Scare Zones Reviewed

Final Thoughts

Knott's Scary Farm for 2014 runs from September 25, 2014 to November 1, 2014. We had the pleasure to attend on opening day as part of the media event. For transparency purposes, we were given complimentary parking, theme park entry, and fright lane with skeleton key.When we arrived and went into the park, there was a short introduction to the event. It started out with a witch talking to the crowd and then some of the monsters throwing stuff into the crowd. Then the introduction of Special Ops Infected took effect and they even had a helicopter fly and hover over Knotts Scary Farm. It remained there while the spiel rolled through and left on queue. That was a very interesting thing to see. We don't know if this will happening every night of Haunt or if it was just for the grand opening.After that, we made our way through Ghost Town, with sunlight still visible, the true Haunt mood had not set in. We did encounter a couple of monsters on the way there. Needless to say, the makeup artists did an excellent job with them! We decided to skip Ghostrider since everyone was mobbing the entrance. There was also a lot of foot traffic to the mazes behind Ghostrider and instead we opted to go to the back of the theme park.While roaming around, my friend Diana was ambushed by one of the Ghost Town monsters. At first there was the scream of fright which quickly turned into never ending laughter. The monster kept on trying to scare her but failed. It was very fun to watch yet at the same time while watching her get the run around, I was looking over my shoulder to not have the same thing happen.After that we encountered Calico Mine Ride which is renamed to Witch's Keep. There is a cool lighting effect on it where it turns from the typical red-orange color and then white light strobes on and off turning the color into a cool zombie green color. We got that on camera and the video is below!We then decided to give Timber Mountain Log Ride a quick ride. There was no one in line and assumed that the interior of the attraction would have been themed to Haunt. We were mistaken and it was just the regular Timber Mountain Log Ride that's regular opened year round. We then headed for the first maze we would do and it was Black Magic.The line was short since it was at the back of the park behind Xcelerator. I thought there was a skeleton key room for this maze but we did not see it. I don't know if the attendant just ignored us when showing the skeleton key or if there really was no skeleton key room. (The skeleton key thing we had says there is a Skeleton Key room, we did not get to go through it...) We proceeded to go through the maze and there was very good attention to detail. The lightning, mood and sounds were just perfect. The birdman character in there was creepy with his crow like beak and his curly hair. The hatchet wielded rabbit was a thrill to watch.After that maze we took a ride on Xcelerator. It was a walk on ride since everyone detoured right into Ghostrider and the mazes at the front of the park. We rode it and the negative g's on it were very nice! We considered riding it again since the lines were empty but opted of going for the mazes instead.We waddled our way over to Pinocchio Unstrung. The line was quite long for this but since we had fright lane and skeleton key, we just skipped right to the front and went right on it! Now, since it was skeleton key, we had to wait for the group that was already inside to finish up. It takes about 10-15 minutes for the skeleton key room from start to finish and this one was our favorite one. My friend got strung up like a puppet throughout the show. It was hilarious in there. Though she did not find it so funny when Pinocchio wanted her skinAfter the skeleton key room, we made our way through the maze and this one was one of the best thought out mazes. The theming was superior in every way to Black Magic and the interaction with the monsters was spot on. We really enjoyed this maze. There was ΓÇ£little peopleΓÇ¥ in it!Once we exited Pinocchio Unstrung, we headed towards ForeverMore. This is themed to the Raven of Edgar Allen Poe. This is the type of maze that you want to take your time to go through it. There is so much to see in it. If you go through it too fast, you will miss a lot of the fine details that were added to the various walls in there. The lighting in there is not as dark as Pinocchio and I believe that is on purpose so you can see the detail put into it. There's a room where a bunch of ravens are all over the wall. This was a very cool maze and the monsters in there were sporting raven type costumes and were definitely creepy and scary! We bumped into one going around the corner and the scare was very real! There is also a van in there which would be perfect for the ongoing White Van Adventures we talk about a lot on here but sadly it was painted blue for this occasion. For those of you who don't know about White Van Adventures, consider yourself lucky. Fortunately it turned to laughter really fastOnce we went through ForeverMore we decided to go on over to The Hanging stage. We accidentally came to it actually as it was barely getting started when we came across it. We didn't use our priority seating for it and I regret it now but we had a good view and the audio was crisp clear as we were standing right by the train tracks and can hear it clearly. The contents of the show is definitely tailored for those aged 18 and up. It was full of adult themes. It was certainly funny and there were many guest appearance. The individual that gets the hanging was certainly a pleasure. We wont reveal who gets hanged as this is something you have to experience yourself. We did feel the show ran a bit too long. While the jokes were good throughout, it did start to become not funny 20 minutes into it. My friend started getting annoyed and we decided to move on to the mazes located by Ghostrider. But we did see who got hanged as we came back around for the second or third show I believe and saw the second half of thatOnto the mazes! Our next one was Trick or Treat. The