Knott’s Scary Farm is a spooky version of Knott’s Berry Farm, and it includes all the rides plus mazes and the scary actors that roam around the park to scare the guests. It is a much debated topic as to whether Knott’s Scary Farm is truly scary, but it depends on the person and the tolerance to horror visuals.
Knott’s Scary Farm is a seasonal event that begins on Sep. 21 and lasts for select nights until Halloween. The event begins at 7 p.m and ends roughly at 2 a.m.
To get into the park itself, many guards surround the area checking to see if any minors are trying to get in without a chaperone. Knott’s has a policy that if a person is 15 years old or younger they must be accompanied by someone who is at least 21 years of age.
Once you enter the park it is already dark and the entrance is filled with scary actors ready to frighten you. Smoke fills the air and makes it very difficult to decipher who is an actor and regular civilian.
A woman who was there with her husband said, “I was so paranoid entering the park because I knew that a clown or scary figure of some sort would come out of nowhere, either popping out of a trash can or following behind me ready for me to look backwards.”
Entering the park to the left is an area called Ghost Town. In this area of the park it is very eerie and dark, there is very little light available for guidance and many high trees that surround it. The mazes at the end of this area are “Wax Works,” “Bloodline,” “The Depths,” “The Grimoire,” and more.
Mazes in Knott’s Scary Farm are not the typical mazes where the person must find their way out of the course. Instead, there is a set path that people must walk through, and in the building there are many props and machines that fit the theme of the maze. The machines and the scare actors look very similar so it is very hard to tell the difference.
A teenager said, “The actors get very close to your face and usually yell or growl at you, to be honest it gets really frightening when their makeup looks so realistic to an actual monster.”
The scare actors are not allowed to physically touch the guests but they are free to get as close to a person as possible. They can also chase you around and some of the actors have props like spark shoes that spark when they glide on the ground or even scythes and staffs.
The area in front of the Supreme Scream roller coaster where a lot of carnival games are located is called “Clown Town.” It is filled with a bunch of different looking clowns, and they go near you and target small groups to scare. Some actors will walk past a person, making them think they are ignored, but will proceed to pounce on them and have honkers or props that make loud noises.
Many people have different mindsets when coming into the Knott’s Scary Farm park. Some will find the actors to be fascinating but not scary and some will go crazy and get frightened.
A worker advises, “Do not show fear to the scary actors because they will use it against you.”
Knott’s Scary Farm can be very scary, but factors like the age of a person or their endurance to jumpscares are a big factor as to whether this park is really scary.
