Knott's Scary Farm 2017

[Brian G.]

Videos of some walk-throughs

 

[foodstampsFTW]

I plan on posting more detailed thoughts later but I had a lot of fun tonight, and Dark Ride is in serious contention for my favorite maze I’ve done at either Scary Farm or Horror Nights.

 

[Freak]

I plan on posting more detailed thoughts later but I had a lot of fun tonight, and Dark Ride is in serious contention for my favorite maze I’ve done at either Scary Farm or Horror Nights.

You were there last night too? I was there as well. It was packed.

So I ran to Special Ops first then went for all the back mazes with short lines. Got to do everything except Paranormal, Tooth, and Trick or Treat. I could’ve done those, but I was getting too tired. The best gameplay seems to go to the back first.

I had a better run through on everything. Even Pumpkin Eater got more intense scares and a cool effect added. Despite the crowds I had a great time. They also seemed to have heard our complaints about line management. Except for Red Barn, lines were moving pretty quickly for what I went through.

Oh, speaking of Red Barn, while still not a top 10 house, I definitely enjoyed it more with the added show scenes.

Log Ride was awesome, love Dark Ride more than ever now....KSF is great this year.

 

[foodstampsFTW]

Lol, yea I was there, but since I knew it was going to be my one and only night I did fright lane so I was constantly moving. Just to give an idea of how much I was able to do with fright lane, I did 3 runs of Dark Ride, 2 runs of everything else except spec ops, 1 run of log ride and 1 run of ghostrider, caught the last 5-10 mins of hanging and watched Elvira.

 

[HHNManics]

So I finally got around to doing Knotts this year. Have been attending the event for Knotts since 2013 and was looking forward to checking it out this year. Went on Friday (10/6) with 4 Other friends and I decided to do Boo-Fet and get the Mazes done. Turns out I got everything done (Except for Log Ride) and had a absolute blast. So I will start with the shows.

Shows:

2. Elvira Mistress Of The Dark - Best Elvira Show. She has been really lackluster whenever I see her but this year's had a bit of a plot and was generally entertaining. The Dancers and all were fantastic and the best parts were near the end. Overall fantastic show.

Grade: A+

1. The Hanging Fake Noose - Best Hanging Snow. Despite what People say about last year's Hanging it was my favorite and was fantastic as I got to see the first showing of it on Opening Night. This year's is super funny and well thought out. It uses pop cultures references and other things quite well and is generally funny. The plot is fantastic. Everything about it is fantastic.

Grade: A+

Scare Zones:

4. Fiesta De Los Muertos - Fun Zone. It had some fantastic costumes and some good scares. It doesn't really have much of atmosphere however, needed more set design, and missed out on the dance party that has been there in years past. But overall great scare zone.

Set Design: 2/5
Costume Design: 4.5/5
Scare Rating: 3/5
Grade: B+

3. CarnEVIL - Same old, same old. But still very fun. Had some more set design this year which was great! Scares were really good along with the Costumes. It felt as though it could have used a bit more lighting and felt like it was missing something. But still amazing scare zone.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4/5
Scare Rating: 4.5/5
Grade: A-

2. The Hollows - Perfect. Just perfect. Scare Zone was absolutely gorgeous, scary, atmospheric, and well done. The little shows in the middle of the night were really awesome. Costume Design was also dope. Perfect Scare Zone.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

1. Ghost Town Streets - You already know.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

Mazes:

9. Special Ops Infected - Amazing Maze. Lots of fun to go through. Still the set design is absolutely stunning. Still just like really fun! The Scares are bad and the costumes are Okay. But it's still really amazing as it's a lot of fun.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 2.5/5
Scare Rating: 1/5
Grade: A-

8. Voodoo Order of the Serpent - It's probably my favorite version of Voodoo yet. Lots of fun and works better backwards. They also took out the Blue Light Format for the maze so it's more darker. Which now Voodoo has Great scares and more Dread when you are walking through. Sets and Costumes are as always amazing. But was missing the charm that it had when it had the Blue color format. Amazing Maze still overall.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 3.5/5
Scare Rating: 4/5
Grade: A

