Hollywood Gothique

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Cue the scary organ music, for it is time to announce Hollywood Gothique’s annual Halloween Haunt Awards, recognizing the finest achievements for 2012. Which haunts had the spookiest  ghosts, the scariest monsters, the most disgusting gore, the most atmospheric architecture, or the most amazing special effects? Read on to find out – if [...]

Date: October 4, 9pm to 1am
Location: Knotts Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, CA 90620
Description: Elvira Mistress of the Dark – who once upon a time performed a comedy show at the annual Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt – will return to the theme park for a one-night-only appearance in honor of the haunt’s [...]

Looking around to see what mischief is being perpetrated by my cut-throat competitors in the realm of Halloween Horror in Los Angeles, we stumbled across this somewhat problematic review in the Los Angeles Times: Change Comes Slow for Knott’s Halloween Haunt, by Brady MacDonald. Although we have to thank MacDonald for confirming our suspicion that [...]

The 40th anniversary incarnation of the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt is a blast. The Green Witch is back, prowling the grounds, appearing in a maze or two, and haunting the midnight hanging show. But as much fun as it may be for old-timers to see the return of a familiar mascot, the real thrill lies in the new frights: four new mazes – five, if you count the EVIL DEAD log ride – all of them frightful fun in an amusing variety of ways. The Trapped maze alone, with its promise of a uniquely personal horror experience, was more than enough to draw us down to Buena Park for a chance to participate in an attraction that sounds truly novel and terrifying.

Like a banshee bursting from its tomb, Halloween Horror erupts onto the Southland tonight, Friday, September 21. When night falls, the two best haunted theme park events in the Los Angeles area open their cemetery gates: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood unleashes a crypt-full of movie monsters on the all-too-willing victims swarming Universal City. Not to be outdone, the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt in Buena Park resurrects its ghoulish ghost town, offering even more menace and mayhem. Who will win this year’s round in the on-going grudge match between the two reigning Halloween theme park attractions? Los Angeles fright fans – that’s who!

What will be this year’s Best Los Angeles Halloween Events? For those who like to plan ahead, Hollywood Gothique offers a series of 2012 Halloween Recommendations, beginning with a perusal of Halloween Theme Park Attractions, such as Halloween Horror Nights and Knotts Scary Farm. Which should you seek like Professor Challenger finding the Lost World? Which should you avoid like Dracula shunning sacred ground? To find out, come along with us…if you dare!

The Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt plans to unleash a new form of fear this year. The long-time king of Theme Park Halloween Attractions in and around Los Angeles, Knotts Scary Farm has decided to offer its visitors the opportunity to reserve a block of time for a small group of friends within a new, [...]

Location: 8039 Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, CA 90620
Dates: September 21-22, 27-30, October 4-7, 11-14, 25-28, 30-31

Delirium was the best of three new attractions at last year’s Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt. Although perhaps a bit short on scream-inducing scares, the walk-through maze benefited from a surreal if somewhat vague theme, which allowed for a variety of weird and wild imagery: eyeballs embedded in walls, corpse covered in cockroaches, and assorted [...]

Drum roll, please – or should that be a funeral dirge? Whatever soundtrack you choose to play in your mind or on your computer while reading this, it is time to bestow our annual accolades for the Best Los Angeles Halloween Events. As with last year, I will dispense with rigid categories in favor of [...]

Dates: October 5-9, 12-16, 19-23, 26-31.
This year, we approached the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt with an edge of fear in our soul that had little to do with the eager anticipation of ghost town ghouls, fallout shelter mutants, lock-down asylum lunatics, or apocalyptic wasteland warriors. Rather, advance word had sinisterly suggested that the annual Halloween theme park attraction was but a pale, ethereal shadow of its formerly spirited self – a “creaky, middle-aged zombie that’s lost its will to rise from the grave every night,” in the words of this Los Angeles Times review of opening night. To our ghoulish delight, however, these dire prophecies of doom turned out to be ephemeral warnings of a disaster that failed to materialize. True, there is little that is innovative or ground-breaking this year; nevertheless, the depth and breadth of horrors on display continue to make this annual ritual a must-see for Halloween acolytes.

Location: 8039 Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, CA 90620
Link out: Click here
Description: True to form, Knott’s Berry Farm launches their annual Halloween Haunt during the last week of September, getting a jump on the competition, most of which waits until October. As in 2010, the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt makes its debut on a Friday, [...]

Dates: September 24-26, 30, October 1-3, 6-10, 13-17, 20-24, 27-31.
Location: Knotts Berry Farm
Description: After my mournful despair expressed over the lack of originality on display in the’ 2010 incarnation of Halloween Horror Nights at at Universal Studios Hollywood, it is ironic to note that the 2010 Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt offers even less that is new and novel: only two walk-through mazes and the Sleepy Hollow Mountain Log Ride. Nevertheless, this year’s Knotts Scary Farm manages to impress with sheer quantity and variety: the Halloween theme park event not only offers dozens of mazes, shows, and scare zones; it also provides a wide spectrum of themes and tones, ranging from grim and grizzly to moody and ethereal to clownish and campy. Although Knott’s Berry Farm cannot match Universal Studios in purely technical terms terms, the wide range of imaginative hauntings includes something for every Halloween-loving soul.