is Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind. As you enter the circus tents, you’ll see sideshow performers such as a contortionist and a bearded lady, before a feat of magic that literally stops the show.
Mesmer himself is a master hypnotist who uses his crew of sideshow performers to lure you into a world of madness.
Take as much time as the staff allows you to walk through and enjoy all the incredible illusions and special effects. This one isn’t as much about scares as it is about bewildering you, and we devoured every bit of the incredible sets, performances, and gee wiz moments which create this wonderful new attraction.
This maze is located in the middle of the CarnEvil scare zone (where Shadowlands was previously housed) and it’s a welcome addition to the Knott’s Scary Farm lineup.
Origins: The Curse of Calico
This maze combines the mythology of Ghost Town Streets, Ghost Town Alive, and The Hanging into a connected story…
“Pierce the veil of time and discover the secret of the evil fog that hangs over Knott’s Scary Farm in Origins: The Curse of Calico. Unearth the sinister paranormal activity that plagues the town as Sarah Marshall is put on trial for her suspected crimes of witchcraft. All will be unveiled when the Green Witch rises up and curses the townsfolk, transforming all who have accused her into a wicked horde of malicious creatures with an eternal quench for the living.”
The effort to tell a story starts well before you ever set foot in the maze. Character actors are positioned outside the maze attempting to rile up the waiting guests.
Each scene is so meticulously built to serve the overall story, starting with the busy Town Hall where Sarah Marshall’s trial is being held. Marshall appears on screens throughout the maze to build her story and her motivations for cursing the town.
While we’re on the topic of screens, the digital effects in this maze are so tastefully done and truly enhance the story without going too overboard.
There’s a beautiful “outdoor” scene that uses digital windows to show the transformation of citizens into monsters. The sets are incredibly impressive.
No scene exists just to spook you, it follows a very specific story, and each location feels like it’s in the actual Ghost Town. There’s a reason why you’re walking through the bank, schoolhouse, or any other location, which makes this maze feel more realistic than what you might have experienced in the past.
Rarely is there a maze that is so perfectly suited to the park as a whole. The only thing that could make this maze better would be for it to become a permanent year-round attraction.
Wax Works
In just its 2nd year, this one is a favorite with lots of ooey-gooey grotesque scenes.
“Mysterious lights and strange noises have begun to emanate from the eerie abandoned wax museum. The once prominent plastic surgeon, Dr. Augustus Scratch, has been seen tinkering at night and is now ready to show off his beautiful yet terrifying life-like masterpieces of hot molten wax and bloody flesh. It’s rumored that blood-curdling screams can be heard echoing through the halls of Wax Works as victims are horrifyingly submerged into a scorching hot cauldron of bubbling wax. Take a closer look at his gruesome works of art and try to escape his deadly grip of becoming the newest masterpiece to add to his collection.”
Dark Entities
“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 their 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!”
This maze is a nearly perfect haunt experience. The story is well set up, you more or less know what’s going on throughout. There are little nods of humor here and there. But it’s the building tension and terror that mark its creative design. By the time it ends, you’ve been through something akin to Ridley trying to escape from a space ship infested with aliens.
The Depths
“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. But be warned! All who have entered have never resurfaced…”
It’s hard to take photos in the dark which properly reflect an attraction such as this. But this maze is visually stunning in places.
Dark Ride
A once pleasant, now abandoned, dark ride becomes home to murderous sideshow freaks hellbent on causing terror. This maze has the perfect feel for the Haunt and is completely at home in a park like Knott’s. Even more so because it is located in the CarnEVIL scare zone. If only it was a real dark ride!
There have been many enhancements to this maze over the years and we aren’t tired of it yet.
Pumpkin Eater
“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.”
This one gives me chills. Remember the nursery rhyme: “Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater”? Knott’s has taken this childhood staple and twisted it into a truly terrifying tale of murder and revenge. Now Knott’s is unleashing a diabolical 7-foot tall creature that haunts the old woods surrounding The Hollow. To escape the sinister Pumpkin Eater’s wrath guests must face a cave of crawling insects and solve the labyrinth of thorns that blocks the only way out.
Apparently, Knott’s believes that nursery rhyme is about Peter getting tired of dealing with his wife’s extra-marital activities and shoving her remains into a pumpkin. What a delightfully disturbing premise for a maze.
This maze ranked very high once again, we just can’t get enough of it. It’s very creative, each segment being creepy and unique. Who’d have thought that the Peter you sang about as a child was such a bad man?
