Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Knott's Scary Farm 2018

I love Knott's, but I've never understood all the love for The Hanging. I've never thought it was a good show. A few good moments here and there, but as a whole... it's usually pretty terrible to me.

That said, it's got to be hard to write for. Topical, edgy humor is never as easy to make work as it sounds. Ask SNL.

In any case, I'll be going Saturday after skipping last year (I typically do Knott's every other year, so I can get a lot of new mazes all at once), so I'm very excited to finally see Dark Ride. :D
 
Decided to give the videos a watch, will only comment on the new things. Again, these are on the videos and not based on actually being there:

- The Depths looks like your typical KSF maze. The set design is elaborate and detailed BUT doesn't look realistic. Has all those round edges like you're walking through a cartoon instead of a real place. I don't know what that's called, as I'm not an artist, but this is the one thing that takes me out of the element in every KSF maze. [Disney does these on purpose in something like ToonTown, but can also provide a realism aesthetic for their more grown up fare, while Universal mostly employs this, even on stuff like the Despicable Me zone.] Also, it seems low on scares, but provides a great environment and mood. I guess that's the shame, for me, is they have all this dread and dark tone to work with and it's simply just people shouting in corners or in very noticeable hiding spots slamming their hands against the wall. A couple cool puppets but again, like every KSF maze, gets super random and far beyond unrealistic by the time you reach the climax of the maze. I just feel like the creators have no restraint, which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending how far they go.
B-

- Dark Entities looks AMAZING, definitely one of the absolute best mazes they've ever done, probably in the top 5 for me, I just love aliens and stuff like that. The sets look far more in the tone of realism and there's freakin' robots, man, what's not to love? The lighting in this house is bar none the best work they've ever done, that's for sure, and fully immerses you into the scare. The monsters look a little stupid, but oh well, what are ya gonna do, at least they finally got some realistic look dead mannequins. Also looks like there's a lot of interactive elements that play on your senses and some creative scares. Everyone in the maze seems to be providing something towards the story and the finale doesn't go too overboard. However, I do wish the finale room and climax had a bigger "oh crap" moment. It resorts to the "giant thing coming at you" that a lot of KSF mazes employ. I gotta say I'm very impressed with that one and can't wait to go through it next year.
A+

- Paranormal Inc's new ending looks like it starts off promising but then it does nothing with that premise at all and just resorts to the ending it always had. I think I prefer the old ending from a scary standpoint, BUT I do like this one more from a storytelling standpoint. It's a toss up. I do want to comment that this maze is still rocking after all these years and I find that to be pretty amazing. Usually there's a lot of stuff broken or getting lazy with by now, but they're still all playing their part to make this a great maze. Maybe they could be more aggressive, it also was the first night, so who knows, but this is still way better at this many years in than it has any right to be! I think this has one more year left in it.
A-

- Shadowlands' new opening scene is preferable, in my opinion. I never thought the pre-shows worked and I'd rather it just get started and I think the new room is pretty beautiful. The rest of the maze still looks in top form, although I think this should probably be it's last year as something about it seems a bit more tired than usual. It's not something they could easily rebrand, like Paranormal Inc could easily be something different, but this will always be Shadowlands.
B

- The Red Barn... *sigh*, ya know I do like the new barker out front, good idea. It doesn't add much, but at least it's something. The rest... WHY OH WHY is this still around? It was garbage the first year and still is. Didn't see much that was new. Heard a few reports saying it looked unfinished... uh, no, this is how this maze has always been, just pure junk. Boring, bland, derivative, unscary and tiresome with an annoying soundtrack and annoying characters. Nobody has liked this maze, ever. So how has it even lasted 3 years? They should've buried it deep after year one and pretended it never happened like a few other KSF mazes. It's so sad that they keep this up, too, each year trying to give it new life of some sort. JUST STOP!
F

- Special Ops' new ending is pretty underwhelming. There isn't much to get excited about, unfortunately. However, the experience as a whole is still pretty cool and novel. I still say this is the most fun you'll probably ever have at a Haunt. And it looks like there's more zombies than ever. This needs to be rebranded completely. I definitely want the idea to stay, but the maze needs to go next year.
B+

- Trick or Treat was supposed to have new scares triggered by the light? Didn't see any. Look, I loved this maze when it debuted so many years ago, but this is now ridiculous. It's the same maze, and the flashlight gimmick is fun and all, but just end it. I feel like every year it just gets further and further away from it's original point of the whole Green Witch and Tricksters stuff also. I'll be sad to see it go, but it's time.
C

From what I can tell, they have better maze signs this year to tell you where the line starts AND how long the line is. How accurate that is is probably a whole different story but I'm glad to see they're trying.

Overall, I'm not too sad not to go this year. Looks like the same thing. One really good new maze, one super overrated new maze, last year's new mazes still good but not quite as good as before, some great classics, some old classics dwindling into sadness, and some old crappy mazes that just keep coming back -- this is the same thing year after year. For $42, you'll definitely get your money's worth especially if you hit some rides, but man, KSF sure needs to change things up.
 
