BUENA PARK, Calif. — The heavy fog and the costumed monsters lurking inside it are back at Knott's Berry Farm.
For 26 nights this Halloween season, Knott's Berry Farm transforms into its scarier alter ego, Knott's Scary Farm, and brings new mazes, returning scare zones and other terrifying attractions.
This year, Knott's Berry Farm is celebrating its 49th season of Knott's Scary Farm. The nightly event will run on select dates from Sept. 22 to Halloween night, Oct. 31.
In total, there will be 17 scare experiences, including nine mazes, five scare zones and three shows.
At the door, tickets start at $109, but visitors can save $50 by buying online.
Visitors should also be aware that the theme park is extending its chaperone policy that requires adults 21 years of age and over to accompany guests 17 years old and younger.
One chaperone may accompany no more than four guests ages 17 or younger daily, must remain inside the park and be available by phone throughout the night. Knott's security will remove unaccompanied minors, not with a chaperone, from the theme park.
In addition, the theme park is implementing a bag policy. Guests will not be permitted to bring bags larger than 6.5" x 4.5" x 2" into the park, including purses, backpacks or diaper bags.
Here are a few things visitors should know about this year's Knott's Scary Farm:
This year, Knott's offers two new scary mazes, a three-hour Beyond the Fog behind-the-scenes tour of the making of Knott's Scary Farm and two new shows.
The new mazes include Bloodline 1842, an attraction that allows visitors to traverse the streets of Valdonia, hunting vampires. The other maze is the Grimoire, where guests enter the nightmarish stories inside a mysterious spell book and try to escape the creatures within it.
For the first time, the theme park will also pull back the curtain and allow visitors to see how the Knott's Scary Farm team of designers, year in and year out, pull off to create the successful haunting Halloween event. The three-hour walking tour dubbed the Frights Off Tour gives visitors a lesson in the history of Knott's Scary Farm and walks through several mazes with the lights on.
The two new shows are the Le Magnifique Carnaval du Grotesque at the Calico Mine Stage, where viewers will see performers perform death-defying feats and dangerous carnival acts, and the Conjurers: Dark Magic at Bird Cage Theater. Viewers will watch an undertaker perform magic tricks.
Seven mazes are coming back, along with several scare zones and favorite shows.
Among the returning mazes are the Depths, which takes guests inside an underground cave with lurking costumed monsters, waist-high fog and green special effects that make it appear like people are walking through a swamp.
Wax Works returns with visitors exploring an abandoned wax museum. The maze features eerie blood-curdling screams throughout the hallways and gory monsters hidden throughout the walls.
Fan favorites returning include the circus-themed Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind, Pumpkin Eater, Origins: The Curse of Calico, Dark Entities and Dark Ride.
Knott's Scary Farm wouldn't be what it is without the scare zones. As people walk through certain parts of the theme park, it's common to see a heavy fog blanketing an area and costumed monsters lurking in the shadows, behind walls and even on the floor.
This year, guests will encounter the evil costumed half-human and half-monsters filling Ghost Town, deviant clowns walking around the Boardwalk and the 1920s old-school gangsters and damsels running around the area of the Walter Knott Theater.
Also returning is Puppet Up! Uncensored at the Walter Knott Theater, where the audience can watch a mature off-the-cuff improvisational live comedy show featuring puppets.
Additionally, Knott's is dressing up the Timber Mountain Log Ride with a Halloween Hootenanny overlay. Guests can check out curated artwork in the Into The Fog: A Scary Farm Tribute Art Show.