Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit Knott’s Scary Farm for the very first time. And let me tell you, if you live in or are going to university in Southern California and you are looking for something that will help you get into the Halloween spirit, this is an event you will not want to miss.
For some context, Knott’s Scary Farm is an annual Halloween event that occurs at the Knotts Berry Farm Theme Park located in Buena Park, California. The event started on September 21st and it will happen on select nights (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Nights) as well as Halloween night itself between the hours of 7pm-1am.
During the Scary Farm event, the park opens up the following 10 mazes: The Chilling Chambers, Bloodline: 1842, Dark Entities, Room 13, Origins: The Curse of Calico, Mesmer: Side Show of the Mind, The Depths, The Grimoire, Wax Works, and Cinema Slasher. Park goers can enter at their own risk!
The park also has many shows, events, and even special meals and snacks that are modeled after the different mazes and Halloween in general. As you walk from maze to maze, you have opportunities to be jumpscared by other frightening vampires, ghosts, and demons roaming around the park.
While I was not able to do everything that the Scary Farm has to offer (I didn’t watch any live shows and I missed out going through the Mesmer and Chilling Chamber mazes because I went on a school night and needed to head back earlier than I would’ve liked), I overall had a super positive experience.
I loved how I was able to explore a good chunk of the mazes even without paying for a fast pass; the wait times tended to be super chill and short compared to other theme parks I have been to and the staff do a good job at keeping the lines moving throughout the park.
I also loved the aspect of having to be on edge for jumpscares even outside of the mazes– this kept the anticipation truly high the whole night. In fact, I think because I was on edge traveling throughout the park, I was definitely a lot more frightened going into the mazes itself, which made them a lot more fun too. However, if you want to keep the scares limited to just the mazes, Knotts also has a 15 dollar glow necklace you can buy at the park in order to protect yourself from any jumpscares while walking around.
As for the mazes itself, I have to say that I loved how different each of the ten mazes were from each other– it really felt like they were trying to target all of the different kinds of fears people can have, such as fears of the deep ocean, space, horror films, dolls and wax figures, and so many more. I also loved how detailed all the mazes I visited were. It really felt like I had entered an entirely new world every time I was walking through one of them.
Finally, I really felt that the actors inside the mazes had really good timing in regards to when to come out and start scaring people; I swear every time I got jumpscared was because I didn’t expect the actor to come out because I was too busy looking at something creepy in the mazes! My favorite of the mazes I did get to complete was the Cinema Slasher; the creative team really shined here with both the set design and music choices, and I really felt this was the scariest of the mazes I did get to check out.
Overall, I would highly recommend visiting the Knott’s Scary Farm if you get the chance this year. Ticket prices are relatively college student-friendly, and after you do it once, it will become an event you will try to come to every year after that.