Knott's Scary Farm hosts annual Scare School

We were invited to Knott's last night to attend their annual Scare School for the Dominion of the Damned and Pinnochio Unstrung mazes. If you are wondering what Scare School is, well, it's just what it sounds like.
Monsters come and learn about the mazes they are working in, work on their characters and then get a chance to scare the media walking through the maze. It really is cool to see it all come together.

In addition we got a behind the scenes look at the Costuming/Make-Up warehouse, the all-new Knott's Food Truck and a special History of Haunt tour.

Before we get started, Knott's released the map for this years Haunt which starts next Thursday, October 25. We will be there, hope to see you there.

Prior to Scare School I made my way into the park to take a look at preparations for Haunt.

Gunslingers Grave, one of only two "On-Stage" mazes.

Preparations are also underway for Camp Spooky

It was probably about 100 degrees, but Snoopy is always in a good mood.

Light towers in Camp Snoopy, possibly for Infected.

Dia De Los Muertos is in Fiesta Village

La Revolucion' has gone to rehab

Looks like some new planters are being made as well.

Moving over to the Boardwalk, CarnEVIL is coming.

The hearse is out

Xcelerator was closed so no ride for me. =(

There are definitely less decorations out than in years past, at least for now.

Getting ready for The Hanging. Can't wait to see who get's it this year, there are so many people to choose from.

Black Magic

Bet you didn't know Flava Flave was a Haunt character

A quick look at the work being done on the 2015 attraction. We don't know what it's going to be yet (other than a dark ride) but the park has hinted that an announcement will be coming after Haunt.

Really hope they find a way to incorporate the Roaring 20's sign. It's a piece of Knott's History that we'd love to see saved.

Ghouls near Bigfoot Rapids

Wilderness Dance Hall, home to so many iconic Haunt mazes, this year it will be Pinnochio Unstrung.

The Haunt Museum is getting decked out for Halloween

Moo

This picture has an extreme lack of Haunt Fog ... soon ... very soon.

Ghostrider is still closed but should be back open in time for Haunt

Pro-Tip ... Pre Scare Dinner is your friend. Do it!!!

She spent a little too much time at the saloon show.

Pink's is set to close within the next few weeks. I've hard somewhere around Oct 4th but not 100% sure. Guess it's back to waiting in long lines at the one in Hollywood.

The main reason for our visit was for Scare School. Which is basically the Haunt designers helping the talent become their character so they can scare the hell out of the rest of us.

It's a very interesting process where you have multiple people playing the same character (so they can take breaks). They will introduce themselves, as their character, do some non-speaking sounds and practice the motion of their character.

Brooke Walters sharing some tips with the talent, we were simple observers.

A quick video outlining the process. This is by no means the entire process. After this point they spent a good 30-45 minutes in the maze developing their characters before we walked through the maze. And they will continue to rehearse for the next week.

A couple of pictures from inside the maze. I had taken video but it didn't come out well. Plus, you want to be surprised right?

After our walk through we were invited to take a tour of the Costume/Make-Up warehouse which is always a treat.

Tim Barham explaining just how much effort it takes to put on the event, and how much laundry they actually have to do. Hint ... it's A LOT!!

Bill Meier explains the Make-Up/Prosthetic process. Did you know that Knott's does all of the Prosthetics for every Cedar Fair Haunt event? Now you do.

A few examples of the Prosthetics. These will not last throughout the entire event and are usually replaced every weekend.

The new Knott's Food Truck was also out and we were able to try some great food.

The menu will constantly change, this was what was on the menu last night.

The Food Truck will be located in Gypsy Camp during Haunt since there aren't any food locations in that area. Great idea!!

Both the Po Boy (seen below) and the Fish Taco's were great.

Next was a nice little Haunt History walk through by Ted Dougherty. Most of the info wasn't new to us, but it's always nice to hear great stories.

You can buy Ted's book here, it's definitely worth checking out if you love Haunt History.

I figured there were spiders in these old Ghost Town buildings, but this is pushing it a bit. =)

Lastly, we had Scare School for Pinocchio Unstrung. Obviously it was a bit darker, but here you can see the maze talent doing their character walks.

Gus Krueger telling us a bit about the maze that he took over this year. It's going to be awesome.

That's going to wrap it up for this behind the scenes look at how Haunt is done. We'll be at opening night next Thursday. Looking forward to another year of Scary Farm.

See You In The Fog ...

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Knott's Scary Farm hosts annual Scare School

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