As Knott’s Scary Farm celebrates its 50th anniversary, fans look back at how the theme park haunted attraction has impacted their relationships, careers and lives.
When John Castro began working as a Knott’s Scary Farm monster in 1988, he had just turned 21 and he’d only attended the theme park haunted attraction once before.
He ended up working as a monster — aka scare actor — at Knott’s Berry Farm’s annual event for 13 years.
“I had always liked scary movies and growing up on kind of a diet of scary stuff,” said Castro, who lives in Santa Fe Springs. “My dad used to like to scare me around the house.”
While Castro hasn’t worked at Knott’s Scary Farm in Buena Park since around 2001, his love of horror and scaring hasn’t waned. In 2014, he became a zombie character for Maverick Theater in Fullerton’s “Night of the Living Dead” — which he continues to this day.
“They had somebody drop out last minute and (director) Brian (Newell) needed a replacement right away,” said Castro of his participation in “Night of the Living Dead.” “It’s all history from there.”
Castro’s story isn’t unique. Countless fans have formed, developed and grown around a Halloween- and horror-loving culture centered around Knott’s Scary Farm — an event that started on a much smaller scale than it is today, 50 years ago. Knott’s Berry Farm has been celebrating its 50th birthday during its Halloween-season run throughout September and October with returning characters, “The Chilling Chambers” maze honoring its first maze and a musical stage show, “Music, Monsters and Mayhem,” as well as other activities.
The theme park also opened its Legacy Haunt Store & Museum in celebration, called an “immersive retail experience,” that sells exclusive 50th-anniversary merchandise while offering a museum showing historic exhibits of Knott's Scary Farms past.
“Not only did Knott's Scary Farm establish the concept of a successful large-scale Halloween event at a theme park, throughout the past 50 years, the event has introduced several innovations that have greatly contributed to the growth of the Halloween theme park industry,” said Ted Dougherty, author of “The History of Knott's Scary Farm.”
Monster Community
Josh Mikkelsen, who works at Knott’s Scary Farm as a project specialist, has been a fan since the early 1990s. He said he is now part of a small team managing and training close to 1,000 monsters for the annual event.
“Being involved with Scary Farm has immensely impacted not only my life but my career,” he said. “I am very lucky to be able to do this full time for the last two years, turning my love for the event into my career. I have met longtime friends, family and my wife here at the event and without it being in my life, I am not sure what life would be like.”
Castro has a similar story. Though no longer working at Knott’s, he still maintains many friendships and relationships he made from his time there. In fact, he recently attended a reunion of “old-timers.”
“All this gray hair,” he said, jokingly. “Lifelong friendships come out of things like that.”
He said he’s on his third marriage and each of his wives he met at Knott’s Scary Farm. Plus, his daughter, who is now 28, loves horror and Halloween because of it.
“My daughter was born into Knott’s Scary Farm,” Castro said.
She was born in the beginning of September, and a month later, she visited the makeup room with him during the Knott’s Scary Farm season. She went to her first event at 5.
“She’s basically grown up in it,” he said. “She likes to confront her fears, so even if something is scaring her, she’ll go head on into it .… I think that’s a product of growing up with monsters.”
More than a few have turned passion into a career. Gus Krueger, maze and scenic designer at Knott's Scary Farm, has been a fan for 25 years. He said Knott’s Scary Farm went from a fun, seasonal event to turning into his full-time career.
“I went from monster to carpenter to props master to maze designer, all thanks to Scary Farm,” he said. “My association with Scary Farm has only made me love the season more and I make it a point to get to as many different events as possible during the spooky season.”
A Long History
Krueger said Scary Farm's impact on the Halloween community in Southern California is “indescribable.” As it has grown from a small, one weekend event to a month-and-a-half-long one, the Halloween community in Los Angeles and Orange County has followed suit, he said.
“Now the Southland is filled with a great variety of professional and home haunts of all shapes and sizes and none of that would be possible (without) the one that started it all,” Krueger said “Now it's not the weird kids that love Halloween, the weird ones are the ones who don’t.”
PHOTO 1: Knott's Scary Farm maze and scenic designer Gus Krueger as a monster in the Blood Bayou maze in 2002. PHOTO 2: Krueger as part of the special immersive experience Trapped: Lock and Key in 2014. PHOTO 3: Krueger in Elvira’s Nightmares maze in 2000. PHOTO 4: Krueger in Hatchet High maze in 2006. PHOTO 5: Krueger backstage as a Ghost Town Streets monster in 2008. Photos courtesy of Gus Krueger
Dougherty said it is the longest running Halloween-themed event at any theme park in the world — all others trace their roots back to Knott's Berry Farm.