Knott's Scary Farm 2022: Mazes

Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA

In all of the packed spookiness of last haunt season, one thing we never got around to posting was our photo gallery of the mazes at Knott’s Scary Farm. We had our general review, plus a look at the entertainment line-up and the scare zones, but no mazes. Well, better late than never, because we’re doing our photograph deep dive today!

If this was still last season, we’d probably go more in-depth into our thoughts and critiques on the mazes. And we would have even adopted the “where / story / good / bad” format we used for the Halloween Horror Nights mazes—sorry, houses—last year.

But since it’s spring 2023, this post will be more of a retrospective, with more general thoughts based on the entirety of the season. Or, if you don’t care about any of that and just want to relive the mazes, then enjoy the gritty pictures!

Wax Works

Daniel Miller’s demented serial killer and artist maze was a solid performer last year, typically coming in the middle of our maze experiences for any given visit but still doing well in its third year. Lines were also middle of the road. Scary Farm attendance was down overall due to the event’s chaperone and bag policies, which meant maze waits were lower than historical averages. But Wax Works was neither the busiest nor most empty maze of Scary Farm.

No changes were made to this maze compared to 2021 and 2019—although it did seem to have less talent compared to its prior two years. This means the twisted, sadistic, disturbingly creative imagery conjured up from Daniel Miller’s mind is still rendered in grotesquely graphic yet eerily imaginative ways. This maze is everything you’d expect from a Wax Museum gone violently wrong, and it Augustus Scratches that itch one might get for wondering what would it look like if someone had a mental breakdown and decided to go on a killing spree to turn corpses and body parts into mutilated art.

The Depths

The Depths, unfortunately, sank to the bottom of our rankings last year. And judging by the consistently empty lines all season, it seemed to reside on the seabed of most guest interest too. Jon Cooke’s maze of oceanic fears hasn’t changed much over its past four years, other than abandoning its mine shaft elevator pre-show after year one (a common occurrence for Haunt mazes). But tucked in the backstage area behind Ghostrider and adjacent to the brand-new Bloodline 1842 maze, The Depths seemed to be overlooked each night that we stopped by.

The maze itself had good energy from its talent, with the swamp scene and the siren scenes in particular feeling more active in our trips through. The climactic encounter with the kraken is still a pretty awe-inspiring sight. The end sequence with various Pirates of the Caribbean-esque monsters felt more subdued, though, with more glaring than scaring. Again, in our experience.

These days, Knott’s Scary Farm mazes—with their high production values and significant investment—last longer than the three to four year average that mazes ten or twenty years ago typically ran. But The Depths is a case where either a significant refresh this year or retirement would be appropriate.

Bloodline 1842

One of two new mazes for 2022, Jon Asperin’s lead designer debut, Bloodline 1842, took the place of the venerable Paranormal Inc: The Haunting of Hayden Hill, in the backstage location that has seen its fair share of legendary mazes since it was built two decades ago, including The Asylum, Asylum: Lockdown, and a reincarnation of Dominion of the Dead (or Damned in 2014). Incidentally, this location returned to its vampire past last year in Bloodline 1842, but with a steampunk twist that also incorporated the laser tag guns of Special Ops: Infected.

We had a lot to say about this maze in our general review, and after a season of going through multiple times, our critiques are largely the same: the maze is moody, atmospheric, and beautiful, but it was hampered by the laser gun introduction, which pushed guests through too quickly to admire most of the sets and also seemed to rush the storytelling. The operations did improve as the season progressed, with less urgency and a little better allowance of guests to breath during the in-between beats.

We still would have liked to have seen some scenes, like the double height tavern set and the crypt and subterranean passages are, lit better to visually pop and better showcase the artistry poured into the maze. The vampire civil war storyline also never completely clicked with us. Kudos for the creativity of eschewing another traditional, Gothic vampire maze with sulking blood suckers and engaging a creative twist. But we do feel like the firearm action component detracted from the overall experience of this particular story.