line for this one just about reached the exit of Ghostrider. It was extremely long and I estimate at least an hour, if not more for the wait. Yes, it was that long! We had Fright Lane passes and we made our way to the front of line where we were let right on in. No wait what so ever. I can't state how necessary the Fright Lane is! You must get it if you go! So, we go into the maze and at first we were a bit confused. I think the doorguy said something and we couldn't hear clearly and that's what confused us. Once in there you're in the first room and there was like 3 monsters, all of which didn't seem to notice us as 1 just stood at a doorway looking to the left towards the door we went in and the other one walked just by us with no attempt to scare. We went through the maze and I'd say it was just Ok. It wasn't over the top like ForeverMore or Pinocchio Unstrung. When we finished it were were like, "that's it?" And yes it was. After that we went on over to Voodoo!Voodoo is one of the new mazes this year. There was a wait for us on this one, I would say about half hour since this one had a skeleton key room and there was about 12 to 15 people ahead of us. The skeleton key room there's a voodoo lady that says you need zombie dust to protect yourself from the evil spells of the protagonist in the maze. However, the dust is not free and to get it you have to go into the coffins and then there is some sound and light effects. Afterward the back side of the coffin open and you step on out to go through the maze. When the backside opened, all of us just stuck our heads out taking to look to the left and right and then cracked out laughing because we felt like were about to get a big scare coming right out of it. Once you get out the coffin you go through the maze and there are 2 routes. Using the skeleton key, you need not get in line again, you simply go back to the front and tell the attendant you're going for the alternate route and they let you right on it. We decided to not give the second route a try as we were running short on time for the rest of the attractions. This new maze was very well planned. The theme in it was very good. The were many monsters inside and the attention to detail was immaculate. I think they could have done with the small amount of gravel in the pathway. I was actually slipping on it and was more worried about sliding and falling at that point that paying attention to the details of the surroundings. It's just a small section with the gravel on the floor so I wouldn't mark this maze down for that. Voodoo is an excellent maze and if you have to prioritize what you go through, make sure to put Voodoo high up on your must visit mazes. The swamp and openness of it makes it one of the bets mazes this year at Knotts Scary Farm. You could really appreciate the view in there.After that we went onto Dominion of the Damned. The skeleton key room was rather disappointing on this one. Particularly because it was hard to understand what the monster was saying. We got offered what I assume was crickets to eat and then my friend stuck her hand in a bucket to pull out what was a wet heart and she threw it at the heads for them to eat. We then for a blast of water in the face which was unexpected a too strong in pressure. Turn down the pressure or mist it out more so it doesn't blind you when it hits your eyes. I was upset at that and so was my friend. We then proceeded through the maze and just as the skeleton key room, it wasn't all that great. We were just glad to go through it and come out to the next maze, The Tooth Fairy.In The Tooth Fairy you go through decades of dentistry. I believe the rooms are themed from the 70's to the 90;s showing different apparatus used in those decades. There was teeth all over and it was neat to touch the various stuff around. Sure, everything is screwed down but nonetheless fun to touch and interact with. There was pots of bloody coins through some of the sections which really heightened the Tooth Fairy factor. The creepy dentists with the rusty pliers were at every corner attempting to pull your teeth to add them to the maze. This was a top notch maze that we too recommend you put up high on your priority list when you attend the event.Last but not least we visited the Gunslingers Grave maze. There is a skeleton key room here and groups of up to 6 at a time can go into it. Needless to say, the room is quite small so that is why so few skeleton key people can go into it at once. Despite the wait, I dare say this was one of the best skeleton key rooms of the night. The characters were in the zone. Meaning they were in full character and did not appear distracted at all. Some of the other skeleton key rooms the characters were a bit unconvincing. These were very good and you were well involved in it. I wont give details of it but the fun starts from even before you get into the skeleton key room! After the skeleton key room you go through the maze and it was well laid out with lots of plastic chains through sliding across your face. Just don't follow too closely to the person in front of you or you might get the backlash of one of them. They're featherweight so they don't hurt but still, something to keep in mind. There's various Gunslingers throughout the maze doing a superb job at scaring the maze walkers! I think many people will miss this maze as is between Silver Bullet and Camp Snoopy. We walked through there several times and didn't notice it until we looked at the map to see what mazes we had not done. Then we noticed and went looking for it. I think the person holding the Gunslinger maze sign might need a light or something on it as we couldn't really see them till we were up close.Somewhere along the night we took a ride on the Witch's Keep. The outside theme was great, we particularly enjoyed when it switched from the red/orange color into the zombie green one. That was really neat and entertaining to watch happen. Witch's Keep broke down while we were on it so the lights inside came on and there was no AC. If there was, you couldn't feel it. It was very warm and we waited for about 