I stopped by last night from 10:30pm-1:00am.
It was basically dead. The crowd was already thin at 10:30pm when I came in, but by 12am, it was dead.
I had a 5-15 minute wait for every maze I did: The Depths, Dark Entities, Pumpkin Eater and Dark Ride.
I also did Log Ride in 15 minutes too.
It was awesome.

Here's my review:

The Depths - Top notch-effects. The water effect was especially amazing, but the Octopus, Shark and the shaking ship was great. But this maze isn't particularly scary. The actors just lke to stand around. Rating: 4/5

Dark Entities - Production value was great. The scares were there. It was intense. 4.5/5

Pumpkin Eater - Holy crap, I didn't remember this maze being that scary last year. A combination of the scareactors, scenery and the narrowness of the maze makes it the best. I was screaming all the way through, and I was truly scared. 5/5

Dark Ride - Maybe it was the end of the night, but there were no scareactors in the maze. And it wasn't as great as I remembered it was from last year. Also, the maze seems like it got wider, like it was less tight and more space in the walkway. I don't know. Last year was a 4.5/5 but this year, it's just a 3.5/5...Maybe it was just the time that I went through it.

Log Ride - Almost the same as last year. But there was no scareactors. But that might be because it was the end of the night. 4/5

I'm coming back tonight!!
 
Last edited:
I went Saturday night with HorrorBuzz. I didn't go last year (I usually got every other year, so I can get more new mazes), so Dark Ride and Pumpkineater were totally new to me. With their Fast Line, we did every maze (except Special Ops) at least twice. As a general whole, I liked Knott's better than HHN this year, but they both have their problems.

Don't want to do a maze by maze review (there's a lot of those out there already), but some general opinions:
  • The Depths has those 3 amazing rooms (water, octopus, shaking ship)... but I feel like if you took those away, it'd mostly be rocks and plants--nothing special. I can see why people do love it, because those rooms totally stand out. I've never heard so many constant screams in one room before, it was great! But the rest of the maze... actually kinda meh. Also, we're in a cave with miners, but we're also underwater? I'm so confused.
  • I know many are going to disagree with me, but I liked Dark Entities. Hear me out! I liked it because it was funny, campy, and gory, and it actually worked on all those levels (but mainly the first two). Seems like a bit of a dig at Disney's Star Tour queue robots. When viewed in that light, I think people would enjoy it much more. If you are looking for a "scary" maze, then yes, this would not be the maze you're looking for.
  • I don't like video games or shooting games, so Special Ops has always been an amusing anecdote to me. I did actually enjoy myself much more on it this year. And they are really trying to get people through it much faster... which is great when you're standing in line for it and it's actually moving relatively quickly, but kinda bad when you're going through the maze and you're rushed so much you don't really to get look at any of the theming or set design. Like, I didn't even get to check my score at the end because they had me turn in my gun so fast.
  • I'd never done Dark Ride before, and it was my favorite of the night by far. Also enjoyed Pumpkineater, Shadowlands, Trick or Treat: Lights Out (though I prefer the original version... but I understand they need to find ways to "freshen" it up), and loved the new ending on Paranormal, Inc. I only wish the hallway would switch a bit faster.
  • Log Ride, while devoid of actors, was still fun. Again, more campy than scary. Also liked the artwork on display in the Nautilus store. Didn't get to see any shows.
  • Shock of all shocks, but on my first run of the night, I actually had a good time in Red Barn. Admittedly, on the second run, not nearly as much.
Which leads me to my still biggest complaint about KSF... the scareactors in the mazes are super inconsistent. They were much better in delivery and execution... when they were there. As I mentioned, we did pretty much every maze twice (a few three times), and after a lot of great experiences early on, as the night wore on, we'd notice many scareactor positions would disappear, leaving many mazes feeling empty. I always feel your maze experience at KSF can really vary depending on what scaractors are actually on at that moment. You can have either a great or disappointing experience in the same maze, because we had one of each in nearly all mazes.

I think you could argue Knott's has better sets (certainly more original, since practically everything they manufacture is in-house), no black walls, tiling rooms and vibrating floors (they did seem to love that effect this year), smoke coming from the floors, original and interesting concepts, and a great variety of scareactor hiding spots and scares (bungee jumpers, actors above you floating on harnesses, enormous puppets in your personal space, and coming from below in The Depths). Not to mention better immersion with their Scarezones throughout essentially the entire park. And there's still nothing quite like seeing all the amazing sliders emerging from the dense fog, and seeing sparks fly from their feet and knees. The totality of all that outweighs the negatives of the scareactors in the mazes. If I had a visiting friend that only had one night for a haunt, I'd likely tell them to visit Knott's more than HHN.

The biggest negative for Knott's is actually the biggest strength for HHN. Say what you will about black walls and repetitive scares... the scareactors are nearly always there, and always delivering at full force. It's a very consistent experience, comparatively. Also, the HHN sets (when it's not black walls) have a more authentic, gritty, and realistic feel to them--like it could actually be happening to you--while Knott's seems a bit more like a horror comic book (not a bad thing, necessarily)--where you feel more like a visitor to a fantastic alternate universe. I think it's one of the reasons the two events play off each other.

Also, it was interesting noticing the overall demographics of each crowd... KSF definitely skewed more to the teenagers, while HHN seems to be more college and up. Perhaps cost is a factor here?
 
