{"id":468131,"date":"2026-09-18T17:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T17:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468131\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T17:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T17:40:54","slug":"knotts-scary-farm-2026-all-10-mazes-ranked-from-best-to-worst-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468131\/","title":{"rendered":"Knott\u2019s Scary Farm 2026: All 10 mazes ranked from best to worst \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knott\u2019s Berry Farm has returned to the fog for another Halloween season with a new haunted house that takes aim at a Walt Disney-like animator whose Mickey Mouse-esque character turns wicked and drags his creator into a twisted cartoon universe.<\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s Scary Farm<\/a> kicked off on Thursday, Sept. 17 and will run on select nights through Oct. 31 at the Buena Park theme park.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Magic Castle magicians to perform in new Knott\u2019s Scary Farm show<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s edition of Scary Farm introduces two new mazes and brings back eight returning mazes, five scare zones and three shows.<\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s Scary Farm continues to improve each season with detailed set design and compelling storytelling in the new and returning mazes.<\/p>\n

The Knott\u2019s maze designers next need to work on improving show lighting to make the sets and \u201cscareactors\u201d easier to see and script repeatable scares in each scene.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look at the 10 haunted houses at Knott\u2019s Scary Farm and rank them from best to worst.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Inked haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n1) Inked<\/p>\n

The new Inked maze takes visitors into the 1930s cartoon world of Morbid Studios run by washed-up studio head Mortimer Morbid where murderous characters pull us into their black-and-white cartoon world.<\/p>\n

The three key cartoon characters \u2014 a cat, ghost and pumpkin \u2014 interact with animatronics via animation projected on nearly invisible scrims.<\/p>\n

The highlight of the Inked maze is a walk-through mirrored kaleidoscope that takes visitors into a flaming cartoon hell with an animated devil.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: First look inside Inked haunted house at Knott\u2019s Scary Farm<\/a><\/p>\n

On opening night, Knott\u2019s stuffed the Inked maze with \u201cscareactors\u201d around every corner and behind every door.\u00a0The vibrant lighting, beautiful set design and special effects were the best of any maze of the night.<\/p>\n

A cohesive storyline helps pull the entire maze together and propel the nonstop action that bounces from scene to scene.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Unearthed haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n2) Unearthed<\/p>\n

The new Unearthed maze takes visitors on a perilous journey through an excavation site where the discovery of ancient tablets awakens a malevolent force from a forgotten age.<\/p>\n

We join a search-and-rescue team that ventures into the Indiana Jones-inspired maze full of snakes, bugs, skeletons and mummies to find an archaeological team gone missing.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: First look inside new Unearthed maze at Knott\u2019s Scary Farm<\/a><\/p>\n

The Unearthed maze \u2014 full of uncharted ruins, intricate murals and hieroglyphic secret codes \u2014 delivers a level of set design and attention to detail usually reserved for Universal\u2019s Halloween Horror Nights.<\/p>\n

A series of booby traps are the highlight of the maze with pointy spears popping out of the walls and an overhead pendulum ax swinging into an unlucky archaeologist.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, several audio effects and animated scenes weren\u2019t working on opening night.\u00a0Unearthed was clearly the crowd favorite with long queues throughout the night.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Eight Fingers Nine: The Boogeyman haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n3) Eight Fingers Nine: The Boogeyman<\/p>\n

The 2024 Eight Fingers Nine haunted maze brings Scary Farmers inside the dark fantasy realm of a twisted children\u2019s storybook tale with the simple story of a boogeyman out to get you.<\/p>\n

The boogeyman is around every corner in this outstanding maze filled with detailed sets and video screens that help establish and support the story.<\/p>\n

All too often the \u201cscareactors\u201d were left in the dark due to lack of show lighting that could be easily tied to an audio trigger.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Widows haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n4) Widows<\/p>\n

The 2024 Widows maze brings together two types of widows: Black Widow spiders who burrow into the bodies of widowed women living in a convalescent home in the midst of a catastrophic arachnid attack.<\/p>\n

The maze is broken into two parts with a nursing home full of creepy old ladies and a spider lair full of creepy web crawlers.<\/p>\n

The unique and compelling backstory of Widows transitions from friendly little old ladies kindly welcoming visitors into the nursing home to the gigantic half woman\/half arachnid Spider Minotaur in the finale that looksawesome and remains the star of the show.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Mary \u2013 The Haunting of Worth Home haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n5) Mary \u2014 The Haunting of Worth Home<\/p>\n

The 2025 Mary \u2014 The Haunting of Worth Home haunted maze tells the story of Bloody Mary who can be summoned by anyone who turns out the lights and says her name into a mirror three times.<\/p>\n

