Knott's Scary Farm 2022: General Review

Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA

Another year, another haunt season, and another tradition revived. In 1973, Knott's Berry Farm unleashed The Halloween Haunt, becoming the first large scale theme park haunted attraction in the world. And in the nearly five decades that have passed, there have been a plethora of different haunts that have come and lingered and passed, but the fact remains that Knott's Scary Farm remains the Grandaddy of Them All, and this past weekend marked the opening of the 49th Annual (COVID excepted) Halloween Haunt event.

After shifting up a week last year to keep pace with the schedules of Southern California's other theme park haunts, Knott's is once again back to its second-to-last-week-of-September debut, with six ghoulish weekends this season (plus a random Wednesday in the middle of October and Halloween Monday). New this year are two mazes--Bloodline 1842 and The Grimoire--a revamped and utterly spectacular Carnaval du Grotesque circus sideshow, and a chaperone policy and a bag policy that have definitely impacted how guests visit the park and (mostly the prior) seemingly contributing to what appeared to be a sizeable drop in opening weekend attendance.

Knott’s Scary Farm wasn’t exactly dead on opening weekend, but most lines were frequently much shorter than normal.

As usual for our big theme park haunt reviews, we'll be sharing our overall thoughts and critiques on this year's event before branching out into photo galleries and more details for the entertainment, scare zones, and mazes.

When people talk about Scary Farm (or any other theme park haunt), they almost inevitably gravitate toward the mazes first. This year returns the Scary Farm line-up back to nine after last year's pandemic-influenced dip to eight. It's not as much as the prior years' peaks, but since Knott's made the shift to more spectacular, immersive, heavily-themed, technologically-advanced mazes about a decade ago, nine has been the going number.

The first of the two newcomers is Bloodline 1842, located in the backstage area at the site formerly occupied by the departing Paranormal Inc (as well as The Asylum, Lockdown: The Asylum, and Dominion of the Damned). This maze follows in Knott's rich tradition of vampire-themed mazes but adds a new spin by incorporating a fantasy, steampunk-inspired environment and mixing in the same laser gun technology used in Special Ops: Infected. Set in the imaginary realm of Valdonia, Bloodline 1842 puts guests on the side of the immortal Daywalkers, a group of protagonist vampires, as they do battle against the feral and vicious Valhymphri and try to capture their king.

FOR VALHALLA!!! I MEAN VALDONIA!!

Designed by Jon Asperin in his first lead creative role at Knott's Scary Farm (I mean it this time after misattributing Mesmer to him last year when it was really Daniel Miller--still so sorry!), Bloodline features some beautiful and amazing sets, including some double-height spaces and bridging section that are pretty impressive. Even if one doesn't care much for the steampunk aesthetic, the look of the spaces within the maze is evocative and moody. Surprisingly, the maze is darker than one might expect from a world that utilizes a retro-futuristic technology, although it does make sense from an"it's a vampire maze" sense. The layout of the maze also utilizes a nice mix of scare tactics, providing some great hiding spots from different angles and perspectives that can catch guests by surprise as they're passing by or even after they pass by.

Sets with vertical layering mark Bloodline 1842.

This double height tavern space is pretty impressive too!

Unfortunately, while Bloodline 1842 is a fantastic maze design, the pacing and storyline execution are hamstrung by the laser gun concept. Operations-wise, the maze felt rushed when we attended on Thursday's opening night, perhaps because everyone was aware of the long lines that Special Ops: Infected incurred with its "shoot-em-up" premise during its run and had taken steps to mitigate these delays. The groups were larger than in Infected, which helped with throughput but created clogs along the course that interrupted the story immersion. As a result, the beats of the story weren't allowed to breathe, diminishing the ability to admire and appreciate the detail and grandeur of the maze under this format. Even the pre-show spiel and interlude dialogue moments felt hurried, as though the lines were being raced through as quickly as possible to get the next group in. On our last of three runs through, we opted to forgo the gun and position ourselves at the end of the group in order to take in the maze at a more pedestrian pace. Fortunately, we were not pushed to keep pace with the gun-toting guest members, and it allowed us to take in (and photograph) the maze better.

