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Halloween 2014: Knotts Scary Farm opens this week – and more!

The Halloween spirits explode from their tombstones like a Hurricane from Hell this weekend, as the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt opens for business, accompanied by numerous other horror-related events in the Southland. With Disneyland Halloween Time and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood already serving spooky entertainment to their customers, it’s safe to say that Halloween in Los Angeles is now well and truly risen from the grave and out for blood – yours!

As noted previously, 2014 will offer the longest Halloween season ever, with seven weeks of Disney’s Halloween Time and six weeks of Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. However, Knotts Scary Farm seems to have given up on trying to go for head-to-head openings with their competition at Universal Studios Hollywood, resorting instead to their old habit of opening on the last Thursday in September.

Knotts Scary Farm certainly seems worth the wait. Besides some great returning attractions (Black Magic, Dominion of the Damned), there are two new mazes  (The Tooth Fairy and Voodoo); a new version of the Trapped maze (separate ticket required), and a shoot-to-kill scare zone (Special Ops: Infected). For Halloween 2013, we thought Knotts Scary Farm hammered a stake through the heart of cross-town rival Halloween Horror Nights; we expect a similar outcome for Halloween 2014.

Read on for a list of Halloween events opening in Los Angeles this week…

Knotts Scary Farm

Besides returning for the Trick-r-Treat maze, the iconic Green Witch will haunt the Calico Mine ride for Halloween 2014.
The Green Witch returns to Knotts Berry Farm for Halloween 2014.

Location: Knotts Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, CA 90620

Website: Click here

Dates: September 25-27; October 2-5, 9-12, 16-19, 22-26, 29-31; and November 1.

Hours: 7pm to 1am on weekdays and Sundays; 7pm to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Description: The Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt disgorges the denizens of Hell for another season of horror. Mazes include The Tooth Fairy, Voodoo, Black Magic*; Dominion of the Damned*; The Gunslingers Grave*; Pinocchio Unstrung*; Trick or Treat; and Forevermore; and Trapped: Lock and Key. Scares zones include Special Ops: Infected); CarnEvil, Ghost Town, Gypsy Camp, and Fiesta de los Muertos. The Green Witch returns to haunt the depths of the Calico Mine Ride.

Shows include The Hanging, and Elivra will return to the Charles M Schultz Theatre.

Tickets for single-night admission range from $39-49. Admission tickets with Fright Lane and Skeleton Key privileges starts at $99. The Season pass is $65; if you want want the special privileges, you can purchase a Fright Lane Skeleton Key for the nights you attend.

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Beyond Fest 2014

Beyond Fest logoLocation: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028

More Information: Click here

Dates: September 25 through October 4

Description: The American Cinematheque presents its second annual Beyond Fest, offering the “best in best in horror, sci-fi, fantasy and badass cinema.” Screenings include THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE; POSSESSION; LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU; SNOWPIERCER; and many more. Cast and crew will be in attendance for THE ABSCS OF DEATH 2; THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL; V/H/S/ VIRAL; HALLOWEEN (1978); and THE MONSTER SQUAD.

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Delusion Lies Within

Delusion LIes Within vertical artLocation: 2525 Arlington Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90018

More Info: Click here

Dates: September 25 through November 2, Thursday-Sunday

Description: Delusion Lies Within – the latest interactive Halloween haunted house play from Jon Braver – opens on September 25 and runs on Thursdays through Sundays until November 2 (possibly longer).

September performances are already sold out, so hurry and purchase your tickets now. Remaining dates are: October 16, 22, 23, 26, 29, 30 & 31.

Hopefully, the high demand will result in an extended run in November.

If you have never been to Delusion, then you are not a true fan of the October season; Delusion is easily one of the best Halloween horror events in Los Angeles – a walk-through haunted house infused with a dramatic story that makes you a participant in the action. Never has the proverbial “Fourth Wall” been so brilliantly breached.

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Field of Screams

Field of Screams logoLocation: The Diamond, 500 Diamond Drive, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530

Link out: Click here

Dates: Sunday, September 28 (grand opening), October 3-5, 10-12, 17-20, 25-27, 31, and November 1-2.

Description: This haunted attraction, located inside Storm Stadium in the Inland Empire, returns for its fifth year of haunting, with five mazes, a coffin ride, and 3D effects.

