6 Feet Under the Boardwalk

The Santa Cruz Broadwalk is a famous Northern California vacation spot and home to some classic horrors. You might also remember those Lost Boys who hung out there in the 80s'. Now the Boardwalk is in the process of updating one of their most famous attractions The Haunted Castle. The terror comes back to death this summer. The new ride system is described as being a classic dark ride without any shooting guns with 4-passenger cars, that may have some doombuggy style action.The Castle is going to be two stories tall, starting on the boardwalk level and then spiraling down into the terrors below on a floor underground to the beach level.

This upgrade also seems to offer more scares with state of the art animatronics and effects.
It's been reported that the rotating cars will begin your journey by traveling backwards down a creepy “tower spiral” section of track to the basement level. At the bottom, the cars will quickly spin around forward where you will encounter the first of many new surprises. Other scenes to expect include a trip through the Royal Kitchen / Banquet, Wine Cellar, Ghastly Caves, a Murky Swamp, a Torture Chamber / Dungeon area, a crypt full of coffins, a castle “furnace” scene and possibly some kind of scene of the underworld.

Sounds fun, so we'll see you in Santa Cruz this summer... 6ft under the boardwalk and beyond!

Here are a few videos with a look at the old ride and previews of the new one.

More Knott's Scary Farm News

R.I.P. Alien Annihilation, here comes FALLOUT SHELTER!


Over the weekend, Knott's announced the first new maze concept for 2010: Fallout Shelter. This maze will replace Alien Annihilation, their half-maze, half-laser tag offering. No details were given about the concept, but they provided this tag line: 


"The denizens are insane, and they haven't seen the sun in decades. True terror in the atomic age."


This concept is bringing back (bad) memories of "Revenge of the Dead," "Industrial Evil," and "The Underground." Knott's has been free of the postapocalyptic-themed maze for a while, so we suppose it was only a matter of time before that theme reappeared. No word as to whether laser guns will be involved in this maze. We hope not. 


We've heard that 2009 was the last year of Doll Factory, so we expect another new maze to be announced in the coming months. Also, it's about time Pyromaniax got a new theme. The log ride has a lot of potential, but Pyromaniax has been one of the worst mazes in the park over the past 2 years. We hope that with Universal's event building steam, Knott's will consider stepping up their game this year and add bigger and better concepts, and perhaps more innovative scares. We can't wait to find out!


Here's a video of Alien Annihilation, for old times' sake:

Knott's Halloween Haunt 2010: New Scare Zone Announced

Last month, Knott's revealed that the Gauntlet scare zone (located in Camp Snoopy) would be laid to rest this year and would be replaced by a steam punk–themed scare zone for 2010. They released a couple of early sketches of the costumes on Twitter. Today, Knott's announced the name of the new scare zone: NECROPOLIS!

They describe the scare zone as "Necropolis: the city of the dead where the fuel for their hideous machines is your very blood." Dun dun dun! We're scared. Well, not yet. We're still not sure if steam punk can actually be scary. But we're excited to be getting some Haunt news this early in the year, and we know that if anyone can make it scary, it's Universal! Err...I mean Knott's!

L.A. Haunted Hayride to Return in 2010

According to their Facebook page, the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride will be returning in 2010 for their second year. They claim that "big news" will be coming soon and that 2010 will feature new designs. We're excited to hear what this big news might be. We're hoping maybe an expansion of the hayride or an addition of a haunted house/maze. They certainly have the room for it on the grounds.

We attended in 2009 and were impressed by the event overall, given that it was their first year. They were pretty organized, and the sets were cool. Overall, we didn't think it was too scary, but it takes a lot to scare us these days. The price was a little steep ($25 Thurs-Sun), but if they added a maze or something else to that price, it might be worth it.

The location can't be beat, though. It really is in spooky ranch area, or at least as "ranch" as you can get just off the 101 freeway. And given that L.A. has no other haunted hayride, their lack of competition should really allow this event to grow. We'll keep you posted when we hear more about what they're planning for 2010.

In the meantime, check out some video from last year:

Early Rumors for HHN Orlando 2010

So we've got a few rumors circulating around the Internet regarding Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando. 2010 is an anniversary year (20 years, or "XX"), and of course that means a most likely "best of" theme this year. We hear the most popular icons will be back to host, as well as the possible return of some of the most popular mazes. (We're partial to Superstitions from 2001, mostly because of the hallucinogenic properties of a certain cocktail called "Eddie's Revenge". Don't ask.)

But really, didn't they already do this sort of thing back in 2006, with their "Sweet 16" theme? Exhibit A:

Other rumors include themed queues, expanded scare zones, and even more mazes (the most likely seems to be 10 mazes). (Side note: Those of us on the West Coast have our fingers crossed that HHN Hollywood expands their event this year to include more mazes as well.)

Finally, the new site HHN Rumors has a copy of a trademark renewal application for "Festival of the Dead." We at the Scare Zone have not seen this parade, but the word is that it wasn't that great. Maybe they're just protecting their intellectual property, but only time will tell if this is brought back. Be sure to check out HHN Rumors. It'll be a great site to watch for future updates about HHN Orlando.