THEME PARK REVIEW : Knott’s Halloween Haunt Will A-Maze You

For 17 years, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park has been Orange County’s undisputed heavyweight champ of fright-making during the Halloween season. This year is no exception as the park once again exhumes its annual Halloween Haunt.

Continuing through Oct. 31, the Haunt offers horror fans and fright aficionados a caldron-full of bizarre rides and mazes; spooky melodramas and sideshows; a campy shock/rock revue with Elvira, “Mistress of the Dark”; an encampment of Gypsy fortunetellers and a fog-choked ghost town full of monsters--all in addition to the park’s conventional thrill rides and roller coasters. It’s geared for teen-agers and adults and is not recommended for children under 12.

The most popular Haunt attraction is Ghost Town, where special-effects wizards attempt to pull out all the stops to turn their guest’s worst night terrors into reality.

Dense, acrid fog spews from underground portals and hangs in the air, thick and oppressive. Colored lights cast ghostly shadows in dank alleys and sagging porticoes while eerie variations of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor jangle through the air like ragged claws scraping along a chalkboard.

Interspersed throughout the park are five thematic mazes whose subject matter run a gory gamut from a cannibalistic bed & breakfast to a freaky sendup of the ‘60s.

The best of the five is “Uncle Ernie’s Mad House,” a peek into P. T. Barnum’s worst nightmares, where distorted clown-faced ghouls haunt a surrealist maze of mirrors and maniacally decorated chambers.

In another maze called “Encounters of Darkness,” insectile space aliens weave gossamer cocoons around human prey in scenes enhanced by a bizarre, skewed-gravity effect using angled walkways that pull you into the scenes.

The most stylish maze is “Timothy L. Eery’s Time Machine,” Knott’s own version of a bad ‘60s acid trip. After walking through a gut-wrenching, 40-foot-long revolving day-glo tube, disoriented guests are asked to “tune in, turn on or drop out” by entering one of three mazes. Each is adorned with day-glo painted walls, black lights, background music by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane, and a commune of hippie ghouls to provide the chills. The best of the three is “Turn On,” a drug-inspired outing that creates a nightmarish trip along corridors scrawled with the words meth, hash and acid. In one section, the walls actually heave and pitch in a mechanically simulated breathing effect.

In addition to the mazes, the park has transformed its popular Log and Calico Mine rides into “Terror Mountain,” which takes guests on a ride through a haunted logging camp, and “Threshold of Doom,” a train expedition in search of a horrifying legendary beast. “Threshold” is the better of the two, featuring some engaging gore scenes, but Haunt technicians have used so much simulated fog that the aforementioned beast is difficult, if not impossible, to glimpse. The scariest thing about the log ride is the fear that you’ll have to walk around for the rest of the night wet and freezing after being soaked on the ride’s near-vertical plunge into a cold mill pond.

At the Good Time Theatre, Elvira once again is hostess of the racy “Rock-N-Horror Show.” Accompanied by eight backup singers and dancers and a live band, Elvira bumps, grinds and gyrates her way through wonderfully schmaltzy interpretations of Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare,” Madonna’s “Vogue” and two twisted selections from “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Throughout the 30-minute show, offered three times nightly, Elvira spatters the audience with her bawdy one-liners.

If melodrama is your kick, “The Hanging,” a special effects-filled, gory mock-hanging played for laughs and shocks, is presented twice nightly in Calico Square. In a similar vein, “Dr. Cleaver Strikes Again and . . . Again,” a spooky theatrical production, is presented four to five times nightly in the Bird Cage Theatre.

A new feature this year is an encampment of Gypsy fortunetellers who ply their trade in Camp Snoopy. Guests can wander from tent to tent and receive free advice about love and life from genuine palmists, rune-stone readers and Tarot-card readers.

“Splat,” a high-diving comedy and thrill show, is presented five times nightly in the Pacific Pavilion. “Laser Music Madness,” a musical dancing waters showcase, erupts five to six times nightly in Reflection Lake, and “Mad Marvin’s” puppet show runs continuously in Camp Snoopy.

Appearing five times nightly is Dr. Deranged & His Mad Music Monsters, a rock band that entertains on the outdoor stage in Calico Square. On Halloween night, heavy-metal bands Little Caesar and Pretty Boy Floyd will perform on the Calico stage.