It also seemed a little odd that, in a battle between two vampiric factions, only one of them had guns (as opposed to that one-sidedness making more sense in a special ops vs zombies narrative). Though it would have been more complicated to pull off, the operation may have felt more organic within this Valdonian storyline if perhaps there were two "teams" that guests could choose to be a part of. They would then need to target vampires of the opposite team's designation. Ultimately, as our friend, Gregg, from Park Journey suggested, maybe the laser gun technology could have been better applied at another maze, such as Dark Entities, as a reinvigoration (similar to how Trick or Treat received the Gantham flashlight treatment a few years before its final run), though admittedly, any enhanced existing maze would need to be redesigned to allow weapon pickup and discard to be located adjacent to each other. That said, Bloodline 1842 almost needs to be looked at in two different lenses--one with the "vampire laser tag" operation, and the other as just a maze.

Bloodline 1842 is a great maze marred by its reliance on interactive weaponry.

The other new maze is located at the Mystery Lodge location. The Grimoire was actually designed two years ago, but the uncertainty of pandemic conditions last year pushed the maze back--though not without some hints being dropped along the way, such as its appearance in the climactic Green Witch scene in Ghost Town: Origins and the Invitation to Terror show last year.

Designed by Jon Asperin and Gus Krueger, The Grimoire tells the story of an ancient book of evil that seems to spawn gateways to hell--or at least hellish landscapes--that is discovered by a group of teens during a campout. Consider it Knott's take on the Darkhold, in a way. Set in the 1980s, the maze is a bit of a time travel trip through different eras where the Grimoire was used, from an 1800s homestead (perhaps tying into Sarah Marshall's use of the book, as referenced in Ghost Town: Origins) to the battlefields of World War I (or II), to a seemingly innocuous 1950s Pleasantville setting that belies an awful, bloody, cannibalistic truth. Once guests make it through these episodes, they are transported back to the 1980s present, where the understandably panicked teenagers are urgently trying to figure out how to close the realm that they've unleashed, lest the hellish, demonic creatures that have escaped from the book take over the world completely!

Never read from a cursed book like the Grimoire. Bad things just happen.

The storyline for the Grimoire takes a few trips to truly appreciate, especially for guests using the Fright Lane line, which skips the regular queue's videos that offer some storyline context to the maze and help better frame the context. Ultraviolet-lit writing above the portals into each scene relay quotes from the book and offer some clues to what's happening. But those who can discern the mythology of this maze are rewarded with a deeper connection into the Ghost Town Streets lore that Knott's Scary Farm has been building around Sarah Marshall and related elements over the years.

The Grimoire takes guests through several time periods—all featuring the cursed book.

Scenically, The Grimoire boldly executes aesthetics that haven't been seen in the vast majority of Scary Farm mazes before, intentionally creating sparse, drab, monochrome color templates for the three time jumps to signify their flashback nature and taking a more challenging path toward visually depicting horror and gore without being able to utilize accenting colors. Once guests are back to the storyline present day, the color returns, and with that more of a creepy wilderness and caverns ambiance that feels a little more traditional.

We also noticed the heavily integrated soundscape, which wonderfully enriches the maze experience through audio clues, startles, and tension building. From the readings of the book (similar to audio quote snippets from the Forevermore maze that used to occupy this location) to the wartime cacophony to the spine-tingling monster sounds that add depth even to relatively unoccupied spaces, sound plays an active role in the maze, even more than most Haunt mazes before it.

The book seems to literally unleash hell.

On the flip side, similar to Bloodline 1842, we experienced some pacing issues through the maze which initially detracted our experience. After getting through the line, guests have to pulse through two stopping points before they reach the actual pre-show. The larger groups that gather up mean that those in the back of the pack miss out on the beginning of the pre-show presentation. In addition, they create conga lines within the groups anyway, defeating the purpose of the line pulsing. For those who are at the start or those who lag behind the end of each set of guests, the experience can be rivetting, as they receive the full attention of the scareactors. For those in the middle, the start-stop nature might be bothersome--and as long as Knott's has pre-shows for its mazes, this aspect will continue to be a luck-of-the-draw facet of Scary Farm mazes. Where feasible, perhaps incorporating more preshow content into the queue itself could help with this issue of setting up a storyline while maintaining smooth operations.

Reading the book seems to only bring death and destruction.

