BUENA PARK : Ghouls Set to Haunt Knott’s Scary Farm

About 20 ghouls, goblins and other creatures of the night lurched across the Cloud 9 Ballroom on Friday in the final two-hour session of instruction at this year’s Knott’s Scary Farm’s Monster College. The school, at the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park, has trained more than 500 people to scare the thousands of guests expected for the 18th annual Halloween Haunt, billed as the world’s largest and scariest Halloween party. The costumed actors will lurk and roam in the park’s fog-shrouded Ghost Town and inhabit rides. More than 1,500 people ranging in occupation from aerospace engineers to college students last month auditioned for the Haunt, park officials said.

“Halloween Haunt’s tremendous popularity comes from giving people a chance to actually be a part of a Halloween horror movie come to life,” said Joe Meck, vice president of entertainment and operations at Knott’s. “It’s the live monsters who create the realism and horror of the Haunt.” In addition to converting the Timber Mountain Log Ride, the mine ride, the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs and the auto-race ride into terror-filled nether worlds, Meck said, this year’s scares will include turning the Haunted Shack into a encounter with aliens, the normally idyllic Camp Snoopy into “Camp Spooky” and Bear-y Tales Play House into a demented journey through a world of mutant clowns and haywire jack-in-the-boxes.

Other Haunt events include laser rock shows and the “Rock ‘n Horror Revue,” starring Elvira, “Mistress of the Dark.”

The Halloween Haunt runs from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. (till 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays) on Oct. 12, 13, 19, 20, 25 through 28, 30 and 31. Admission is $22 in advance or $25 on the day of the event, which is expected to be sold out. For more information, call the 24-hour “Haunt Line” at (714) 220-5005.