Dark Entities

The other backstage casualty of poor positioning was Dark Entities, Gus Krueger’s sci-fi horror and latest iteration of the alien attacks theme that Haunt has done several times in its history. Located at the very back end of the Ghostrider backstage area, Dark Entities often had trouble attracting guests to its queue, because it wasn’t prominently located and was really only encountered by guests existing The Depths—another maze that had low waits and low throughput throughout the season.

We noted in the General Review our concurrence with our friend, Gregg, from Park Journey, about how the laser guns would have been a superior enhancement in this maze, since the storyline already naturally feeds into it, and both monsters and animatronics could have been tweaked to be targets. Reimagined as a mission to extract the limited survivors from a space ship trapped in the desolate depths of the galaxy, and this maze could have found an attractive resurgence.

That said, although the quantity of talent in Dark Entities was reduced from past years, the lighting, ambiance, and audio drama felt a little amped up compared to prior years. There were little touches in the maze where details that were less prominent in prior years were highlighted a bit last year. Perhaps this year, Dark Entities can receive a mid-run refresh with a couple of new or adjusted scenes, similar to how mazes like Trick or Treat and Paranormal Inc had noticeable modifications several years into their runs.

The Grimoire

Last year’s other debuting maze was the riveting and narratively complex Grimoire, which drew upon the same mythological universe as the Green Witch but took a time travel route about its story. The Grimoire is essentially Knott’s Scary Farm’s version of the Darkhold—a cursed book of dark magic that seems to constantly find itself in scenes of suffering and horror.

Teased in storyline by 2021’s Invitation to Terror show, this maze took guests back to the 1980s, around a campfire scene where a troupe of campers reads a haunting tale from the book. This summons sinister spirits, and guests jump through a tent and into a scene from the 1800s, where the seeds of Sarah Marshall seem to be scattered in a black and white rendering. A Puritanical mother shrieks at her frightened son, and disturbing artwork and dolls adorn the bedroom.

Jumping to “a world where screams of mortals in war are filled with pain and despair,” the flashback jumps to a battlefield scene from one of the World Wars. Trauma, death, and destruction lie everywhere as a cacophony of bullets and explosions fly through the air. Next, it’s onto a 1950’s Pleasantville-style environment, only the idyllic suburban life belies the horror of a cannibalistic family settling down for dinner.

Once guests exit this scene, they’re brought back to the campsite, which now seems to be charred from the dark energy. Guests learn that some of the campers have been taken, and they need to try to rescue them—which means venturing off into the dark, foreboding wilderness. Soon enough, they counter malicious spirits and creatures lashing out and find their victims imprisoned. At the center of all of these events is the Grimoire book, seemingly weaving its own tale of evil as the sequences progress. The book itself is the antagonist of the story, compelling the forces around it to commit atrocity.

This maze was not one that easily explained its story in one walk-through. It took several rounds and noticing new details, reading the narrative writings on the wall, and piecing together the innovative use of monochrome and color to figure out exactly what was going on. But similar to Bloodline 1842, credit Knott’s for being ambitious and crafting a complex narrative that interlaced a variety of different traditional haunt themes and some non-traditional ones.

As the season progressed, the pre-show that significantly inhibited the pacing was tightened up—though this meant sometimes missing the beginning and wondering if there were details that had been left in the air. Some of the early season issues of placid scareactors relying more on acting than scaring also improved, though we still felt the second half could have been more action packed and intense, since the drama heightened once guests were informed of the magnitude and thread of the Grimoire book.

Regardless of these critiques, similar to Bloodline 1842, The Grimoire commanded the longest lines of the season, often approaching or exceeding an hour’s wait. And while we’re on the subject of queue, we loved all the little Easter eggs hidden in The Grimoire’s Mystery Lodge line, from tributes to past monsters to nostalgic references to random trends that were popular thirty or forty years ago to silly graffiti messages that almost broke the fourth wall.