7. The Tooth Fairy - My Favorite Version of the Maze and this probably it's last year. Which is sad because I got to watch this maze grow. Scares were amazing. Very creepy overall. Costumes and Sets were also really great. The Ending was fantastic but I don't think it had the impact of effect that the previous two endings has. Still a Amazing Maze.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4/5
Scare Rating: 4.5/5
Grade: A

6. The Red Barn - MUCH better than last year's. Flowed very nicely. Scares, Costumes, and Sets were all nicely done. They have Scare Actors asking for help and they stop you at times in the Maze so you can feel trapped which was really cool. It works a lot better. Chainsaws are here and are amazing. But I don't think the Maze has accomplished that "Rush" feeling quite yet unfortunately. A Amazing Maze.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4/5
Scare Rating: 4.5/5

5. Paranormal Inc - Still a Amazing Maze. Scares, Costumes, and Sets are all amazing. Still don't like the Ending.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4.5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A

4. Pumpkin Eater - The Newest Maze by Daniel Miller and easily the best and my personal favorite from him.
The Maze starts with a Cheesy dialogue about Peter and the Maze and you enter and the tone goes from Cheesy to Serious. The Maze has some amazing scares as I went through twice and it was amazing. The Set Design is the Real Selling Point of the Maze as it is incredible. The Costumes are all perfect. The Maze is a lot of fun to got through. Got a great atmosphere and kinda felt like a HHN Maze sorta. It has that Halloween Vine I wish more mazes went for. Plus the Maze has a Pumpkin you enter and you can get wet by Pumpkin Guts. Overall Very strong Maze.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

3. Dark Ride - Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you Dark Ride. Probably the Best Maze Knotts has ever done and for some odd reason it isn't my favorite. The Scares are fantastic as they well thought out and well done. Sets are amazing as they look like a Theme Park ride. The Costumes are also incredible as well. The Maze is a ton of fun to go through as you go through a Theme Park ride which is amazing. The Ending is incredible. The Maze overall pretty Perfect.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

2. Trick or Treat: Lights Out - One of the scariest mazes I have gone through. Probably 2nd Scariest. The Sets are incredible. The tone change from Cheesy this past few years to this serious tone is amazing. The Serious Tone feels appropriate. And as a result it works better. The Costumes are actually scary to look at and are amazing. The Scares and effects sell this maze and are incredible. The Maze is terrifying to walk through and the flashlights are amazing addition. Better than the previous version and one of my all time favorite Mazes.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

1. Shadowlands - Still My favorite Maze of all time. Love everything about it.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

So did Knotts beat HHN this year? Yes... 100%. I would say it rivals HHN2016. All of the Mazes, Scare Zones, and Shows are amazing. Definitely one of the Best Haunt Events out there and at it's best this year.

Overall: A+

 

[DTH]

So what would be a good game plan? I don't think I'll be seeing Hanging or Elvira. Will be doing Ghost Rider (it's my gf's first time at Knotts). I plan on going on a Thurs or Sun. I hear heading to the back for Special Ops and Red Barn first works, but how long exactly is the Trick or Treat line these days? Will Special Ops get super long if I do Ghost Rider first or should I save it for last, or should I save Trick or Treat for last? I don't mind waiting in a usual 5-40 minute line on average for the usual Haunt maze ala Paranormal Inc or Dark Ride, but definitely trying to avoid anything longer than that.

 

[k_peek_2000]

So what would be a good game plan? I don't think I'll be seeing Hanging or Elvira. Will be doing Ghost Rider (it's my gf's first time at Knotts). I plan on going on a Thurs or Sun. I hear heading to the back for Special Ops and Red Barn first works, but how long exactly is the Trick or Treat line these days? Will Special Ops get super long if I do Ghost Rider first or should I save it for last, or should I save Trick or Treat for last? I don't mind waiting in a usual 5-40 minute line on average for the usual Haunt maze ala Paranormal Inc or Dark Ride, but definitely trying to avoid anything longer than that.

I'd start with Red Barn / Infected since Red Barn added a pre-show element. Then immediately head to Trick or Treat.

 

[DTH]

Mini-Review:

Went last night and I feel alot of these reviews are highly exaggerated. Maybe it's because HHN is in it's worst year, but I wouldn't say this is KSF's best year. And even KSF's best year is hard to match HHN's worst year in quality and professional scareactors. Maybe I'm a fanboy, I don't know, but keep in mind that KSF was my first love.

