SPOOKY: Knott’s Scary Farm, a frightful amusement park, is the place to go to ¨find your way to fear.¨
By Tanner Rowland, Staff Writer
It’s the time of year when Knott’s Berry Farm makes its annual transformation from the park’s usual jolly self into its sinister counterpart: Knott’s Scary Farm. The eerie amusement park, filled with mazes and rides, is the perfect destination to get your fright on. To make the scene even more surreal, the park is only open from seven at night to two in the morning. Being a Knott’s Scary Farm first-timer, I approached the front gate, certain that nothing would alarm me. I left utterly impressed with how frightening the park was, feeling as though I just walked through my own worst nightmare.
My group of friends and I anticipated the night ahead with so much excitement that we arrived at the gates an hour and a half early. Although this meant a lot of waiting time, it put us at the front of a line that ended up being hundreds of people long. As we waited, we witnessed Knott’s Scary Farm come to life. Once the sun went down, fog crept to every corner of the park. In addition, red, green and blue lights shone from the top of buildings and reflected onto the park grounds.
The monsters roaming the park happened to be one of the most frightening parts of the park, When the park first opened, they went sprinting through crowds of people, pushing them every which way. Going from one ride to the next, we faced a number of clowns, zombies, witches and other scary characters, having to constantly check around us to see who might be planning a scary attack. Without these scary figures, the park would not have been nearly as terrifying. The monsters kept us on our toes, worrying for what might come our way.
The most well-known element of Knott’s Scary Farm is their selection of mazes. After experiencing the thrill of a few, there is no doubt that these mazes live up to their legacy. Due to the length of lines, we unfortunately only went through two mazes: ¨Pumpkin Eater¨ and ¨Red Barn.¨ What was most interesting about these two mazes was that they were both able to haunt me in two completely different ways.
¨Pumpkin Eater¨ is a maze based on a pumpkin creature who is ¨on the prowl hidden within the dark confines of the haunted town he once terrorized¨ according to Knott’s Scary Farm’s ¨Pumpkin Eater¨ description. As I went through the maze, I found myself trapped in extremely tight hallways surrounded by freaky creatures scaring me whenever they could. Hanging from the ceilings were several different ropes, and fabrics were used to block the eyesight of the people walking through the maze, making it hard to see where creatures were approaching from. The tight spaces, flashing lights and hidden creatures terrified me as I made my way through, not knowing what would be behind the next wall. Although the maze lasted less than two minutes, it left an image in my mind that will last for much longer.
The second maze we went through, ¨Red Barn,” provided a much more gruesome experience. As we waited in line, a man named ¨Church Chainsaw¨ spoke to the guests entering the maze. Chainsaw said to the crowds that ¨we keep it real here at the Red Barn.¨ It took over an hour to get into the maze, but once we did, we understood why the wait was so long. Fake dead cows, chickens and pigs filled the interior, with fake blood covering the walls. The maze frightened me in a way that ¨Pumpkin Eater¨ could not, evoking several different emotions that Pumpkin Eater didn’t. The sights I saw inside ¨Red Barn¨ left me with a pit in my stomach, making me feel sick. Although I knew the animals blood and sharp tools were fake, facing them made me feel unsettled and fearful. The time spent in ¨Red Barn¨ left me more terrified than most other past real-life experiences. It was no lie when Church Chainsaw said that the ¨Red Barn¨ kept it real.
Although Knott’s Scary Farm focuses on the mazes and scary monsters, the traditional roller coasters helped make the experience more fulfilling. Throughout the night, we rode Ghost Rider, Xcellerator, Montezuma’s Revenge and Supreme Scream. Due to lengthy wait times, we didn’t make it onto other rides we wished to have gone on, a few of those being Silver Bullet, Hangtime and Jaguar. Overall, it was a great experience to ride such thrilling roller coasters with such great company. Knott’s Scary Farm, a place full of frights and fear, is the perfect spot to fulfill your Halloween cravings. This being my first time going to the Scary Farm, there is no doubt I will return to the park next year when Halloween comes around. As long as one is up for the scare, there is no reason not to check out the scene.