Origins: The Curse of Calico

This love letter to the essence and mythology of Knott’s Scary Farm itself continued to run excellently last year. Arguably Jon Cooke’s finest work, this condensing of Ghost Town the scare zone into a maze that incorporated the Calico universe was unchanged from its prior two seasons but still just utterly high quality and well done.

The scareactors consistently hit their marks, delved into their characters, and effectively worked together to provide a variety of spooks and startles. The environment and theming in this maze remained top notch. Perhaps the only disappointment was the sporadic appearance of the Catawampus monster, who was only present half of the several times we went through during the season. Other than that, Origins remained a highlight of Haunt.

Dark Ride

Last year was the curtain call for Dark Ride, Jon Cooke’s love letter to carnivals and hokey, spooky fun. Although I heard reports from some guests of poor experiences and missing talent, every time I personally went through Dark Ride, I had a fantastic run. Plenty of energy, lots of monsters, the same incredible sets, a brilliant soundtrack, and the barely controlled chaos of clowns and carnie characters meant that Dark Ride had plenty of legs, even though this was its final year.

Similar to The Depths, though, we often saw Dark Ride’s queue run pretty short, with waits in the 15-20 minute range common outside of the park’s peak evening hours. And towards the end of the night, the maze would often be a walk-on. So from that perspective, perhaps it was appropriate to conclude Dark Ride’s run. I also understand that the same maze may offer wildly varying experiences to different guests who go in at different times, all from the luck of the draw and the happenstance of timing.

One thing’s for sure, though. For Westcoaster, Dark Ride will be an all-time favorite maze, in that pantheon that includes classic picks like The Asylum, The Inquisition, Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns, Malice in Wonderland, Paranormal Inc, and other similarly highly esteemed mazes.

Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind

We noted in our general review that Mesmer had settled into a very nice sophomore year groove, and this held true for the entire run. The maze typically had a healthy line—never too crazy but sometimes hefty on busier nights. Other than relinquishing its preshow for a new, adjusted walk-through scene, Mesmer was the same as in 2021, but its pacing, ambiance, storytelling, and spooks were highly enjoyable.

The deeper we dove into the hypnosis and psychosis of this environment of carnival chills, the more disturbing the imagery grew, and the photogenic, exciting climax of coming face to face with the towering Mr. Zoetrope provided a great high point at which to end the maze. Last year, Mesmer also routed exiting guests out toward Fiesta Village, along the stage coach track. That slight twist was the only other change and added an extra walk for guest who might want to otherwise hit up another maze (like Dark Ride) or the Halloween Hootenanny Timber Mountain Log Ride quickly.

Pumpkin Eater

Last but not least was 2022’s other retiring maze, Pumpkin Eater. After a venerable half decade run, both Pumpkin Eater and The Hollow would be giving way to something new this year (and given that it’s the 50th Knott’s Scary Farm, rumors and excitement are abuzz for what new or maybe not-actually-that-new addition may join Camp Snoopy in September).

Pumpkin Eater received some new scenes in 2021, refreshing a maze that had been showcasing another example of Daniel Miller’s twisted mind since 2017. Last year was a repeat, though staffing for the maze felt inconsistent through our run. Many times, the back half was relatively empty—a stark contrast to 2021. However, Pumpkin Eater was also the only time I actually received a scare at a Scary Farm maze last year, so kudos to the monster who got me within on of the dark caverns in the maze. Although Pumpkin Eater ended up in the middle/bottom of my preferred mazes last year, it was still solid.

Much like the NBA Western Conference this year, the top seven mazes of the 2022 Knott’s Scary Farm were all strong performers who could each claim the title of maze of the night on any particular evening. That’s how close the quality was.

That concludes our 2022 Knott’s Scary Farm coverage—about five months too late. But hey, it’s more than five months until Knott’s Scary Farm returns, so at least I got this in within the same half year! Alternatively, my excuse is that I didn’t want Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Scream Break to be the only haunt update this week and wanted to give it some company. Yeah, that’s the ticket!