Alright, so here's my thoughts from last night!

So, last night I got through all 9 mazes and 3 rides. So, I call it a success. Longest we waited was an hour for Hangtime. I did check times on the sign or app and timed how long the line took. I'll be going through everything in the order that I went through.

The Depths, Time on Sign: 5 Minutes, Actual Time: Walk On
I went on it the night before, and I like it just as much as the first time. Even though we went in at opening, it wasn't a different experience than at 10pm from the night before. So you don't have to worry about light ruining the maze. The water effect is the coolest thing ever and one of the scareactors hid under the "water" and popped out and it was probably one of the best scares I've ever gotten. This maze gets 5/5 for effects.
Overall score: 4.5/5

Dark Entities, Time on Sign: 5 Minutes, Actual Time: Walk On
I still wish they had a better facade for this maze. But the inside looks great. A small thing that I like is the dead body on the wall that looks like the scareactor in that room. The guy does a great job as an alien taking the form of it's dead victim. This maze was kinda low on scares, though.
Overall score: 4/5

Paranormal Inc, Time on Sign: 30 Minutes, Actual Time: 15 Minutes
The shorter intro was a little jarring. The guy on the screen gets mad for no reason and activates the ghost summoning thing when last year he got mad because it wasn't working right away, which made sense. I was with a first timer and he audibly screamed when the ghost girl flew. The claustrophobia bags are still the coolest things and it's even better when you go from complete darkness into the new ending. Wow, that new ending. Going through a time slip and ending up in the hospital during it's time is great. And then the hallway changing was actually scary because it was just me by myself in the hallway.
Overall score: 5/5

Special Ops: Infected, Time on Sign: 60 Minutes, Actual Time: 30 Minutes
This is still a really cool concept, and I appreciate that, but maybe they should keep the concept but put it in a new maze. The zombies kinda sucked. And it felt like we went through it a lot faster than last year. I didn't get a score on my gun, so I couldn't compare with my friends.
Overall score: 3/5

Hangtime, Time on Sign: 40 Minutes, Actual Time: 60 Minutes
Still my favorite roller coaster ever. Totally worth the wait.

Pumpkin Eater, Time on Sign: 15 Minutes, Actual Time: 5 Minutes
Such a great maze. The scares were all there. The narrowness of the maze makes it so much scarier. For some reason, this maze went over my radar last year. I only did it once and didn't think much of it. But this year, it's so good and scary. The new big pumpkin head actually got me. But the maze also feels like it needs a big moment.
Overall score: 4.5/5

Dark Ride, Time on Sign: 30 Minutes, Actual Time: 15 Minutes
Just like the night before, I surprised that I wasn't satisfied with it. I loved it last year. This year it was lackluster to me. There were like 10 scareactors total when there should have 20. Maybe it's because it's the first weekend. It wasn't scary and it wasn't impressive like it was last year. It was also unchanged, maybe they should have added some new things to it.
Overall score: 3.5/5

Shadowlands, Time on Sign: 30 Minutes, Actual Time: 20 Minutes
This may be the unpopular opinion, but I like it better without the showroom in the beginning. The bush/tree monster gets me every time. I still love this maze just as much as I did last year (I did it 6 times last year). I did get scared quite a few times. This should have gotten a new ending though.
Overall score: 4/5

Log Ride, Time on Sign: 45 Minutes, Actual Time: 15 Minutes
I'm still disappointed that there were no monsters (would be a 4/5 with monsters). But the ride itself is a classic and the halloween overlay makes it better.
Overall score: 3.5/5

Red Barn, Time on Sign: 15 Minutes, Actual Time: Walk On
Last year, this was my least favorite maze. This year, I was surprised that I liked it just the tiniest bit. Even though the beginning looks like crap compared to last year. I actually got scared a few times. And it's not as bad as I remembered. The horse is really cool, and I don't think it moved last year but this year it does. Don't get me wrong, the maze still sucks and should have been replaced this year, but at least I got some kind of kick out of it this year.
Overall score: 2.5/5

Silver Bullet, Time on Sign: 20 Minutes, Actual Time: 15 Minutes
I've never ridden it at night, so it was cool. Also seeing the lighting for Forsaken Lake below was cool.

Trick Or Treat, Time on Sign: 60 Minutes, Actual Time: 35 Minutes
Still the longest maze wait-time throughout the entire night. I saw a video on Youtube of a lights-on tour of the maze and the guy was pointing out all the things your flashlight could trigger. Literally only one of them worked for me. All the other flashlight triggered events didn't work for me. This maze is so detailed and has great set design. But it's old now, and needs to be replaced by something of equal quality.
Overall score: 3.5/5

My only complaint is the lack of scareactors both in maze and scarezones. Maybe that's because it's only the first weekend. I'm sure they'll bring in more talent on the busier nights. The first weekend wasn't busy at all, and I'm actually surprised that I did all the mazes and three rides on top of that in one night.

I can't wait to come back next weekend!
 
