Military recruits selected to become mutant super soldiers will be cross-bred with wild animals at an abandoned zoo in a new haunted maze coming to Knott’s Berry Farm this Halloween season.
The Zoo haunted maze will be part of Knott’s Scary Farm at the Buena Park theme park on 28 select nights from Thursday, Sept. 18 through Nov. 1.
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Knott’s Scary Farm creative designer Daniel Miller offered a walk-through tour of the new maze set inside an abandoned zoo where the military has been conducting secret experiments.
Scary Farm visitors will enter the maze as military recruits arriving at the secret lab to be transformed into animalistic super soldiers using one of three methods — surgery, chemical treatments or genetic mutations.
Once inside the facility, Knott’s visitors will discover that the mutated soldiers have broken out of their cells and have begun attacking the new recruits as they pass through zoo habitats and military labs.
Miller drew inspiration for the new maze from “The Island of Doctor Moreau,” the 1896 novel by H. G. Wells about a mad scientist who creates half-human beasts on a tropical island. The book was adapted into movies in 1932, 1977 and 1996.
The Zoo maze was codenamed “Monty” during development in a nod to Doctor Moreau’s assistant.
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The new maze will also pay tribute to 2003’s Asylum maze run by Doctor Mengele — whose granddaughter Margaret oversees the animal/human hybrid experiments in the military lab at the abandoned zoo.
Let’s take a scene-by-scene look inside the new Zoo maze coming to Knott’s Scary Farm 2025.
Welcome Center
New recruits will immediately realize something has gone horribly wrong at the military facility as soon as they step inside the former zoo’s welcome center.
“I really believe that the action should happen right at the beginning of the maze,” Miller said. “You should be thrust into that chase.”
Visitors will come face-to-face with two mutated animal/human hybrid creatures — one puppeted and the other animatronic.
Security Office
A laser defense system that has been triggered in the zoo’s security office has sliced one unlucky soldier into several pieces in an ode to 2002’s “Resident Evil” film.
“The lasers will come down and slice you in bits and pieces,” Miller said. “Laser fire has left scorch marks all over the walls.”
Observant visitors will notice that the facility map on the wall of the security office is actually a detailed layout of the Zoo haunted maze.
Animal Cages
Graffiti will cover the walls of the abandoned 1930s zoo.
A half human/half animal gorilla and a hybrid grizzly bear will try to break out of the crumbling animal cages.
Chemistry Lab
A crazed monkey man will be waiting for visitors in the chemistry lab — the first scene suggesting the military takeover of the zoo.
Aviary
A crow, raven and eagle will soar through the aviary while suspended from an overhead track as they fly from nest to nest.
Surgery Room
A half possum surgeon will be operating on a hybrid coyote with a human head in the surgery room.
Genetics Lab
Visitors will run into a rat man in the genetics lab where a medical splicing device is in operation.
A mutated creature with a massive shark-like mouth will be waiting around the corner.
Aquarium
A fish man will attack visitors in the aquarium where the tanks have been smashed and mutated sea creatures are escaping.
Crematorium
Body bags have piled up in the crematorium built by the military to discard failed experiments.
“The military disposes of all the really nasty ones that didn’t work,” Miller said.
An overhead fogger light will make it feel like visitors are walking through an oven.
“It feels like a flame thrower when you’re passing through it,” Miller said.
Kill Chute
A goat man will monitor the kill chute once used for the zoo animals from an overhead catwalk.
“Now they’ve turned the tables and they’re using the kill chute for the humans,” Miller said.
Sewer
Alligator people will patrol the sewer system — the path for breaking out of the abandoned zoo and escaping the military experiment laboratory.
A frog man spotted in the sewer will be a call back to 2003’s Hatchet High haunted maze.
Military Tent
The military has set up a last line of defense to prevent the hybrid creatures from escaping the zoo in the final scene of the maze.
Visitors will have to dodge “bullets” fired from an air gun at the final creature — a multi-animal mutant.
Flashlight Mode
The Zoo will be two experiences in one with Knott’s turning out the lights inside the maze every night at 11 p.m.
“The animals start to chew through all the power cords and everything is plunged into darkness,” Miller said. “It becomes a search and rescue for fellow soldiers.”
Visitors will be handed flashlights to help them navigate the blackout.
“I like my mazes pretty dark,” Miller said. “Obviously flashlight mode is very, very dark.”
Scary Farm 2025 will feature 10 haunted mazes, five scare zones and three live shows.
The Zoo will be joined by a second new maze based on the Bloody Mary apparition who can be summoned by anyone who turns out the lights and says her name into a mirror three times.
The eight returning mazes include Widows, Eight Fingers Nine: The Boogeyman, Chilling Chambers, Cinema Slasher, Room 13, The Grimoire, Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind and Origins: The Curse of Calico.
This year’s Scary Farm dates include Sept. 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 and 28; Oct. 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30 and 31; and Nov. 1.
Doors open nightly for the separate admission, after hours event at 7 p.m. The event runs until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 1 a.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.