Review: Knott's Scary Farm 2024

Welcome to our review of Knott's Scary Farm 2024! Last weekend we got to experience 2 nights of Knott's Scary Farm which also included the Boofet and early entry on Friday. 

We've got video walkthroughs of most of the mazes and our general thoughts on this years event. We will be back multiple times this season to check out more of the shows and spend more time in the scarezones.

​Let's head into the fog. 

Welcome to Knott's Scary Farm

My wife wasn't able to experience Scary Farm in 2023 so she actually had 4 new mazes to experience this year. Well, 3, she'll never do Widows. =)

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The Mazes

Eight Fingers Nine: The Boogeyman – Become immersed in a living fairy tale in an 18th century colonial township that's under siege by an inhuman monster who has a sick penchant for eating fingers. As night descends, Eight Fingers Nine emerges from the shadows in search of fresh meat. His vicious bite penetrates deep, causing sleep paralysis which holds his victim in sway while he slowly consumes their flesh. Step lightly and beware the dark, or you may be the main course at his next meal!

Let me just start with this. We absolutely loved Dark Entities. It was an extremely underrated maze that never really found it's footing with the general audience. I think a lot of that had to do with the location of the maze. 

For this new maze in the same location they have moved the entrance to the other side of the building so hopefully that will help visibility. Because this maze absolutely rocks. Gus Krueger has created an absolute masterpiece that will be remembered along with the other top tier mazes of the past decade like Trick or Treat, Dark Ride, Origins and Wax Works. There is so much to see in this maze and I still don't think we've seen it all. Can't wait to spend more time in this one. I do wish this had a more visible façade like Widows. But that's a minor quibble and is difficult due to the location. 

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Widows - The night of the arachnid is upon us! Enter a web-covered nursing home where demonic, eight-legged black widows emerge from their silken tunnels to possess the withered bodies of the elderly residence. Their sole purpose is to secure a mate and hatch a clutch of eggs before sunrise. Will you climb into their web and succumb to their dark desires

I absolutely loved this maze. Another Daniel Miller masterpiece that seemed to be the most popular maze of opening weekend. Due to the theme of this maze there are going to be some people who will never go through this maze (like my wife) or people who will go through with their eyes completely closed. And I think that adds to the creepy nature of this maze. 

I'm not afraid of spiders at all but I was even creeped out by this one. In the most excellent of ways. 

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Cinema Slasher – Venturing through the mystical Midnight Theater, guests travel through the silver screen and into a trilogy of slasher movies. As they are swallowed into the world of gothic horror, they become the movie characters who try to escape the wrath of the dangerous Slasher. The theater opens its doors once again, daring those brave enough to buy a ticket to Cinema Slasher!

My second favorite maze from Knott's Scary Farm last year was maybe my second favorite maze of this year after Eight Fingers Nine. Dark Ride, which this replaced, is in my top 10 all time Knott's Scary Farm mazes and this is a more than worthy replacement, and again will go down as a classic maze of the past decade. 

I think this maze has only improved this year and was filled with talent around every corner. I really just want to sit in each of the theaters and people watch. That's an upcharge I would gladly pay for. 

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The Chilling Chambers – In honor of the first maze in Knott's Scary Farm's prestigious history, the 10 Chilling Chambers gives a nostalgic nod to Scary Farm's past while terrorizing the audience of today. Guests are thrust beyond the threshold of an ominous towering cathedral that leads to terrifying classic maze themes from Knott's Scary Farm's infamous history.

This was my absolute favorite maze from any event in 2023 and despite a few very last minute changes this year it still is an amazing love letter to Knott's Scary Farm. They've added a few things this year and I hope that they continue to add in more props from various mazes throughout the life of this one. 

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Room 13 – Violent murders at The Blind Tiger interrupt the Prohibition-era revelry on Memory Lane. A dangerously delicious new cocktail named The Devil’s Elixir seems to be at the root of the mayhem, but where did the mysterious green aperitif come from? The answers may lie at the heart of the extravagant Argive Hotel, where many have checked in to Room 13… but none have checked out

This is a maze that ties right into the nearby Goreing 20's scare zone and I absolutely love it. Not really "scary", just more of a creepy vibe maze that often gets overshadowed by some of the other new mazes. But it shouldn't. It's very fun. 

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​Origins: The Curse of Calico – Pierce the veil of time and discover the secret of the evil fog that hangs over Knott's Scary Farm in Origins: The Curse of Calico. Unearth the sinister paranormal activity that plagues the town as Sarah Marshall is put on trial for her suspected crimes of witchcraft.

The prevailing opinion was that this was going to be the last year for Origins: The Curse of Calico. However they've decided to retire Bloodlines this year (more on that below). This maze still very much works and the story is absolutely spectacular. That said, I do believe next year will be the final year for this classic maze. 

