ThrillRide! Special Features

Knott's Scary Farm Halloween Haunt 40th Edition
Season Pass Podcast 2012 Report
Oct. 22, 2012

The first group of podcast guests were Jill Schulz, Craig Schulz and Tom Everhart (sitting around the right end of the table), who talked all about the Peanuts characters and their long history with Knott's.

For persons of my generation, Peanuts and Halloween go hand-in-hand; "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is one of the all-time greatest animated TV specials ever. So it totally feels right to me that the Peanuts gang should be well-ensconced at the birthplace of amusement park Halloween celebrations.

We were able to interview Ed Alonzo later in the evening, after his 10:30 perf, and – serious forehead slap – I can't believe we'd never bothered to see his show before this year. Funny, sexy (those dancers, YOWZA), high-energy, and the magic is completely legit. What a cool cat. SEE THIS WITHOUT FAIL.

Speaking of shows, we saw The Hanging Games two weeks prior (when we went through all the mazes, and Trapped) and they really push the envelope with some of the double-entendres this year. One joke in particular had three adults aghast, in a great way. (Parents, you might want to check this show out before allowing younger teens to partake.) (And, parents who bring kids in strollers to this event – I think we see at least one every year – how many times do you need to hear this: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!)

There are nine shows total at this year's Haunt (really, you can't do everything in one night; it's crazy) and while I'm sure all of them are good, I'm going to insist that you also see Unearthed, which, as you'll hear on the podcasts, is designed to be scary. There are plenty of jokes, but this one goes for more "maze-style" spookery than has been attempted in a Haunt show before. And because it takes place in the Mystery Lodge theater, they are able to use some of the "magic" in there to great effect. I vote for more stuff like this in the years to come.

With the park's daytime crowd mostly emptied out, Doug was able to record a couple of maze walk-through interviews with Daniel Miller and Brooke Walter as they presented two of their special 40th Haunt creations. We hit Pinocchio Unstrung, one of Daniel's babies, first.