Additionally, The Grimoire seems to require a greater proportion of acting from the talent inside the maze than most Knott's mazes. This is not inherently a bad feature, since it mixes haunt maze with immersive theater and can enhance the enveloping feeling of being sucked into the story. But the theatrical moments seemed to outweigh the scare opportunities in The Grimoire during our weekend visits, and some organic startles were often neglected because the scareactor needed to maintain his or her pantomimed lines at a specific moment. Fortunately, as the season progresses, and the cast becomes more accustomed to the ebbs and flows, this issue can likely be mitigated and improved.

And a taste for bloody flesh.

Aside from the new entrants this year, Dark Ride and Origins: The Curse of Calico were also fantastic during our several journeys through each. Sadly, this is Dark Ride's last year, as the park has already advertised, but the cast is still lively and active, the maze is still gorgeous, and the energy is still fantastic. Dark Ride could certainly continue another couple of years and still not feel dated. Origins still has a few years ahead of it for sure, and this exploration of the origins of the Green Witch continues to provide magnificent visuals, nice scares, and wonderful tributes to Scary Farm lore and history.

Dark Ride is in its last year but is just as strong as its first.

Ghost Town: Origin’s Catawampus monster is the best maze monster in the history of the universe.

Entering its second year, Mesmer: Sideshow of the mind has settled in very nicely into its sophomore run. The pre-show from last year is gone, replaced by a looped scene where Mesmer proclaims the horrors of what guests will experience. This speaks to the double-edged sword of Knott's incorporation of maze pre-shows. While they are fantastic for telling a story, they typically become operational burdens, and Mesmer joins the list of mazes to lose their pre-show moments at the start of the maze. The rest of the maze is still fantastic--scenically stunning and twisted as only the mind of Daniel Miller can conjure up. The cast seemed a little sparse during our visits, which could be chance timing or reflective of the general challenges of job industries that rely on introductory or low-paying labor. But the maze was still very enjoyable.

Mesmer dives into pure, unadulterated horror.

Wax Works and Pumpkin Eater were also strong performers this year. Both are unchanged from last year, and Pumpkin Eater is also being retired after this season. But both had a fair share of talent, with commendable energy and timing, and, of course, strong storylines to drive their layouts.

Wax Works is full of carnage and gore.

Pumpkin Eater is the other retiring maze, having been at Scary Farm the longest of any current maze.

At the bottom of our rankings, unfortunately, were The Depths and Dark Entities. They were relatively lifeless during our Thursday visit, though by Sunday, the talent had seemed to warm up to their roles and increased their activity. Dark Entities suffers from the misfortune of being located the most out of the way of the four backstage Ghostrider maze locations, and it is most hurt by a scarcity of monsters. On Thursday evening, the air conditioning seemed to be off or underperforming, leading the maze to be more like Dark Humidititties instead. The Depths is a good concept, but it seems to have run its course of public interest. Though lines for the veteran mazes were low throughout the weekend (something we'll touch upon later), The Depths and Dark Entities appeared to routinely be walk-on's every time we passed by the area.

Sirens seduce sailors to their demise in The Depths.

Dark Entities has a bit of an extraterrestrial infestation problem.

On the themed ride front, the Calico Candy Mine Ride and the Calico Log Ride's Halloween Hootenanny return this year. We did not ride either this weekend. The Log Ride is the same as in previous years, but we were told that the Calico Candy Mine Ride has received new audio and visual effects and set pieces. It is not identical to last year (our earlier reporting assuming so was inaccurate).

The Calico Mine Ride has become the Calico Candy Mine Ride again, full of sweets and treats and witches who like their kiddie eats.

The Log Ride’s Halloween Hootenanny entertains guests again too.

Knott's Scary Farm also features five returning scare zones this year.

Ghost Town Streets is the original and the forever zone, active and full of amazing street monsters. The character design continues to build out GTS lore, as more creatures seem to continue to be added to this area. Dark, foggy, and full of terrifying fiends hiding in the shadows, it remains our favorite scare zone of the park.

Walking through the fog of Ghost Town is always such a joy.

