Knott's Scary Farm Celebrates 50 Years of Scares on their Golden Anniversary

A couple of weeks back we made our visit to Knott's Scary Farm on the opening Sunday of the event. Our original plan was to visit opening night, and repeatedly using our Knott's Scary Farm passes, unfortunately life happens and we had to actually end up getting a refund for those passes. So I made what will likely be my only visit for 2023. 

Slightly off topic, shout out to the awesome Guest Relations Team at Knott's for all the help in getting those passes refunded. 

So let's head into the fog for an exceptional year of frights! 

Where it all began. Right here. Chills every time.

But before we get into the scares, I was honored to take Clint from Thrillgeek on his first ever trip not only to Knott's Scary Farm, but his first visit to Knott's period.

We did the Boofet, and this may be the best addition to it. EVER!

After hitting a few mazes we spent some time admiring the awesome lighting and props of the event.

The 50th display is something to behold. If you'd like a bit of history on Knott's Scary Farm, check out Ted Dougherty talking about the Scary Farm at this years Midsummer Scream below.

So many classic touches in just this display.

Heading back into the fog.

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Mazes 

Room 13

Room 13 is meant to be a kind of extension of the awesome Scare Zone, The Gore'ing 20's. In some ways it completely works, in a lot of ways it doesn't. It definitely reminds me of a maze one would have found at Dark Harbor a few years back, not like that's a bad thing at all. I did find it difficult to follow the story if I'm being honest.

​I would have liked to have gone through more than once. But it was without a doubt the longest maze line we found all night, due to some, let's just say, interesting line control. 

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Cinema Slasher

In any other year, Cinema Slasher would be the breakout maze of the year at Knott's Scary Farm. But this year with The Chilling Chambers, Cinema Slasher is regulated to second place for us. Reminds us a bit of the year both Dark Ride and Pumpkin Eater arrived at the event. Both great, but it's hard going up against what will be an all time top tier maze, at least for us. 

All that said, Cinema Slasher is a very worthy replacement for one of my all time favorite scary farm mazes, has a lot of classic touches and references to the past (just look at the picture below for one). And I foresee this having a very successful run at the event over the next few years. 

The GhoulTime Theater Lives!!

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The Chilling Chambers

To say that The Chilling Chambers is an amazing love letter to the history of Knott's Scary Farm, and my favorite maze of the year, is putting it mildly. I got chills walking through this maze. If you are a long-time fan of the event, this maze is worth admission all by itself. Just so many amazing call backs to the past. 

But even more than that, it's actually a fantastic maze all by itself. Even Clint, who was making his first ever visit to the event loved it (although I think he liked Cinema Slasher a bit more). =)

​You can tell the talent in here respects what the maze is all about, the designers had a lot of fun with it and first and foremost concentrated on creating a great maze, using the past as their inspiration. 

I just can't say enough about this one, and I REALLY hope it's not a one-and-done maze as I really do want my wife to experience this maze next year when she can return to the event. 

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Our Overall Maze Rankings are: 

1. The Chilling Chambers
2. Cinema Slasher
3. Wax Works
4. The Depths
5. Origins: The Curse of Calico
6. Mesmer
7. Room 13
8. Bloodline
9. Dark Entities
10. The Grimoire

You can see our maze walk-throughs from 2022 of the other mazes featured this year below. 

Overall we feel this is a very strong line-up of mazes. Unfortunately with only being able to go through most of the mazes once this year we had to judge them by our one and only walkthrough. 

​This is the final year for both Dark Entities and The Depths, so we're definitely looking forward to what the event has cooked up for 2024. 

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The Hanging made it's grand return to Knott's Scary Farm this year and if you've seen The Hanging previously, you pretty much know what to expect. But it was fantastic and great to have it back. 

Hopefully this isn't a one year thing, this is not the show that's creating controversy this year. =) 

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One of the big things this year is the 50th Legacy store, and we absolutely loved it.

So many awesome photo ops

Seymour!!

So many nice tributes

We have shot glasses and martini glasses from this year!

Thank you to the Haunt designers for creating this awesome space

A great year for Knott's Scary Farm, make sure you attend!

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 Related Videos

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Related Updates

• Knott's Scary Farm 50th Anniversary Merchandise (Midsummer Scream 2023) - July 30, 2023
• Tundra Twister Media Day at Canada's Wonderland - June 8, 2023
• NorCal County Fair Media Night at California's Great America - June 5, 2023
• Opening Weekend of Winterfest 2022 at Canada's Wonderland - November 26, 2022
• Review: Knott's Scary Farm 2022 - September 30, 2022

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