By Charly SHELTON

As the veil of darkness descends upon Knott’s Berry Farm and the fog rises in the air, monsters creep from their daytime hiding places and embrace the night. Knott’s Scary Farm is here. And the iconic haunt has pulled out all the stops to mark its 50th anniversary.

This year featured three new mazes, a new scare zone, and three new shows, alongside a returning slate of mazes and scare zones.

“Room 13” takes guests into the Prohibition era club, The Blind Tiger, after a slew of murders take place in connection with a mysterious new cocktail, The Devil’s Elixir. The mayhem then extends into the Argive Hotel, as more and more gruesome repercussions of the drink take hold. What’s really fun about this maze is that The Devil’s Elixir is a real cocktail that’s served in the park, so guests can get a drink after the maze and see what all the fuss is about.

Another new maze is “Cinema Slasher,” in which guests enter The Midnight Theater and walk through the silver screen, into a trilogy of slasher movies. This one feels like a take-off of any given Halloween Horror Nights maze from Universal Studios Hollywood, but with a generic horror style to each film. It was an enjoyable maze, but honestly the grand finale really was the best part of the maze with one of the coolest monsters in years.

Each of these mazes were a lot of fun and good additions to the lineup. And the new scare zone is actually a reimagining of a fan-favorite scare zone, “The Gauntlet,” in which monster versions of Dungeons-and-Dragons-esque fantasy characters stalk the fog in Camp Snoopy.

But the highlight of the night, and indeed the star of the show, was the new/old maze, “The Chilling Chambers.” This new maze is a soft reboot of a past maze from 1973, “10 Chilling Chambers” – the very first maze in the haunt’s storied history. The Keeper welcomes all of us “Fringies” to his haunt that pays homage to some of the greatest mazes from the last 50 years. At one point, guests literally walk through a graveyard where each headstone marks a notable maze from the last few decades, and guests cry out to point at their favorite mazes as the memories are drawn from their minds like a ghost dragged from a grave. It was nice to relive some of those best-ofs, and the maze itself is fun even for those neophytes who don’t study the haunt’s history.

Knott’s Scary Farm is arguably the king of theme park haunts, and this year’s 50^th anniversary celebration serves as a testament to that reputation. The event is a grand blowout, filled with terror, laughter, and a sense of camaraderie among fellow haunt lovers. It really felt like a homecoming in a way, with lots of knowing nods when two guests get excited over the same nostalgic touch in a maze or scare zone. It was nice to be among so many like-minded haunt enthusiasts, many of whom I didn’t know before the event.

Another wonderful homecoming is for The Hanging, which was originally cancelled in 2019. “The Hanging: Uncancelled” was a triumphant return that was just as irreverent and hilarious as ever, and not afraid to call out those responsible for the problems of today. For a year full of classic haunt fans, this was the best crowd for The Hanging to be unleashed upon once more.

In addition to these highlights, the event is as fun as ever with a slew of returning mazes including “Bloodline 1842,” “Origins: The Curse of Calico,” “Wax Works,” and “The Depths,” among several others. Unlike other haunts that do a new slate of mazes every year, Knott’s keeps each maze for several years, allowing repeat guests to become attached to them and their characters. Hence the dose of nostalgia at seeing some old favorites return in “The Chilling Chambers.”

Overall, Knott’s Scary Farm’s 50^th anniversary celebration is a year to remember. With its perfect blend of new and nostalgic, they managed to capture the essence of what makes this haunt an industry legend. And it makes us all look forward to the next 50 years of fog. For more information and for tickets, visit KnottsScaryFarm.com.

  Charly Shelton, Halloween, Haunt, Horror, Knott’s Berry Farm, Knott’s Scary Farm, Knotts