What It Takes to Train Monsters into Action at Knott’s Scary Farm

Planning for the annual makeover from family-friendly theme park to fog-filled streets and mazes of terror at Buena Park’s Knott’s Berry Farm can take months, if not years.

An important part of that process is finding the right talent for the various mazes and scare zones making up Knott’s Scary Farm, which runs through Oct. 31 this year. The 2026 lineup of 10 mazes and five scare zones features nearly 1,000 actors – all of whom go through auditions, training and sometimes even certifications for character development, technique and safety. 

This year’s Scary Farm includes two new mazes – Inked and Unearthed – as well as a reimagining of the longtime clown-themed scare zone, CarnEVIL. Scare actor trainers and art directors work together each year to coordinate the best fit for each maze or zone. 

“When we’re designing the space or the maze, we’re looking at certain scenes or story beats,” said art director Jon Asperin, who designed Unearthed and also helps train scare actors. “That character is then placed in these areas to bring that story beat to life. We’ll figure out if their particular scare is a stunt scare, whether it’s a pop-out scare, whether they’re activating an effect.” 

Another factor that might come into play in terms of scare actor placement in a maze is height requirement. 

He said for Unearthed, there are two positions that required extra discussion and coordination to find the right candidate. The maze has an archaeology theme centering around an excavation site and the discovery of ancient tablets awakening a malevolent force.

“One of them is a stunt position in which we have someone that will be attached to a stunt rig,” he said. “It’s almost like a bungee system that allows them to swing above the guest heads as they enter through the maze. 

“Another example would be a stilt position in which we have talent whose character is designed to be at least 10-foot tall that will look like a statue, a statued warrior, and as they walk through the maze, they’re on these performance stilts that allow them to scare at a higher level.”

Knott’s associate producer Pasta Rago, who also trains scare actors, said the killer-cartoon-themed Inked maze presented some challenges in how to best direct the performers. She said an “evil cartoon” is a very different reference than the typical ghoul or zombie character popular in current culture. 

“It’s kind of one of those things where you’re a stabby cartoon,” she said. “What do you say to somebody? You’re an evil cartoon so you’re kind of funny but you’re not funny. You’re funny because you’re a cartoon – it’s not that you’re actually funny …. So it was a very interesting training.”

Fortunately, the scare actors understood the intent during “scare school,” which is when talent practices and runs through their characters in their mazes and scare zones to prepare for the event. 

“Yes, you’re a cartoon, but you wanna tear somebody’s face off,” Rago said of the maze.

The CarnEVIL scare zone returned this year with new theming, based on the Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind circus-themed maze that ended its run at Scary Farm last year. 

Asperin said training for the re-themed scare zone focused on character development and storyline. 

“What we focused on with the new CarnEVIL scare zone was really getting (actors) to know the different characters that we created, that the team created, storyline and things that helped guide them in terms of their performance,” he said. 

This and other zones across the park include “sliders” that run and slide on their padded knees to enhance scares. But there’s also a lot of backstory. 

“Especially with the new scare zone, people are still trying to figure out what makes them tick, what their motivations are, and so during that scare school is where we do spend some additional time just talking them through into position, talking them into character and then … giving them some guidance and some suggestions with the performance,” Asperin said.

Rago said that for CarnEVIL, it was important that scare actors understood that this is a different feel to what they’ve been doing previously.

“There (are) different classes I guess you could say when it came to whether you’re a sideshow, whether you’re a performer, whether you’re a worker or whether you’re just a general clown – and we really wanted to make those delineations and make those lines very clear to the performers,” she said. 

Asperin said that ultimately it’s the scare actors that make characters their own and bring to life what’s been put down on paper. 

“Once the talent gets their hands on it, once they dive into it and they commit to the character, that’s where I think the real magic happens,” he said. “That’s one of the joys that Pasta and I have is when we see a certain talent that really owns their character, gives it a little twist, gives it these little nuances in their performance and when they’re, especially with the street zone monsters, when they’re having these interactive moments with guests, that’s where the personality really comes in and a lot of what we teach them is just really base level and something for them to start off on.”

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