Did Knotts Scary Farm on Saturday, managed to hit up all the mazes (save Spec Ops, because I've done it once and it just doesn't appeal to me). Gonna review them in order I did them in:
Wax Works - One of the two new mazes, we did this one right at opening, so there was only a small wait. Even so, I really appreciated the tv's in the cue playing videos to set up the story of the maze, and the scare actor out front inviting people in. It's so nice that everything Knotts does once you get in line is really in service of the overarching story (save the sales carts, but that's just smart business). The maze itself was pretty dang good, with a lot of good scenes and a cohesive flowing story. My favorite gag may have been the "movie monsters" dungeon and the Invisible Man held up by wires, which I thoroughly enjoyed only to turn right into a scare actor dressed as the Invisible Man. I also appreciated the reappearance of the creepy girls and dolls from Dollhouse making a return. The ending was probably the weakest part, and suffers from the same issue Trick or Treat did in that it needs to get people to an exit and ends up trying to theme up what is essentially a pitch-dark hallway. They did a better job here than Trick or Treat did, but it wasn't exactly a high bar. In either case, this was an excellent debut and I'm looking forward to seeing the tweaks they make in the coming years.
Dark Entities - This maze is fine. Definitely improved from last year, but it still feels like it's missing something. It should have one more year to figure things out, but I like this maze staying around just because it's the only maze at Knotts really playing in the aliens space.
Paranormal Inc - I actually skipped this last year because of the line, so maybe some of the changes I saw were present last year, but boy they've done an amazing job continually adding to this maze and keeping it as one of the Crown Jewels of the haunt lineup. There was more projection work which fit in perfectly, a more concentrated use of height to have scares at different eye levels, and the ending? God that's so good, using the black space hallway as a transition to the past, followed by that extremely good false hallway. And even after all these years, that opening still kills. This maze continues to have legs going into its next 5 years.
The Depths - I didn't really like this maze last year, as it felt like an inferior replacement to Voodoo, and this year didn't really improve my opinion of it. The maze was certainly better, but it still feels like a maze that gets by more on scenery than any truly fantastic set pieces (outside of the kraken into rocking ship), and on that front Voodoo did scenic thrills much better.
Shadowlands (hey, my group really wanted to do this one at this point!) - Shadowlands is leaving after this year, and honestly I completely get it. This maze has always been aggressively fine, and this year was no different, with some solid set pieces and good scare actors, but just missing that extra level that always kept it out of the Paranormal/Dark Ride tier of all-timers. I'm interested to see what they put in this spot going forward; the one-two punch of Houdini and Shadowlands really upped the quality in this section from its previous clown-themed hi jinx.
Origins: Curse of Calico - God this maze rules. The line was extremely long (posted at two hours, actually ended up about an hour) but constantly moved, and was filled along the way with different scare actors and scenes outside of the actual maze that built up the story (though I will say the sheriff right outside the entrance who repeatedly chanted "Hang that witch!" did get on my nerves a bit). And the maze itself was full of great scenes and a fantastic story. I'm always a sucker for "outdoor" scenes, so the bit in the streets of Calico was inspired. And there were multiple Catawampus monsters! This really was a maze that tied everything together and created a fantastic story for Ghost Town, and I'm excited to see this maze evolve going forward.
Pumpkin Eater - I really like this maze, even though it is the most unpleasant maze for me to be in. I'm not a fan of body horror, but while I can handle something like Wax Works, Pumpkin Eater takes that above and beyond with the awful noises and wet environments. Still, it's a beautiful maze, and I especially appreciate the Cornstalkers vibes near the end.
Dark Ride - This truly has become a gold standard maze, so it was a treat to see a few additions in the back half just to fill things out. I really do love everything about this maze, with the haunted house carnival ride aesthetic just being such a unique concept for a haunt maze, and the new final scene with a gift shop literally causing me to stop and go back just to take it all in (really should have just created an actual gift shop here so I can buy that shirt). This maze is just a treat and I could do this one year after year with no problems.
Calico Mine Ride - Wait, a ride review? Yeah, we finished early enough that we decided to hit a few rides, and I want to talk about the Mine Ride in particular. I know that Garner Holt redid the ride a few years ago with new animatronics, and they were great, but it did look like more than a few were not working. And we were too distracted by the creaking and straining of our train and cars to really pay a ton of attention to the ride itself. It feels like it needs a refurbishment, but I honestly wonder how much they can truly do at this point, because it really needs a rebuilt ride system which would probably get rid of its OSHA grandfathering.
General - I tend to be of the opinion that Knotts has the best Haunt experience in Southern California, and this year was a prime example of why. Even when I took some mazes to task for issues, it needs to be restated that every maze ranges from very good to excellent, which is an almost-impossible bar to clear considering the amount of mazes Knotts trots out each year. And they've taken steps to improve the Haunt experience in recent years, from the improved scare zones with their focus on stories (this was the first year I got to see the Burning of the Wicker Man in the Hollow!) to having things outside the mazes that build up the story for the people in line. And it's the only one of the main three where I feel you can get away with not getting the front-of-the-line pass; we went with a large group that stopped multiple times for bathrooms/food/etc. because this was not a group of professional theme-park-goers, and we still managed to get through every non-shooting maze with time to spare for a few rides. Both new mazes were fantastic, with Origins looking like a maze that almost-immediately joins Paranormal and Dark Ride in that top echelon of Knotts mazes. I highly recommend going.
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