I did do Ghost Rider first thing, which ate away my 7PM-8PM time slot. The next 45-60 minutes were wasted waiting for more friends to enter the park (which I usually NEVER do) and letting everyone get snacks. I think I would've been fine doing Ghost Rider but that next hour really screwed me over in missing a maze (we'll get to that in a bit).



Pumpkin-Eater -- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! First maze of the night and it was easily the scariest in terms of tone, sets, and the monsters were super aggressive. Plus it felt like the maze had someone at every corner. Favorite of the year, by far. Nothing lived up to this for the rest of night.



Dark Ride was EXTREMELY weak. The sets were amazing, but the tone doesn't help it be scary, and worst of all, this was some of the laziest talent I saw all night. They hardly went for anyone. I loved the idea, dark rides are a passion of mine, and this failed me. My friends said "that was the least scary maze I've EVER been in."



Shadowlands is still a pretty good maze. Don't see much of the point of the pre-show being moved a bit. I think they could get rid of it, it does nothing to add to the maze.



Red Barn had such a long wait and by God, was it not worth it at all. Not to mention, I didn't see the supposed "letting people in small groups" thing come into effect. It was a conga line like always. I saw SOME show elements. Worst of the year, just like it was last year. I think we waited 50 minutes and I felt so ripped off and I could've used that time doing some rides or something. I don't care what revamps they do to this maze in upcoming years, I will avoid it like the plague if the line is anything more than 5 minutes.



Paranormal Inc is still rocking pretty hard, which is impressive they've kept the momentum going this long.



The Tooth Fairy was decent. A lot of the effects don't work anymore. I don't see why they haven't added anything to this maze to make it better. All of my complaints from year one are still present. And they got rid of the cool ending they had this year for a small room with a guy on stilts. Oh well.



Got in line for Trick-or-Treat around 11:40 and it was moving fairly steadily, but after about 20 minutes, we gave up. It was going to be at least 2 hours, and the park closed at 1, and I really wanted to do Infected and the Log Ride instead, because I knew those would at the very least be fun. Even if this maze was the best of the year, it would not be worth the wait. An amazing Knotts maze is worth a 45 minute wait at best, while I'm open to waiting maybe 90 minutes for HHN maze if I know it'll be good. My girlfriend got to do Voodoo while we waited in line for Trick-or-Treat, so I can't personally say how that maze was, but that maze has been super underwhelming for me every year, so I had no desire to even see it.



Log Ride Halloween Hootenany was fun, but the monsters didn't come out as aggressive in years past. I counted 4 of them and I know there used to be at least 8-12. Why tone it down so much?



Infected was pretty fun, as much fun as last year, but they toned down some of the scares from what I could tell. But also it was the end of the night and maybe they were just tired.



Scarezone wise, I loved Ghost Town as always. Best scarezone in the planet. However, it seemed oddly empty at points. The Hollow was FANTASTIC. Loved that one as well. Carnevil seemed... extremely empty. Not sure what happened there. Maybe it was the construction hindering things.



In my opinion, it was a slightly above average year at KSF. Nothing extraordinary. Just the usual.

 

[HauntfanLA]

So I finally got around to doing Knotts this year. Have been attending the event for Knotts since 2013 and was looking forward to checking it out this year. Went on Friday (10/6) with 4 Other friends and I decided to do Boo-Fet and get the Mazes done. Turns out I got everything done (Except for Log Ride) and had a absolute blast. So I will start with the shows.

Shows:

2. Elvira Mistress Of The Dark - Best Elvira Show. She has been really lackluster whenever I see her but this year's had a bit of a plot and was generally entertaining. The Dancers and all were fantastic and the best parts were near the end. Overall fantastic show.

Grade: A+

1. The Hanging Fake Noose - Best Hanging Snow. Despite what People say about last year's Hanging it was my favorite and was fantastic as I got to see the first showing of it on Opening Night. This year's is super funny and well thought out. It uses pop cultures references and other things quite well and is generally funny. The plot is fantastic. Everything about it is fantastic.

Grade: A+

Scare Zones:

4. Fiesta De Los Muertos - Fun Zone. It had some fantastic costumes and some good scares. It doesn't really have much of atmosphere however, needed more set design, and missed out on the dance party that has been there in years past. But overall great scare zone.