The biggest negative for Knott's is actually the biggest strength for HHN. Say what you will about black walls and repetitive scares... the scareactors are nearly always there, and always delivering at full force. It's a very consistent experience, comparatively.
I've been saying this for yeeeeears!!! Someone 10 people behind you in a KSF maze could have an entirely different experience, either good or bad, saying it was full of monsters or empty. At HHN, either you miss the intended scare or you get it, there is very little variables. Personally, for me, that's why I love HHN so much more. I could judge it objectively based on what is exactly present. Someone could say a KSF maze is the best of all time, while I could say it's the worst, and we'd both be right. The only thing at HHN that'll maybe change the variation in response is your personal scare bias and subjectivity to what type of scares work on you. But either way, you are going to get the intended experience, hopefully you don't go in the room too soon or too late. I still get scared at HHN even if the scare comes out maybe 2 people ahead or behind me (if it's single file) -- anymore than that, you can at least appreciate what you know the scare meant to do (unless you miss it entirely, which is maybe only 15% of the time if you're going too fast). I can also always go online and watch videos to see the scares or if I missed any.
I guess KSF is very much like live-theatre, while HHN is a live-movie. And that's very fitting considering USH's goal is for you to "ride the movies."
 
Has anyone seen the new Hacks show that replaced Elvira? I am going to the event tomorrow and want to know if it is worth watching.
 
So here are my thoughts:


Special Ops: Infected
As usual this is more fun than scary. I think it's unique and throws some diversity in the lineup, but could probably be abandoned after this year.
Overall B-

Red Barn
Better than last year, felt like actors actually understood the story. It's still painfully derivative of the TCM and Deliverance motifs that the haunt industry refuses to abandon. I did like it just enough and it got a couple of jumps out of me.
Overall C-

Pumpkin Eater, Time on Sign: 15 Minutes, Actual Time: 5 Minutes
This one felt off for me...I'm not sure why. I remember last year being impressed with the length of the house. It felt like the house kept saying "Oh you thought we were done with you? That's funny." and would keep going. This year, it felt neutered. Scareactors were missing the mark for me. Still a pretty maze, but it just didn't have the oomf.
Overall C

Dark Ride
Hate what they've done to it. Each room has one scareactor, apart from the finale which feels like it had less than half of the actors that it had last year. My biggest gripe? Changing the opening room to not have multiple hobos telling you "Don't go in there." such a great little touch with storytelling, completely gone. Actors also had NO idea what they were doing. It was pretty appalling, as it seemed like they were given no direction. A shame, as this was the best one last year, which makes it all that more disappointing.
Overall D-

Shadowlands
One samurai in the finale room? Really? And I thought the intro room was the best way to introduce the concept, getting rid of it was a cheap mistake. This one lacked the scares this year and felt like a step-child of the event. Nothing felt right, timing was off, the maze even felt shorter.
Overall F


Trick Or Treat
Please get rid of this. It's a pretty maze, the gimmick is already old, and the changes were unnoticeable. It's also not scary, at all.
Overall D+

The Depths
I LOVE the idea of having an ocean-inspired haunt. I think it's the least explored theme, right next to Tiki and Polynesian culture. I think they didn't really know what the story was on this one though. They claimed that it was Lovecraftian-inspired? I would think more Jules Verne, myself. Overall scares were good, but aside from a couple of set pieces the rooms looked a little generic.
Overall A-

Dark Entities
Ok, I'm going to say it...this maze sucked. The atmosphere and sets were GREAT, looked amazing. The actors though, woo boy...they were awful. The final creature also looked terrible. If you're going to hype up a creature in your maze it BETTER LOOK GOOD. I will say I'm biased because the haunt I've helped design locally has the same concept, and they fell into every same acting trap that we did for the first year...but man they miss the mark on the scares and delivery.
Overall C-

Paranormal Inc
My God, did I love this way more than I did last year. The intro doesn't make much sense now, but the overall scares were way more in form. I went down both paths through the night and both got me! The ending is SO GOOD. Going through the inflatable and coming into a well-lit and clean hospital is so scenically jarring that it conveys EXACTLY what they wanted without having to bash the narrative over my head. BRAVO
Overall A

Totally disappointed compared to last year. The lack of actors throughout everything is even more apparent than HHN's black wall problem. This MUST have been a budget related issue. All of the scarezones felt underpopulated, aside from Ghost Town. One weird thing, we did the scareactor dining around 5 on Saturday, waited about an hour and never saw a single scareactor...clearly something has happened with staffing. Hopefully the event can recover in the coming years, but with Jon Cooke gone and his maze being the most interesting of the two new ones...the event might be in for a rough transition.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DTH
(looks around)

So, I just went to KSF for my first year ever and I kind of loved it? Now, keep in mind I'm more of a scenic guy than a scares guy (but I got scared more than I did at HHN tbh) as well as the fact that every single one of these mazes are new to me. So it's less bias and more honeymoon period. But I did think it was much stronger than USH's current event. Did Fast Lane and went last night. Anyways, to review the mazes:

The Depths: WOW. This reminds me of a USF HHN maze, there's so many awesome things going on with puppets, projected lasers creating a convincing swamp, a swaying ship, fog blasting from underneath the decks, Lovecraftian monsters, gorgeous sets and killer lighting... sure sometimes the scare actors weren't omnipresent but I could give a crap. I adored this awesome maze and felt bad that it didn't get nearly as long waits as it should've. 5/5