Paranormal Inc. (in its final year)
This is another MiceChat favorite that is thankfully returning one more time. One part Ghostbusters and one part American Horror Stories, Paranormal takes us on an adventure filled with ghosts, aerial stunts, and digital effects! But get your fill because this is the last year for this one.
One thing you may have noticed is that there are only 8 mazes this year, 2019 had 9. The laser tag zombie maze “Special Ops: Infected” was retired but not replaced. Though, one of the new shows this year sort of takes the place of a haunted attraction. More on that below.
Scare Zones
Thanks to the scare zones, much of Knott’s feels haunted. So, if the line for the haunted houses gets too long, you can still have a great time just wandering around the foggy streets of Knott’s Scary Farm. But unlike the mazes, some of the scare zones get much longer lives than others. This year brings one scare zone that’s 48 years young and another which just came to life this season…
Ghost Town Streets (48 Years)
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. After 48 years, we hope this beautiful nightmare never ends.
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 wicked clowns are making their way back to the park for a glorious 20th year.
Forsaken Lake
Reflection Lake, the body of water underneath Silver Bullet, reveals the horrors and creatures it’s kept hidden, until now. Forsaken Lake unleashes 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.
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. This scare zone fits well with the Pumpkin Eater maze. We wish all the mazes would fit into the themes of the scare zones in the way rides are supposed to fit into lands. This one is eerie, HUGE, and lots of fun to meander through.
It’s also a beautifully creepy counterpoint to the kid-zone it is during the day.
NEW SCARE ZONE!!! Gore-ing 20’s
In addition to those returning Scare Zones, there’s also a brand new one. Over in the Charleston Circle area (near Knott’s Bear-y Tales), a speak-easy filled with ghostly citizens of the Roaring 20s is newly opened to human guests, as long as you know the password.
We didn’t feel many scares here, but we appreciated the cinematic appeal of the amazing character performances.
There’s sadly no real speakeasy here, it would be fun to have a drink with this boys and ghouls.
Knott’s Scary Farm Shows
While there’s no major Elvira-headlined show or Hanging this year, Knott’s has expanded the number of shows they offer. Between the mazes, scare zones, and entertainment there’s a lot to see!
Invitation to Terror
After years of Mystery Lodge sitting empty, the projection theater has returned with a brand new show. This show is designed to be equal parts funny and scary. Audience members are transported back to Calico in 1986 for a technology tradeshow, where Millionaire Tom Shackleford has come across some newfound research, the Grimoire, that is sure to stop the “global cooling” phenomenon.
It wouldn’t be a Scary Farm show unless things go horribly awry, so when the Grimoire gets more than a small taste of blood, all hell breaks loose.
This show is simple but it’s entertaining. While the visual effects aren’t anything super inventive in comparison to the original Mystery Lodge show, it’s still fun to watch something hoaky that fits into the Scary Farm theme. And the fact that it takes place every twenty minutes makes it a no-brainer to visit at some point during the night. Sure, it isn’t a large-scale production like The Hanging (though, you’ll appreciate the quick Elvira cameo!), but it’s a place to rest your laurels for a spell… literally.
Wicked Drums
This is another new offering from Scary Farm this year. It fits into The Hollows scare zone in Camp Snoopy, where witches are drumming up some ancient magic with audience participation. We stumbled into this show on accident after leaving the Pumpkin Eater maze and watched a few minutes of it. There were lots of audience members getting up and leaving.
Carnaval du Grotesque
With such an interesting name, this is something we were interested in seeing. Here’s the official description from Scary Farm:
Grab a seat as the Halloween carnival show is about to begin! Your mind will melt at the sights and sounds of the Carnaval du Grotesque. Live bands provide the soundtrack for the creepiest company of performers to ever disgrace the stage.
The band itself was pretty good (albeit on the loud side since you could hear them through most of Ghost Town and well into the Boardwalk), it’s just not something we’d go out of our way to watch. We did see a few interesting acts, but they seemed to be few and far between. We’ll be keeping an eye out for circus performers on the stage while we head towards the Mesmer maze.
Puppet Up! Uncensored
Worth the price of admission alone is the delightfully naughty Puppet Up! The show is much as it was in 2019, full of off-color improvisational comedy and charming professional puppetry. The only change is the lack of live audience participants; another improv sketch was added instead.