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Wax Works (Final Year) – Buy a ticket for the final showing of the most amazing wax museum the world has ever seen! The figures look so lifelike you’ll swear you saw them move. And it's rumored that blood-curdling screams can be heard as victims are horrifyingly submerged into a scorching hot cauldron of bubbling wax.

What can we say about Wax Works. Like Cinema Slasher, this maze had some big shoes to fill replacing the classic Trick or Treat, but it did it very well. This has been one of our favorites since it debuted and we are sad to see it go. But also looking forward to what will be coming next year. 

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Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind – Within the canvas tent lies the secret of the most potent force in the universe: the human mind. A hypnotic session with Professor Mesmer can cure all phobias, including snakes, spiders, darkness, claustrophobia and much more

Like Room 13, this maze is not really about jump scares or even large scenes, but it tells an awesome story and really gets inside your head, which is kind of the point. The storytelling narration works very well here and has some awesome payoffs in the second half of the maze. 

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The Grimoire – Turn the page and enter the world of an ancient relic whose dark stories exist purely to turn your greatest nightmares into reality. Enter the world of a mysterious spell book and escape the demonic creatures inside or be eternally trapped within!

I'm going to be completely honest. This maze has never really worked for me. Unlike some of the amazing storytelling of mazes like Origins, Eight Fingers Nine and Mesmer, this one has always seemed convoluted to me. 

The first year of this maze they had a pre-show video playing in the queue which kind of tried to make it make sense, but it never did. They've also cut out the pre-show inside the maze itself, which doesn't help with the story. Still, there are some great effects in here and some really cool black and white scenes that I absolutely love. 

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Bloodline 1842 (Final Year) – Enter the battlegrounds one last time of the war-torn streets of the city of Valdonia. Armed with only your wits and courage, find the remaining Daybreakers and help them destroy the King of the Valhymphri

If Knott's Scary Farm is retiring a maze after only 3 seasons you know it's one that never quite worked, and this one definitely never did. 

It's sad too because this maze is absolutely gorgeous with some amazing scenes. The first year they tried to have a shooting maze which they quickly realized didn't work. Unfortunately instead of completely revamping the maze to remove the shooting "scenes" and updating the script, they kept it all there. And it makes zero sense to have non-vampires telling you to hurry when there's nothing going on. If they had revamped this maze to remove any part of the shooting scenes/script it could have worked. We want to love this maze. We just can't. 

Kudos to the crew who worked on this maze and the talent inside, they are giving it their all. But we won't be sad to see this one go. 

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Scare Zones

Admittedly over our 2 nights we didn't spend enough time in the scare zones, which we will be fixing on future visits. We did however catch the amazing slider show in The Gauntlet and spend some time in Carnevil which has had some awesome additions this season. 

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The Hanging

The Hanging is always very hit and miss. You're going to have people who absolutely love it, you'll have people who say it's the worst one ever, or people like us who are kind of in the middle. 

It's a pop-culture show, and I'll be honest many of the references don't work for me, but that's the nature of a pop-culture show, not everybody is going to know every reference. 

That being said, they heavily leaned into the "Six Flags" merger and for me that was worth it. I did talk briefly with showrunner Jeff Tucker after the show and as always they're still tweaking things, which they will do until the end of the run.

​It's always fun to see the show opening weekend and then towards the end because it won't be the same show. 

We did not see any of the other shows (we will later) or the Elvira thing (which isn't a show at all we learned).

We won't bother with the Elvira "display" on future trips, we were over her 20 years ago and this year it just seems like a way to sell merchandise more than anything. 

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Lastly, we did the Boofet on Friday and I have to say, for the price it really doesn't seem worth it this year. The food was decent, lots of yummy desserts, and as always getting early entry to the 4 backstage mazes is a plus. However, there was never a line for Bloodlines all weekend, Wax Works was pretty much a walk-on and after 11pm Eight Fingers Nine was short. The only backstage maze that seemed to get a line all night was Widows, but I think that was more due to technical issues. 

Even on Thursday night with all of the invited media, we did not have front of the line or early entry and we finished every maze by 11:00pm. So the early entry doesn't really even seem worth it unless it's a super busy night. 

It also seemed that many people thought the same thing, because the waiting area for early entry was not crowded like it was in previous years. 

15 minutes before early entry opens and no crowd. In previous years this area would be packed.

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Final Thoughts

It's Knott's Scary Farm. It's the original. It's amazing. And it's well worth your time to visit. The two new mazes are spectacular, Ghost Town is, well, Ghost Town and the other scare zones are unique and exciting. There is definitely enough here to fill up one or multiple nights of Halloween fun. 

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