Dark Entities: a really awesome concept (sci-fi in a horror maze is something I adore) with some pretty good scares that is hampered a bit by some confusing storytelling and an unfortunate ending malfunction. (the lighting wasn't working on the final puppet monster) I love the robots and the claustrophobic effect of being on this doomed spaceship, and all the little panels and gizmos you can touch. The scareactors are pretty great and interactive as well. 4.5/5

Paranormal Inc: while the preshow was a bit nonsensical (he just pushes the button?), there's some fun ideas and great effects in this maze. I love the ending where the hospital switches back and forth between timeframes, that is an awesome effect but it doesn't end on a bang when it should've. Still, fantastic and creative scares. 4.5/5

Dark Ride: while I was remiss it lost some of the grit from the first year (the video of this is what pushed me to finally go to KSF), this is still an insanely creative maze with an awesome premise. Scareactors are a little lacking, but no matter. The concept gets straight to me. I love everything about it. 4.5/5

Pumpkin Eater: really fun fairy tale twist, with some disgusting aspects to it and enjoyable sets to walk thru and explore. This also got most of my scares for the evening, as so many of those scare actors were camouflaging themselves in that damn pumpkin. Also I don't want to know how they keep those hanging gourds so moist all the time... argh. 4/5

Special Ops Infected: ok, so keep in mind I've never done this before. Apparently this used to go a LOT slower but while I was a little bummed they barely gave us time to check our scores (I thiiiink I killed six or seven?), the adrenaline rush of racing through there made it feel real. There was a rawness that the speed gave that it didn't matter that I wasn't paying attention to sets. It was just fun. Yeah, I wish I could've explored more but I don't care. I was on a mission and got to race through, shooting rounds with breaks every now and then. 4/5

Trick or Treat Lights Out: I totally get why people aren't into this. It's old, this is painting lipstick on a pig, yeah yeah. However, I found the gimmick neat and I liked the details. I'm amused that Ops and Lights Out had the longest waits (man people really love interactive gimmicks), but it's not all for naught. It's a creepy idea with some fun creativity like the blacklight portions. That's just cool. Yet if this is the last year for it, I totally understand because I'd rather have seen the maze with the lighting full. 3.5/5

Shadowlands: cool scenic here and there. And other stuff happened in this maze... I'm sure of it? I dunno. Hm. 3/5

Red Barn: what the hell was this. This is like a bad HHN Texas Chainsaw Massacre maze. Dumb. I guess I'll give it points for a couple of neat moments here and there, cause I feel generous. 2/5

Shows:

The Hanging: I'm familiar with The Hanging, it's had good years and bad years just like ol Bill and Ted. But I looooooved Bill and Ted no matter what and my heart aches that it's gone. The Lawman and the Hangman are not the same duo and the satire rarely has the same cleverness or bite. (good lord, going after Justin Bieber again? Seriously?) However, it's still a parody show and god am I glad at least one is still around. The ending twists with who got the hanging actually did get a pretty good laugh out of me but for the most part the audience was as stone-faced as I was in points. This is not a great year for the show.

Hacks: what can you say? It's an improv show, and with that comes the uncertainty of how each segment will go. Overall, it's fun but they rely on some segments using audience volunteers too much. For instance, the classic "control my limbs" Whose Line segment was handled by some teenager and yeah... he spent the entire segment positioning the actors into naughty poses (instead of letting them actually advance their narrative) while they were clearly annoyed they had little to work with. What a shock that the KSF audience would produce someone like this!! There was also the old "one word story" bit with a green screen and having another audience volunteer come on stage to do it with them. Why they would have an audience member actively participate in the improv is beyond me but it unintentionally created some fun results out of how bad she was at it.

However, there were some legit funny segments such as where they do a scene where two of them can only recite lines using lines from different text message convos from audience cell phones. That's a clever contemporary twist on an improv concept I've yet to see. The standard "dub over an old movie" bit is well done here as well. Probably the biggest laughs came before the show, where they would write horror movie parody titles over live audience members sitting in the theater, which is similar to a bit on Conan that I've always liked. The theater was barely full, though, and seemed to be swallowed up a bit in this enormous space. I think the audience would be seeking something a bit more theatrical, but I still had a fun time.

Overall, I had a great time. The streets filled with fog, the theatrical lighting, the lines being a breeze and the vibe of the event... even the staff seemed friendlier than Universal. Maybe it's the honeymoon phase again, but I certainly want to come back next year.
 
I hate the employees at KSF. I know that's a strong word, but they've legitimately been dicks every time I've interacted with them in any form. Makes me Disney in an aching way. Great review though!
 
Okay, review time. I finally got around to attending KSF last night after missing out on opening weekend. It was a little busier than I thought it would be, but the longest I waited for was Infected at forty minutes. Trick was about twenty. Everything was five minutes or less. Had a lot of fun! I'm going to be more brief about the repeats. I'm going to go by the order of experience. Gonna be talking spoilers so keep that in mind.