Hours are 7-10pm on Thursdays and Sundays, 7-11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

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Halloween Harvest Festival, featuring FrightFair

FrightFair ScreamParkLocation: Pierce College, parking lot 20800 Victory Boulevard Woodland Hills, CA

Link out: Click here

Dates: Harvest Festival runs September 26 through November 2; FrightFair runs on September 26-29; October 3-5, 9-12, 15-19, 21-26,28-31; November 1-2.

Description: The annual Halloween Harvest Festival at Pierce College begins a six-week run. The daytime activities are kid-friendly (including rides, animals, and a corn maze), but true-blood Halloween fans will be more interested in the scary night-time FrightFair Screampark, featuring a trio of terrifying walk-through attractions: The Factory of Nightmares Haunted House; the Creatures of the Corn Trail; and the Insane Reaction maze.

Hours for the Harvest Festival are 10am to 10pm Sunday through Thursday, and 10am to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Daytime activities such as the Corn Maze will be open everyday during festival hours. The spooky haunted attractions start at dusk and run till the festival closes each night.

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Los Angelels H.P. Lovecraft Festival and Cthulhu Con

hplffla2014_posterforsiteLocation: The Warner Grand Theatre, 478 West 6th Street, San Pedro, CA

Link out: Click here

Dates: September 26-28

Description: The 5th Annual L.A. H.P. Lovecraft Film Fest and CthulHuCon takes place at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. There will be feature film, short subjects, guest speakers and artists, and special events celebrating the enduring legacy of the famous Long Island author, who created a fabulous mythology of monsters in a series of stories published in Weird Tales, etc.

Guests include Leslie S. Klinger, John Shirley, and Nancy Holder. Films include the feature CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON in 3D; and the short subjects RETURN TO INNSMOUTH and THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH.

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Sinister Pointe

BeyondTheMirror2014Location: 31 Imperial Highway, Fullerton, California 92835

Link out: Click here

Dates: September 26-28; October 3-5, 10-12, 16-18, 23-26, 28-31; and November 1-2.

Description: For Halloween 2014, the Sinister Pointe Haunted Attraction moves to a new location and offers a new version of its haunted labyrinth, titled Beyond the Mirror: A Bloody Mary Tale. As always, visitors will need to surmount obstacles and choose a path through the twisted corridors to find their way out, but this year ups the ante: guests will be allowed to enter only in groups of four – no more, no less – which means you may be separated from your friends or thrown together with strangers, depending on the size of your group. As if that were not enough, once inside, you may find yourself split from your companions and forced to proceed on your own – completely alone, except for the monsters lurking in the dark.

Hours are 7-11pm on weekdays & Sundays; 7pm to midnight on Fridays & Saturdays.

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Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest

mn_FrightFestGhoulsOnCoasters cropLocation: Six Flags Magic Mountain 26101 Magic Mountain Parkway Valencia, CA 91355 818-367-5965

Website: Click here

Dates: September 27-28; October 3-5, 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, 31, and November 1.

Description: The Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest returns with a longer-than-usual schedule, running on weekends (Friday-through-Sunday) from September 27 to November 1. The event includes walk-through mazes, roaming monsters, spooky shows, and revamped versions of the year-round coasters (such as riding Colossus backwards).

The Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest is unique among Halloween theme park attractions in Los Angeles, in that it is an all-day event, featuring kid-friendly thrills by day and more terrifying frights by night. Daytime activities include Witch Hazel’s Pumpkin Patch Crafts; Looney Tunes Trick or Treat Masquerade; and Looney Tunes characters in Halloween costumes.

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Soirées Mystique, An Evening of Victorian Enchantment

Soirees Mystique at Heritage Square MuseumLocation: Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer Street, Los Angeles, CA

Website: Click here

Date: Saturday, September 27, 2014

Description: Victor Ian Élan returns to Heritage Square Museum for another mystical evening of Victorian magic. According to the official website the show “combines magic, mind-reading and mysticism to deliver the most unique experience around for an intimate setting of only 30 individuals. Guests will be treated, in an authentic environment, to an enchanting evening of exceptional entertainment.Victor Ian Élan, a 19th Century Conjuror and Clairvoyant is a Southern California-based performer of magical and psychic entertainment who appears regularly at private parties, corporate events and charity galas.”

Seeking Halloween horror in Los Angeles? Check out our list of Halloween Haunts!