For the past 44 years, Knott’s Scary Farm has been inviting guests from all over Southern California to jump into the famous fog and see what awaits. On this years opening night, September 22nd, we put on the bravest face we could manage, and made our way into a park full of nightmares.
After winding our way around the park through various “scare zones”, we decided the best way to kick off our night would be with the interactive maze “Special Ops: Infected”. At the start of this maze, you’re given a quick rundown of your mission and a gun similar to one you would find in a laser tag arena. You and a handful of other guests are on a specials ops team to take out the zombies that have overtaken a city area. This turned out to be one of the most fun and frightening mazes due to it feeling like we were inserted in the middle of a video game, coming face to face with terrifyingly real zombies. Each turn hosted a new surprise, as new forms of monsters crawled out from the shadows. This maze left some members of our group feeling like they could take on an apocalypse head on, and the rest of us knowing who we need to cower behind.
On the opposite side of the park, we found ourselves making our way into “Shadow Lands”, a maze that tells the story of what happens to samurai that don’t make their way out of battle. One of the best things about Shadow Lands, is once you are in the maze, they shut all the doors and give you and a handful of other guests a quick exposition, in the creepy way Knott’s Scary Farm does best. Another maze that followed this set up was “Paranormal Inc.”, which followed a reality TV shoot gone wrong in a haunted sanatorium. This gave a set up that further immersed us into the story and put us on edge in a way other mazes just couldn’t without that exposition.
Scattered throughout the park there were rooms that only those with the Skeleton Key could unlock. The Skeleton Key is a special pass this year that gives access to the 4 Skeleton Key Rooms, a Fright Lane pass, and a limited edition keychain and lanyard. These special rooms were 2 minute experiences with groups of 6. They were incredibly detailed and story oriented, meaning there were always new things to discover throughout the room. From what we noticed, since there was no fright lane line, the wait times could get to be a little long throughout the night. I suggest trying to get these right at the opening of Knott’s Scary Farm, or towards the end of the night when everyone is heading home and the park clears out.
The various shows, such as Elvira’s Danse Macabre or The Hanging, while entertaining and full of talented performers, were definitely not family friendly and were geared toward an older audience.
Overall, it was a fun and memorable, especially since I had others to brave the monsters and mazes with. Feeling confident? Buy a ticket to Scary Farm and see for yourself!
See you in the fog.