Trick-or-Treat: I know it's been here for freakin' years, but it's grown on me. That's probably because I was at the front of the group and got a great runthrough. The flashlight gimmick really helps freshen in up. I enjoyed it. Wouldn't mind if it stayed for one more year....but just one though. Useless fact: Jon Cooke tweaked it, but it's the last surviving maze at KSF designed by Brooke Walters. B+

The Depths: Whoa, this was AMAZING. This might be the best set design they've done in my ten years of going here. The water effect, the fog, the octopus, the creature skeleton, the swinging ship......absolutely fantastic. It also helped that we got a great runthrough on it....twice. We happened to hit the eel scare perfectly on those two run-throughs. Even if it wasn't terribly scary for me (Still did), I would still praise this for its fantastic design as I'm more partial to scenic that scares. Outstanding. A++

Dark Entities:
Okay, I can see why people didn't like this. It's a little campy, scares didn't work in some areas....but that puppet scare towards the middle was pretty awesome. I enjoyed it. If anything there were some cool SFX in here. Not the best maze they've ever done, but it's 20x better than Tooth Fairy. B

Paranormal Inc: Yeah, this is kinda old, and the cut-down preshow made it seem off, but I still enjoyed it. The finale is absolutely brilliant. I love the abrupt ending of timewarping back to the hospital back when it was fully operational. When I first went through it, I actually turned around and went back thinking I accidentally wandered into the scareactor breakroom with its abrupt tone change. Confusing at first, but well done. B+

The Red Barn:
We got a descent runthrough, but it's still a "meh" house despite the changes. It feels too much like a pre-40th haunt maze, and that's not a good thing. Get rid of it. C-

The Shadowlands:
Still a good maze. I got a pretty good runthrough, but I feel like I'm over it. I kinda miss the preshow though. Wouldn't mind this getting replaced. B-

Log Ride:
Solid overlay, but.....NO MONSTERS THIS YEAR! BOOOOOOOOO!!!!! That's what made it awesome last year. Oh well. C

Dark Ride:
Got a GREAT runthrough on this. Me and my sister were by ourselves so we hit almost all of the scares. I won't dare spoil this, but that scare right next to the organ was absolutely genius. I still love this maze. A

Special Ops: Infected:
Still the same, but still fun. Wouldn't mind this getting changed up. B

The Hanging:
Look, I'm not looking for comedic gold in this show, I just want a stupid fun parody show. This wasn't a great year for it. I do like who they hanged though. lol C

Pumpkin Eater:
Just like with everything else, great runthrough. Great sets, solid scares.....loved the giant jack-o-lantern.

Overall, I think this is a pretty good year! Although I still enjoy going to HHN (Despite the fact that there are some things there that really annoy me, which I'll get to shortly), I enjoyed this more than HHN this year. While I do agree that Knott's can be inconsistent with their scares, they have a wide variety of different ones than HHN simply will not do. I'm just weary of the usual HHN "somebody jumps out with a blinding strobe light you can see two rooms away and the scare is ruined". HHN really helps their scares with audio triggers (and I wish Knott's would do it a bit more), but it's useless if you make sure every single scare has a bright strobe light and the scare is ruined for you from the next room. Not saying don't ever use the strobe effect for scares, but that's all they ever do, and it's old hat now. Don't even get me started on those black box scares. They're tired, stale, out of context of the setting, and absolutely useless during early entry when the light leakage ruins it. It's nice to see Knott's have variety and have an energetic cast.

Don't get me started on the scenic. Knott's has absolutely beautiful scenic. While HHN can produce really good and more realistic scenic (And they have as seen with Monsters, AVP, and La Llorona), it's aesthetically drowned out by those stupid black walls. This is a strong point with Knott's as they not only make good sets, they're actually consistent. I feel like I'm actually there. Sure, there is the occasional choppy transition like in Shadowlands from the hut to the inside and with Paranormal going inside the asylum, but they do the absolute best they can to make sure you're immersed. Movie quality sets don't stand out as much if you're just going to chop them up with black walls out of context of the environment.

I say give Knott's a chance this year.
 
Overall, I think this is a pretty good year! Although I still enjoy going to HHN (Despite the fact that there are some things there that really annoy me, which I'll get to shortly), I enjoyed this more than HHN this year. While I do agree that Knott's can be inconsistent with their scares, they have a wide variety of different ones than HHN simply will not do. I'm just weary of the usual HHN "somebody jumps out with a blinding strobe light you can see two rooms away and the scare is ruined". HHN really helps their scares with audio triggers (and I wish Knott's would do it a bit more), but it's useless if you make sure every single scare has a bright strobe light and the scare is ruined for you from the next room. Not saying don't ever use the strobe effect for scares, but that's all they ever do, and it's old hat now. Don't even get me started on those black box scares. They're tired, stale, out of context of the setting, and absolutely useless during early entry when the light leakage ruins it. It's nice to see Knott's have variety and have an energetic cast.

Don't get me started on the scenic. Knott's has absolutely beautiful scenic. While HHN can produce really good and more realistic scenic (And they have as seen with Monsters, AVP, and La Llorona), it's aesthetically drowned out by those stupid black walls. This is a strong point with Knott's as they not only make good sets, they're actually consistent. I feel like I'm actually there. Sure, there is the occasional choppy transition like in Shadowlands from the hut to the inside and with Paranormal going inside the asylum, but they do the absolute best they can to make sure you're immersed. Movie quality sets don't stand out as much if you're just going to chop them up with black walls out of context of the environment.