The kinetic and frenetic kitchen with attacks from all angles and the upside-down bedroom with scares from above are among the best scenes in the maze.<\/p>\n

The Knott\u2019s creative team continues to rely too heavily on video screens rather than Bloody Mary \u201cscareactors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Zoo haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n6) Zoo<\/p>\n

The Zoo haunted maze that debuted in 2025 is set inside an abandoned zoo where the military has been conducting animal\/human hybrid experiments in an attempt to create a mutant super soldier.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s best maze has not held up well in its second year.<\/p>\n

The Zoo was the darkest maze of the night \u2014 obscuring the outstanding set details and making it hard to navigate.<\/p>\n

A flyer \u201cscareactor\u201d over a transition hallway delivered the best scare and was the highlight of the maze.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Cinema Slasher haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n7) Cinema Slasher<\/p>\n

The 2023 Cinema Slasher maze pays tribute to four former mazes from the 1980s to 2010s: Slasher of the Dark, Camp Gonnagetcha, Trick or Treat and Slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n

Cinema Slasher turns the classic mazes into a series of slasher movies with a theater marquee signalling each of the transitions.<\/p>\n

The slasher film maze continues to work because each storyline features a marquee villain out to get you.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Origins: The Curse of Calico haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n8) Origins: The Curse of Calico<\/p>\n

The 2019 Origins haunted house tells the origin story of the Green Witch \u2014 the best known character in the history of the annual Halloween event.<\/p>\n

A simple scare with a swinging body hanging in the middle of the room was one of the most effective of the night because the obstacle forces visitors directly into the \u201cscareactor\u201d patiently waiting in the shadows.<\/p>\n

The flying Green Witch at the end of the maze remains one of the best moments of Scary Farm.<\/p>\n

The tired and played out Origins maze will be retired after this Halloween season following an eight-year run \u2014 a long stretch by Knott\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping we get a reboot of the maze in 2027 with a sequel that expands on the overarching Scary Farm backstory.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Chilling Chambers haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n9) Chilling Chambers<\/p>\n

The 2023 Chilling Chambers maze pays tribute to the Ten Chilling Chambers \u2014 the first haunted maze specifically created for Knott\u2019s in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Chilling Chambers continues to feel disjointed and jumbled to anyone unfamiliar with Scary Farm history.<\/p>\n

The dearth of scares and long stretches of empty scenes only make the aging maze seem more past its prime.<\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s steady improvement over the past few years has made this greatest hits package from a bygone era look like half-hearted fan service.<\/p>\n

The endless series of crypts and gravestones do little more than name-check every maze in Scary Farm history in a comprehensive but incoherent way.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Chilling Chambers will be retiring after the 2026 season \u2014 hopefully for good this time.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Room 13 haunted maze during Knott\u2019s Scary Farm at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n10) Room 13<\/p>\n

The 2023 Room 13 maze set in the decadent Prohibition Era of the 1920s tells the origin story of the deadly Devil\u2019s Elixir bootleg booze that fills the Gore-ing 20\u2019s scare zone with undead flappers, mobsters and revelers from the Roaring \u201920s.<\/p>\n

What started as a clever way of tying together the Gore-ing 20\u2019s scare zone with a Roaring 20\u2019s hotel and speakeasy has turned into a Boring 20\u2019s maze that was tired and dull.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the infectious energy of the scare zone gets completely lost in the lethargic and drowsy Room 13 maze.<\/p>\n

The sleepy and plodding soundtrack had a hypnotic effect that lulled everyone to sleep \u2014 from the disinterested visitors to the lethargic \u201cscareactors.\u201d An occasional burst of lively jazz could improve the energy and propel the action in the Argive Hotel.<\/p>\n

Scare zones and live shows<\/p>\n

The returning scare zones included Ghost Town Streets, Forsaken Lake, Gore-ing 20s and The Gauntlet along with an updated Carnevil.<\/p>\n

The entertainment lineup featured \u201cThe Hanging: Noose Maxxxing\u201d comedy and stunt show (Wagon Camp Theater), \u201cVoodoo Bayou\u2019s Edge\u201d dance and drums show (Calico Mine Stage) and the \u201cOccultum\u201d magic show curated by the Magic Castle (Bird Cage Theatre).<\/p>\n

Doors open nightly for the separate admission, after hours event at 7 p.m. The event runs until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 1 a.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knott\u2019s Berry Farm has returned to the fog for another Halloween season with a new haunted house that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2223,163,165,164,1311,7,585,8311,611,420,136],"class_list":["post-468131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-amusement-parks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-buena-park","tag-california","tag-halloween","tag-knotts-berry-farm","tag-orange-county","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}