Carnevil, the second-longest running scare zone at Scary Farm, continues its hold on The Boardwalk. Despite the open spaces and bright lights and lack of theming, the clowns continue to entertain with deranged glee. Faced with the most challenging scare zone in which to operate, they deliver great interactions and sometimes ridiculous frights using props that fit with their characters. We would love to see an improvement in the scenic contributions to Carnevil, even if they took the form of movable sets like what is used in The Hollow and Forsaken Lake or temporarily installed like in the Goreing 20's.

The clowns at Carnevil are as unstable as ever.

Speaking of... last year's smash-hit Goreing 20's area, located between Charleston Circle and the railroad tracks by the Wheeler Dealer bumper cars, returns this year with the same semi-interactive Prohibition-era storyline. With a cast of mafia members, flapper girls, bartenders, religious zealots, grease monkeys, and elite upper class, there's plenty of storyline to go about. This is the one area where guests are encouraged to interact with the cast in vice versa--smilar to Ghost Town Alive--though not in as deep and rigorous of a manner.

Mind your business in the Goreing 20’s, and nobody gets hurt.

Over by the remnants of Reflection Lake, the bog and morass of the haunted bayou provide an eerie and haunting environment. Forsaken Lake has received more sets over the years, but it still hasn't yet felt completely immersive, as the relatively plain (but dark) area between the Silver Bullet queue and station and the entrance off of Camp Snoopy remains an unfulfilled stretch of territory. It also seemed to have less talent than we were used to, though this could have again been a luck of timing issue. The funeral procession mini-show still occurs at 10:00pm and 11:45pm each evening (if the earlier time changed this year, please let me know).

Forsaken Lake may be impacted by construction happening in Fiesta Village, but it’s still a moody and forlorn scene.

Finally, over in Camp Snoopy, The Hollow is sending out its final year in style. Though this area is quiet with less foot traffic owing to the ongoing Fiesta Village construction and the fact that its only maze is next to the Front Gate instead of nestled deeper into Camp Snoopy, there is a lot of motivated talent who seem almost determined to prove that removing this scare zone next year is a mistake. To that end, we saw a lot of energy and active scare attempts when we walked through. Regardless of what comes next year (a new maze or perhaps a 50th Anniversary special return of the legendary Gauntlet?), we hope the monsters will have the same vigor.

The creatures in The Hollow still hunt out guests as they pass through.

After last year's large expansion, entertainment options have been reduced back down to three this year—plus the once-again fantastic Into the Fog art exhibit if you count that.

Puppet Up! Uncensored returns again to the Walter Knott Theater, with its usual brand of insane and inappropriate puppet improv. Some people don't like it because it's not really Halloween-y, but we don't care. Puppet Up! Uncensored remains our favorite show at Haunt because it's hilarious and is a different show every single time.

Puppet Up! Uncensored is back and still hysterical, with a familiar format but some new improv games and scenes.

Over at the Bird Cage Theatre, Conjurers: Dark Magic presents a semi-close-up display of sorcery three times an evening. Headlined by Magic Castle staple Zabrecky, the show combines mentalism, dark and dry humor, corny jokes, and some pretty fun illusions. Zabrecky's act incorporates a bit more of Scary Farm lore by starting under the pretense of a seance with Walter Knott. It finishes with an amusingly awkward dramatic dance that interleaves a clever card trick sequence that literally culminates in confetti.

Zabrecky performs at Conjurers: Dark Magic, at the Bird Cage Theatre.

The marquee of this year's Scary Farm shows, however, is the new and revamped Carnaval du Grotesque performance. Last year's iteration was a little underwhelming, rotating cover band performances with recurring circus sideshow acts. As a sequel to the long-running and classic (if not divisive) Hanging show, this did not have the same weight and pizzazz of a headlining show. Fortunately, this year, the spectacle has been dialed up to the max, as the show provides a much more structured five-part series featuring a synchronized dance troupe, an aerial spinner suspended only by her hair, an amazing fire performer, chair stacking balancer, and a wheel of death acrobat. With two emcees that fans of Ghost Town Alive! may recognize, the thirty-minute show is breathtaking, sensational, and stunning. Where last year's Carnaval du Grotesque often played to sparse crowds, we expect a lot of popularity for this year's iteration!

The Carnaval du Grotesque is an incredible and sensational spectacle this year.

