Thoughts from the Publisher

by Neena Strichart

Being affiliated with a newspaper certainly has its perks. Case in point: Back in July, I was invited to Knott’s Berry Farm’s press conference where they were to unveil plans for their 41st Halloween Haunt celebration. Although I had never attended the actual event, I figured the preview would be a non-scary way to introduce myself to the upcoming festivities.
Wow, what a preview it was! Besides one-on-one interviews with the creators of Haunt, attendees were treated to a special appearance from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark— who, by the way, hasn’t been part of Knott’s Scary Farm for 13 years. She assured the crowd that she is back and will be singing, dancing and entertaining at the Haunt every night (except Nov. 1 and 2).

The creators shared with the audience their plans for this year. Lara Hanneman, director of Entertainment; Julie Owens, director of Park Shows; Brooke Walters, design supervisor; Daniel Miller, design specialist; and Timothy “Gus” Krueger, design specialist gave us details of what to expect, including visuals of 13 mazes with names like Dominion of the Damned, Black Magic and Forevermore. Other attractions planned are seven live shows and four scare zones with more than 1,000 marauding monsters to scare the heck out of everyone.
During the presentation and private interview sessions, several of the aforementioned monsters roamed through the crowd giving us all a sneak peek at what park-goers could expect during the upcoming Haunt.

The costuming and makeup were amazing— much more detailed than either Steve or I expected. Now I understand what they mean by Knott’s Scary Farm!
Since I’ve had a chance to get my scare on, I passed the baton onto our editor, Cory Bilicko, to attend the Haunt’s media opening night last night. I’m sure he’ll have lots of details for our readers next week…. if he survived.