Into the fog at Southern California’s Halloween haunts
It’s been quite a Halloween season here in Southern California! I’ve been hopping from haunt to haunt, theme park to theme park soaking in as many scares as I can before the season ends and we launch into the only thing that’s better than Halloween — Christmas. So, as we get closer to All Hallow’s Eve, and before we hop on a plane to Asia (where we’ll be celebrating Halloween in Hong Kong Disneyland), I’m taking a look back and sharing some photos and thoughts on some of the silly, spooky, and scary seasonal offerings So Cal had to offer this year. From Disneyland’s family-friendly festivities to the terrifying haunted attractions at Universal and Knott’s, it was a big year for Halloween, so let’s get started!
CONTENT NOTE:
This post includes photos from the genuinely terrifying Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Queen Mary haunt events. While we’ve refrained from including any graphic or gory imagery here, some images may still be frightening for some readers.
Disneyland’s Halloween Time returns
Disneyland’s now-classic Halloween Time offerings returned this year, with pumpkins and orange bunting lining Main Street, U.S.A. and Jack Skellington’s annual residency in the Haunted Mansion. The silly-spooky Ghost Galaxy is also back at Space Mountain and there are plenty of seasonal treats to be had throughout the park.
Halloween comes to Disney California Adventure
Disney spread the Halloween love over to Disney California Adventure this year for the first time since the park was re-imagined in 2012. The cheesy Candy Corn Acres decorations from the early days of Halloween Time at Disney California Adventure didn’t return, instead the park got a bat infestation brought on by Oogie Boogie, the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow, and a whole lot of family-friendly “Haul-O-Ween” fun in Cars Land. Over in Hollywood Land, the Guardians of the Galaxy get into the act as well with Monsters After Dark, a unexpectedly fun nighttime version of their ride, which recently replaced the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. As a bonus this season, the park’s Paradise Garden area features the surprisingly great Dia de los Muertos festival to tie into the upcoming Pixar film Coco. Halloween at California Adventure is kind of a mixed bag in terms of theme and quality, but it’s certainly a worthy effort as a first-year attempt to bring Halloween back to this park. We hope Halloween Time continues to evolve and improve over the next few years at Disney California Adventure.
It’s Knott’s Spooky Farm, Charlie Brown!
By day, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park is a family-friendly Halloween delight. Spooky decorations throughout the park feature lots of cobwebs and skeletons, especially in the historic Ghost Town. Perhaps the highlight of Knott’s daytime Halloween offerings is the Grand Sierra Railroad’s Trip to Camp Spooky ride overlay in Camp Snoopy. While the seasonal overlay of this kid’s ride is nothing remarkably elaborate, it’s delightfully silly and oozes with the home-spun charm of Knott’s that pairs so well with the Peanuts characters.
Never-ending nightmares at Knott’s Scary Farm
If you’re looking for scary, after dark Knott’s Berry Farm becomes what is arguably the gold standard of haunt experiences in Southern California. Knott’s transforms its historic theme park every Halloween season into an amazing festival of scares that continues to innovate and push the envelope every year. Mazes with elaborate pre-shows, diverging pathways, interactive elements, and more, Knott’s is always finding new ways to scare its Orange County audience. This year’s lineup of mazes is Knott’s strongest in years, with the stand-out newcomer Dark Ride, which joins returning favorites such as ghostly samurai adventure Shadow Lands, a re-invented Trick or Treat, zombie-hunting romp Special Ops: Infected, and So Cal’s creme-de-la-creme haunt through an abandoned sanitarium Paranormal Inc. And if the mazes weren’t enough, Knott’s keeps the scares going with a delightfully campy on-stage romp with Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, and great scare zones including the iconic Ghost Town Streets and the return of last year’s The Hollow which has been dramatically reinvented this year incorporating an interactive on-going story that culminates with the burning of the wicker man every evening at the witching hour!
Celluloid scares at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights is a must-do every Halloween season and I was excited to head back into the fog at Universal Studios this year. Universal’s mazes and scares are significantly more formulaic than what Knott’s cooks up, with a heavy use of elaborate show scenes broken up by jump scares and dark corridors. While other haunts keep you on your toes throughout their various mazes, by the second or third maze, you kind of get desensitized to Universal’s mazes and can guess what kind of scare is coming up around the corner. This isn’t a knock against Universal – it’s just a different style, and Universal excels with this approach, delivering pretty consistent mazes that each feel like super fun, scare-jump mini-marathons. Of course, the biggest highlight of the Universal Hollywood experience is walking through the studio’s iconic backlot. Being able to walk by the Bate’s Motel, take a photo with Norman Bates at the Psycho house, and dodging monsters lurking in the War of the Worlds plane crash set is the most unique haunt experience in Southern California and is not-to-be-missed for fans of filmmaking, theme parks, and Halloween!
High-seas spooks at Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor
It was our first year attending Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor in Long Beach, California. Dark Harbor is an incredibly unique haunt experience with seven mazes, four of which are set aboard the historic ship itself. We (Nick, our friend David, and me) kind of felt the ship mazes ultimately ended up being the weaker mazes in the line-up, but we all really appreciated the unique experience of criss-crossing through the dark passageways and up the narrow stairwells of a ship that has a long reputation of being haunted. Dark Harbor shines the brightest when it plays with twisted takes on the nautical themes that come built-in with the ship. While Dark Harbor isn’t the best haunt in Southern California, it’s certainly a worthwhile event to checkout with surprisingly long mazes, good scares, and set in an incredibly unique setting — all for a fairly reasonable price.
Overall, it was a great year for Halloween in Southern California. We did quite a bit and barely scratched the surface. There’s a ton more we’ll have to try to hit up next year, including Griffith Park’s Ghost Train which returned this year, Six Flags Fright Fest, or any of the numerous standalone haunted houses that pop up throughout the region! Did you visit Disneyland for Halloween Time or any Halloween haunts this year? Where’d you go for your seasonal scares? Let us know in the comments below!
Happy Halloween!