I say give Knott's a chance this year.

See, that's why I'll never ever "get" the haunt community. They're obsessed with scares yet praise HHN's consistency despite the fact that HHN is predictable as hell. I got startled once at HHN this year. Once. Compare that to nearly a dozen times at Knott's, mostly because I can go thru an HHN maze and know exactly what's going to happen at every single turn. There's a rigid formula there and it baffles me that people see that and go, "yup, much scarier". Like, I'm not going to dump on HHN because they do excellent work on both coasts (obviously one more than the other), but for such a fluid and uncertain concept such as "scare factor" you can't really go more pinned down than Universal.

So I just am left thinking, "...what do these people really want?" Sure, Knott's is inconsistent but they do unpredictable things such as scareactors being able to follow you thru a maze between rooms and jumping from sides to side, holding conversations with you, getting you uncomfortable. To me, this is far more unnerving than (sound effect) (strobe) (scare) over and over and over and over and over and over.

To that point, I'm also bewildered why somebody would defend HHN mazes because some rooms look better than Knott's mazes. Really? The fact that a black wall is constantly interrupting and they don't bother to tarp things leading to light leakage is all fine and dandy because every other room looks pretty neat? Poltergeist was my second favorite maze of the event this year and the first damn room had a blatant projector hanging from the ceiling in full view. Universal Monsters has a black wall tunnel before the maze actually gets good, and that's the best maze of the event. I value consistency, immersion and atmosphere above all else, if you break it then I'm not nervous or scared: I'm bored. The sets are a distraction themselves, they let you let your guard down. A black wall has me waiting for a scare. That's not scary.

I totally get also that some haunt fans are just into extremes and are constantly searching for the next "high" but as a fan of thematic design it bums me out that Murdy seems to be more into appealing to them rather than those who want a more well-rounded experience.
 
In a mathematical way, HHN ends up always winning for me.

As you can see, there are people here who are saying "the maze was dead and empty" and others saying "it was filled with talent." 9 times out of 10, I end up in the "maze was dead" camp for majority of the mazes that night. When a KSF maze is strong, it's really strong, but that will be maybe 2 mazes that night, another 2 that are average, and the rest bad -- just plain bad either in terms of theming or people missing from their spots. Again, I totally see where people are coming from when they say they loved their KSF experience, I totally get it, it just never happens to me though. But I'm sure I get good scares that they didn't get either. Again, it's all a gamble at KSF. Some people like that unpredictability, but personally that gamble mostly never pays for me and I get the "empty maze" side of the dice on most run throughs.

This is where consistency comes in from HHN. Even if I can predict a scare in a room, at least I get a scare in the room. And it's not so much "I know where it's coming from," it's mostly their timing of that moment. You know when you're watching a horror movie and the sound suddenly stops and the whole crowd jumps at the jumpscare, and half the crowd says "aw man, I knew it was gonna happen but I jumped anyway! giggle giggle sigh of relief giggle giggle." HHN does that really well most of the time. In general, I don't jump much anymore anyway. At HHN, I genuinely jump 2 - 5 times in a single night. At KSF, I'll jump maybe once. My favorite thing there has always been the log ride with monsters, because that's specifically something where I get every intended scare. The monsters have no choice. In other mazes, amateur monsters make all the wrong choices. And don't get me started on KSF monsters breaking character at every turn in the zones and in the mazes: just chatting, asking for the time, talking about dinner, who tf knows what else. That breaks the immersion for me more than, say, an obvious projector. At Disneyland, you can see all the bells and whistles if you accidentally look in the right spot. I've worked in entertainment long enough to know 100% of this is based on complete sense of disbelief.

But I rather have a predictable experience than have no experience.
 
I honestly think we look for completely opposite things in a haunt experience. I disagree with your KSF assessment (and I'm not sure how I feel about you judging it based on low-light opening night vids) but I can respect what you like despite that I don't understand it. However...

That breaks the immersion for me more than, say, an obvious projector. At Disneyland, you can see all the bells and whistles if you accidentally look in the right spot. I've worked in entertainment long enough to know 100% of this is based on complete sense of disbelief.

But I rather have a predictable experience than have no experience.

The projector was literally in eye-level view as soon as you turn right into the first room. You couldn't miss it if you tried. The effect wasn't even that great, and I really liked that maze too.
 
I've been going to KSF since the year 2000. Went every year until 2007 and now I skip a year every once and awhile (my sig is missing 02-04 even though I vividly remember going, but I can't find a ticket or a map, things I usually collect, but I'm 85% sure I went those years or maybe I missed just one of 'em, so I can't say for sure). I was fairly well seasoned in KSF before I ever went to HHN in 2007. KSF started my love for all things Haunt, but it quickly started to go way down hill when the product got shoddy and operations got worse and worse. Then I found HHN at the right time in 2007. KSF stayed in bad shape, imo, until 2012ish, then it got a little better again, but there's still a ton of things that irk me to no end, so I still skip around. Now there's some years where it's fairly even, where one rocks it, but the other slips low.