This brings us to the one underlying aspect of opening weekend that we could not help but notice: the crowds. They were light--very light. In fact, last Saturday evening ran half the guest count of what 2021 opening Saturday night took in. All weekend, throughout the park, maze waits averaged 5 - 15 minutes, with only Mesmer, The Grimoire, and Bloodline 1842 appearing to be the sole exceptions (we saw Mesmer up to 30 minutes on opening night; The Grimoire and Bloodline were at or north of 1 hour, with The Grimoire up to 2 hours on opening night's rush).

Parts of Knott’s Scary Farm were very empty for the weekend.

There are a variety of potential theories to explain this, but the most logical revolves around Scary Farm's two new policies this year: a requirement for children 17 or under to be accompanied by an adult chaperone 21 or older, and a bag policy that prohibits any bags larger than 6.5" x 4.5" x 2".

The latter policy has been subject to much discussion over the past month since it was announced, with much of the complaints focused on its excessively and unrealistically small size (especially to accommodate the needs of women who need to bring personal sanitary and health-related accessories and can't just put them in the non-existent pockets that most female clothing does not provide). There have been reports online from guests contacting Knott's customer service in advance that medical equipment can be exempted but must be placed in another bag that is just large enough to carry the extra vital equipment but nothing else. In addition, over the opening weekend, Knott's security was active in verbally broadcasting the bag policy to guests waiting in line, screening for large bags, and even having a template to measure bags against. From what we can discern, Knott's was not dogmatically strict with the policy, and bags that were slightly larger than the prescribed size were sometimes allowed in. However, bags that were clearly larger--such as backpacks, were turned away. And while this process wasn't perfect--there were a handful of guests with large bags seen inside the park--Knott's is definitely trying to enforce their bag rule.

The Bride obeys the bag policy and doesn’t bring a large back. Ironically, if she had to put her candle in a Knott’s-abiding bag, it would not fit. It would also set the bag on fire, but that’s beside the point.

As frustrating as the Scary Farm bag policy (which is actually Cedar Fair-wide for Halloween events) is, and as much as we wish there was a reasonable alternative such as a larger clear bag allowance that live events and sporting venues allow, we don't think this is driving the lesser crowds. Instead, it appears that the chaperone policy has had a pronounced effect on the guest count.

It makes sense. Parents who don't want to go to Knott's Scary Farm with their children or who don't wish to stay at the park as late as their kids would want are simply electing not to buy tickets at all--for themselves or their children. While the crowds are certainly bound to pick up later in the season and in October, when the general population becomes more engaged in Halloween events, it is definitely interesting to see the apparent impact that Knott's new rule is having already on its most profitable seasonal event. For those who actually to visit, this has made for an excellent guest experience, as even roller coasters and thrill rides have seen waits lower than normal. Most Saturdays require either a Fright Lane, Boo-fet early entry (which is at 6:30pm this year, not 6:00pm like in the past), or very strategic planning. This past Saturday did not require this at all. For the park, profitability will take a hit if this persists (especially if guests take notice and end up purchasing less Fright Lanes too), so we'll be curious to see if any reaction comes out of it--be it promotional discounts (our most likely guess at a response), a loosening of the chaperone rule, or even the return of the Scary Farm season pass in limited quantities (as much as we'd love this, it probably wouldn't gain that much more income).

Crowds in the scare zones might be busy during the start and middle of the night, but they died down significantly in the final hours of each evening.

One improvement that we do want to commend... we noticed the use of two contact-free security scanners that don't require guests to empty their pockets--similar to what is being used more and more at large-scale live events like festivals and sports stadiums. This greatly sped up the security process, with only guests flagged by the machines having to go to a third line to have their belongs inspected and security wanded. With increasing safety measures unfortunately needed in today's environment, it's nice to see that Knott's has invested in technology that keeps guests safe while making their experience convenient.

That concludes our overview on this year's Knott's Scary Farm--a review that ended up being much longer than expected because I had more to say about the two new mazes and decided to write them here rather than in the dedicated maze post, and because the attendance merited discussion. We'll be back with our customary deep dives, and we've also got reviews of this year's Castle Dark at Castle Park and Delusion: Valley of Hollows, for your enjoyment. Haunt season is just getting started, so we'll be plenty busy bringing you our sprawling coverage of the SoCal haunt scene!

Regardless of some of the differences at this year’s Scary Farm, it remains a terrific, classic, and pre-eminent haunted event.