10 to 15 minutes for them to get things going again. They did a good job at theming the inside of it.We rode a couple of the roller coasters. We rode Xcelerator, Silver Bullet, Ghostrider. The lines were minimal for the roller coasters. Only Ghostrider had somewhat of a line bit even that it did not exceed more than 30 minutes.We visited several of the scare zones. The first one we went through was Ghost Town Scare Zone. There was a lot of fog in here which added to the mood but in terms of monsters, there were few. However, the one monster we did encounter did give us the run around and chased us a bit. That was really fun. We went through back a couple of times to see if we would find more monsters but we really did not find much. We did see a couple more later on in the night but they weren't really into the scaring people mood. They either just kept on walking as if they were going somewhere they had been told to go. Not many monsters were around for the purpose of scaring people. Either we had bad luck finding them or simply there weren't enough in the area for us to truly say there were many. Yes, at the start of the day there were plenty but as the night progressed, that number quickly fell.We went on over to the CarnEVIL scare zone expecting to see a bunch of crazed clowns running around scaring people. We were let down here as well as we did see some clowns but they were just walking in a group talking to each other. We were disappointed to find out that the clowns were not running around with their chainsaws this year. I don't know if that was planned or if the clowns simply forgot to bring them out. We did see a clown or 2 actually trying to scare people, but mostly, they were grouped up and not doing much of scaring.In the Fiesta de los Muertos scare zone we had a much better experience. Here we did see a bunch of┬¡ monsters running around walking up to the people right into their faces and scaring them. If you were standing distracted watching one of the many carnival games in the zone, you would end up getting stalked by one of the monsters and when you turned around, you would find him/her right in your face and get a good doze of fright. We were surrounded by many monsters at once time and even cornered us. It was very fun and entertaining. The individuals who were in charge of this scare zone really did an amazing job at making sure the monsters were doing their work, scaring people! That was the best scare zone in the park on opening night.The Gypsy Camp scarezone was really not a scare zone at all. I didn't see any monsters trying to scare people. I did see the gypsy tents where you could go in and have the tarot cards read to you. We decided to pass this up since we saw the facial expressions of the people coming out of them and they look disappointed instead of intrigued or some other emotion.At around 8:30 we went to the Special Ops Infected and had our go through it. This is definitely recommended that you get your ticket early on. There's 2 sides to it A and B, our ticket was for B and we went at the stated time. At first, you are given instructions on what's going on. There's a zombie infection in place and you have to get to point B for safety. You have 2 military escorts one in the front and one in the back. The whole section of Camp Snoopy is closed off for this. You run through the area shooting at zombies with the gun you are given at the start. Mine was semi broken as it would sometimes shoot and other times it would not work. The guy had to get fix it 2-3 times while we went through it and was not pleased with that. It impacted the focused mindset. This was very interactive as often times we would have to push the buttons to set off the explosions at the bridges and we also had to run around to the downed helicopter to retrieve a code to open the exit door. There many zombies to shoot at. My recommendation if to stay up front of the group as you will be able to shoot at many more zombies than if you are in the back. I guess they try and compensate for that by giving the people in the back more hands on stuff to do (pushing buttons to blow up the bridge, searching the downed helicopter for the access codes, etc.). They take a group picture at the end for which they give you a ticket to get the picture later. We forgot to come back to see it but nonetheless, we did take pictures ourselves with our camera and we're satisfied with that.We did not attend the new show, Elvira's Big Top. We simply did not have enough time to get to it despite having Fright Lane and Skeleton Key. Therefore, we make the recommendation to attend this event 2 nights in order to go through everything. The lighting in the park was well done. Many of the ScareZones lacked scares, Fiesta Village was well done in terms of scares and in appearance and mood, Ghost Town took the cake but there was a lack of monsters there. Gypsy Camp was just a walk through section to the mazes behind Ghost Rider. I wasn't too wired about that scare zone since I think many people just assumed it was open space to go on to the mazes in the back.Would I recommend you come to Knotts Scary Farm and if I feel the cost of entry is worth it? I would say Yes without a doubt. It was a very fun experience. We did have our scares in the night and overall it was fun and entertaining. Many mazes were very well done and the Special Ops Infected was a real blast for us.From our experience, you will want to pick up the Fright Lane and the Skeleton Key. You will definitely find Fright Lane to be necessary and the Skeleton Key will only make the mazes a better experience overall. So far, Knott's Scary Farm has been the best Haunt attraction we've seen this year. There were many great things about it and some things need adjustment, but overall it was an excellent job and worth every penny it costs to get in.We'd like to thank Knotts and particularly their marketing dept for getting us complimentary entry as mentioned at the start of this article. The did an amazing job at hosting us with tons of good food and drinks. Knotts Scary Farm is an experience everyone should have!