There’s very little we can write about the content of this show that’s publishable for our audience here on MiceChat, but what we can say is that if you’re a “mature audience,” it’s one of the most hysterical productions we’ve seen.
The adorably mischievous Jim Henson classic “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face” and the closer, “Windy” return this year as well.
Conjurers – Magic and Mirth at the Birdcage Theatre
The Bird Cage Theatre once again becomes the home of comedy and magic at Knott’s Scary Farm.
The illusionist on opening night was Johnny Ace Palmer, an award-winning close-up magician. He was quite entertaining, and he performed to a full house. If you want to see this show, it’s recommended you show up early because it’s pretty popular!
Doce de la Noche
If you need to dance away some nerves after a night of mazes, the Fiesta Village stage is the place to do it. With no monsters on the prowl, this energetic dance group is a respite from the horrors of the haunt. This entertainment experience is offered hourly from 8:15pm-12:15am.
Farewell to the Hanging
The loss of the Hanging is huge. For 41 years, the hangman executed the biggest pop culture offenders. But we can’t say we are surprised to see it go. Similar shows have already been canceled at other parks over the years due to changing tastes in humor, and how easy it is to offend an audience these days. This show has now gone the way of the dodo. RIP.
This and That
Aside from the mazes, shows, and scare zones, there are some additional things to enjoy this year.
Into the Fog: Art Exhibit
Into the Fog: A Scary Farm Tribute Gallery has been set up for your viewing pleasure. We always love seeing how each artist interprets Scary Farm themes and turns them into pieces of art. Originals and prints are available for purchase. Into the Fog: A Scary Farm Tribute Gallery can be found at Cordy’s Corner in the Charleston Circle area.
Timber Mountain Log Ride: Halloween Hootenanny
The kooky band of misfits and monsters returns to the Halloween Hootenanny. This seasonal overlay of the Timber Mountain Log Ride is lighthearted and fun, plus there’s an upbeat song by Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillie that plays throughout. This is definitely a Knott’s classic during the Halloween season.
Scary Farm Food
One of the reasons that we love going to Knott’s throughout the year is for the abundance of food. While we weren’t able to try much on opening night since we were running around like a headless chicken-monster (there’s a few scary chickens that haunt Ghost Town!), here’s a handful of the items you can enjoy during the event.
If you’re looking for something to satisfy a healthy appetite, the dining establishments around the park are open for your convenience. There are also a few seasonal items that you’ll want to get your hands on.
And here are a few of the sweet treats to enjoy:
There’s still a lot more food to be found and feasted upon during Scary Farm. In the coming weeks we’re looking forward to updating this section with our finds and recommendations.
Scary Farm Merchandise
There’s plenty of merchandise that celebrates another successful year of haunts. You can find the Scary Farm merch in pretty much any of the shops around the park. The displays in the General Store in the park and at Virginia’s Gift Shop (just outside the park in the California Marketplace) have particularly full displays. Here’s a preview of the Scary Farm merchandise this year:
This spirit jersey is going to be very popular…
I love the artwork for this shirt with the clever “I Am Scary Farm” lettering…
There’s also some affordable fare. Buttons and stickers offer designs of the mazes and scare zones.
And a pin set of famous Knott’s monsters…
Knott’s Spooky Farm
It’s not all scary at Knott’s during Halloween. If you’re looking for something much more family-friendly, you can visit Knott’s Spooky Farm. This kid-geared event runs during the weekends from September 25 – October 31 from 9am to 5pm. Spooky Farm is included in regular Knott’s admission and can be enjoyed by any kid, still growing or full-grown.
This year’s lineup includes trick-or-treating, a line-up of original shows, pumpkin decorating, and a brand-new Calico Carnival Costume Cavalcade hosted by the Calico Mayor and Cameo Kate. Plus the popular overlays to several attractions are returning, including Halloween Hootenanny at the Timber Mountain Log Ride, and Calico Candy Mine Ride at the Calico Mine (which we preview for you above and is WAY too scary for kids).
We’ll have more info to share with you about Knott’s Spooky Farm very soon!
Let’s Hear From You!
Who’s ready for Halloween?!!! This year felt like a greatest hits and a return home. While we would have LOVED to have seen an Elvira caliber act on one of the stages, it was nearly a perfect event in overall offerings. There’s a lot more for your money here than other parks are offering this year for more. Who’s ready to jump into the fog?!
(Our deepest thanks to the team who helped shoot, write, and share this comprehensive article. Names are on the watermarks.)
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