Set Design: 2/5
Costume Design: 4.5/5
Scare Rating: 3/5
Grade: B+

3. CarnEVIL - Same old, same old. But still very fun. Had some more set design this year which was great! Scares were really good along with the Costumes. It felt as though it could have used a bit more lighting and felt like it was missing something. But still amazing scare zone.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4/5
Scare Rating: 4.5/5
Grade: A-

2. The Hollows - Perfect. Just perfect. Scare Zone was absolutely gorgeous, scary, atmospheric, and well done. The little shows in the middle of the night were really awesome. Costume Design was also dope. Perfect Scare Zone.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

1. Ghost Town Streets - You already know.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

Mazes:

9. Special Ops Infected - Amazing Maze. Lots of fun to go through. Still the set design is absolutely stunning. Still just like really fun! The Scares are bad and the costumes are Okay. But it's still really amazing as it's a lot of fun.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 2.5/5
Scare Rating: 1/5
Grade: A-

8. Voodoo Order of the Serpent - It's probably my favorite version of Voodoo yet. Lots of fun and works better backwards. They also took out the Blue Light Format for the maze so it's more darker. Which now Voodoo has Great scares and more Dread when you are walking through. Sets and Costumes are as always amazing. But was missing the charm that it had when it had the Blue color format. Amazing Maze still overall.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 3.5/5
Scare Rating: 4/5
Grade: A

7. The Tooth Fairy - My Favorite Version of the Maze and this probably it's last year. Which is sad because I got to watch this maze grow. Scares were amazing. Very creepy overall. Costumes and Sets were also really great. The Ending was fantastic but I don't think it had the impact of effect that the previous two endings has. Still a Amazing Maze.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4/5
Scare Rating: 4.5/5
Grade: A

6. The Red Barn - MUCH better than last year's. Flowed very nicely. Scares, Costumes, and Sets were all nicely done. They have Scare Actors asking for help and they stop you at times in the Maze so you can feel trapped which was really cool. It works a lot better. Chainsaws are here and are amazing. But I don't think the Maze has accomplished that "Rush" feeling quite yet unfortunately. A Amazing Maze.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4/5
Scare Rating: 4.5/5

5. Paranormal Inc - Still a Amazing Maze. Scares, Costumes, and Sets are all amazing. Still don't like the Ending.

Set Design: 4/5
Costume Design: 4.5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A

4. Pumpkin Eater - The Newest Maze by Daniel Miller and easily the best and my personal favorite from him.
The Maze starts with a Cheesy dialogue about Peter and the Maze and you enter and the tone goes from Cheesy to Serious. The Maze has some amazing scares as I went through twice and it was amazing. The Set Design is the Real Selling Point of the Maze as it is incredible. The Costumes are all perfect. The Maze is a lot of fun to got through. Got a great atmosphere and kinda felt like a HHN Maze sorta. It has that Halloween Vine I wish more mazes went for. Plus the Maze has a Pumpkin you enter and you can get wet by Pumpkin Guts. Overall Very strong Maze.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

3. Dark Ride - Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you Dark Ride. Probably the Best Maze Knotts has ever done and for some odd reason it isn't my favorite. The Scares are fantastic as they well thought out and well done. Sets are amazing as they look like a Theme Park ride. The Costumes are also incredible as well. The Maze is a ton of fun to go through as you go through a Theme Park ride which is amazing. The Ending is incredible. The Maze overall pretty Perfect.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

2. Trick or Treat: Lights Out - One of the scariest mazes I have gone through. Probably 2nd Scariest. The Sets are incredible. The tone change from Cheesy this past few years to this serious tone is amazing. The Serious Tone feels appropriate. And as a result it works better. The Costumes are actually scary to look at and are amazing. The Scares and effects sell this maze and are incredible. The Maze is terrifying to walk through and the flashlights are amazing addition. Better than the previous version and one of my all time favorite Mazes.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

1. Shadowlands - Still My favorite Maze of all time. Love everything about it.

Set Design: 5/5
Costume Design: 5/5
Scare Rating: 5/5
Grade: A+

So did Knotts beat HHN this year? Yes... 100%. I would say it rivals HHN2016. All of the Mazes, Scare Zones, and Shows are amazing. Definitely one of the Best Haunt Events out there and at it's best this year.

Overall: A+

awesome review.