With that said, I think it's very easy to assess TWO new mazes based on the vids I saw, both filled with talent in both videos I watched, each with different monsters doing different things and different scares. I have a very good idea of what it was like being there and considering I've been there a TON of times, it is not hard to imagine by any stretch of the imagination. And I gave them both positive reviews, and fairly comparable reviews to yours for not only those mazes, but the other mazes as well (our HHN reviews are vastly different, but that's another story).

I've been going for almost 20 years. HHN for 12 years. I cannot begin to even list the things that are much worse that KSF has done over the years (and are probably still doing) than a projector at eye level view (which, I actually did not see or I totally ignored, but it is 100% obvious now that you mention it). By no means is KSF a bad event anymore (hello Fright Fest). But there is something completely satisfying, gratifying, and re-assuring when spending $40-80 knowing I'll get some scares for sure that night, even if I know where it's coming from, and that the theme park gives at least a mild care about my experience. I can't say the same for KSF, which is also pretty predictable to me, even when the monsters actually are in their area, or not having a conversation with a fellow monsters, or can actually be seen with their flappy masks hanging off their necks. Nothing is worse than waiting 15-60 mins and going through an empty maze. It's happened to me more times than I can even remember and the problem is it continues to happen. Good mazes, bad mazes, sometimes it's hard to define there.

But the KSF blunders make HHN look like a godsend:
Curse of the Spiderwoods.
The Stepfather box.
Evil Dead log ride broken down for half of the run...
The employee I asked what happened with the ride and all he said was, in one word with a straight face, "broken."
A Carrie scene from the remake shoehorned RANDOMLY into the finale of a zombie maze called Virus Z.
Dia De Los Muertos which somehow had a 5 year run.
The Red Barn right now.
What was that one dumb snow maze that was too bright like 2 or 3 years ago? Whatever Dark Ride replaced.
What was that one dark maze that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and would make the black walls at HHN blush? I think it was the Dominion of the Damned remake.
The time they actually tried to have a maze of mirrors and it was a huge flop.
The Hanging gets dumber... and dumber... and dumber. Bill & Ted was a fine wine in comparison.
The Tricksters having carte blanche on literally harassing guests not only verbally, but also physically (some was in good fun, a majority honestly was not - some caused actual lawsuits).
Pyromaniax.
Lore of the Vampire.
Lost Vegas.

The slew of bad clown mazes that happened after the success of Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns.
The sign up situation for Black Ops for 2-3 years before it became a regular maze, selling out almost instantly even for people who were there before opening.
The employee flirting with underage girls explaining to them for 2-3 minutes they can sign up for a waitlist for Black Ops if they want, but when I asked about the situation, he simply just said "sold out."
The time I was verbally harassed and threatened physically in Cornstalkers by a monster out of character for recording with a camera with no light...
Their inability to convey to every employee and monster that recording cameras with no light were allowed.
Free Scion night bringing in thousands of annoying teens...
The clientele to this event in general, both young and old, are some of the worst scum of the earth I've ever encountered. Makes the HHN crowd look like refined ladies and gentleman.
The people I've seen assault numerous monsters and only get a "firm warning" from employees and not just kicking them straight out.
The drunkenness at HHN is innocent compared to the sloppiness of KSF with the car wrecks that happened in their very parking lot (even my gfs car was hit once) and the cops waiting at the exit to hand out DUIs.
The guy who pulled his johnson out in the middle of Carnevil and peed while walking for a good 20 feet. Security caught him... then let him go.
My friend being molested in a crowd (possibly by a monster), and the employees not trying to help the situation or having any remorse about it.
A ninja in Shadowlands calling the guy behind me a "f-gg-t"... whether he was trying to be a scary character or just harassing him out of character for no reason, I couldn't tell.
Rampant line cutting, in an out of control amount. Not 1-2 people coming back from the bathroom, but entire hoards (literally 20) joining the middle of a line. And employees do nothing about it.
The sign carriers having no information on wait times or sometimes being in the actual wrong place entirely (although this year it looks like they have new signs, so that's good), then are very rude about anything you ever ask them.

Honestly, these are just the tip of the iceberg and are the things only from my own personal experience. I wish I could say some of these were more than 10 years ago, but a few of these were just within the last 2 years. I could go on for days about bad employees, bad crowds, bad monsters, and bad mazes -- I could probably write a book about everything negative I've experienced while at KSF. Granted, HHN has had their own instances similar to this, but from my perception, they've always tried to course correct or find solutions (tickets for line cutting, limiting alcohol, very clear signs, etc.) and at least half of the employees are Disneyland-quality helpful with any problem.

Theme park operations, quality control, or just the mazes, I'm looking for a mostly smooth haunt experience. I imagine we all are. Maybe HHN isn't the answer, but KSF certainly isn't either. My only hope is WB is what we've all been waiting for...
 
Oh no, you're totally in the right. I just think it was weird to shovel on the hate for a Poltergeist projector and experience with wristbands, but ignore KSF's flaws in maze design and praise their staff. Historically, I'm just saying, that'd be inaccurate, or inconsistent with what I've experienced in the last 20 years. You also admitted you may be bias or in the honeymoon phase, which I totally appreciate and I hope that lasts a very long time for you. What you enjoy is what you enjoy.
 
Top