| Anyone that has visited Knott's
Halloween Haunt in the past several years knows that the ultimate Rock
and Roll high school is alive and well in Buena Park! Now a
veteran attraction at the Scary Farm, Hatchet High is one of the most
fun-loving and creative mazes at the Farm.
Who doesn't love the high school theme? Forget
that originally, there was supposed to be a weird tie-in with the
meteorite that is lodged in the upper corner of the school's entrance
facade. Just the idea of a high school gone wrong is great!
Complete with spit wads and wood shop accidents, Hatchet High is one of
those rare examples of a humorous maze working well at Haunt.
One of the most striking features of Hatchet High is
its '80s soundtrack. For those of us in our 30s, it strikes a
great chord and instantly takes us back to the days of our own high
school experiences - slow dancing to "Take My Breath Away" at the prom
and rockin' out to the Ramones. The maze's soundtrack may be a bit
retro or perhaps even lost on some of the younger generations of Haunt
visitors and fans - but us older kids certainly adore it and appreciate
it completely! In fact, when Hatchet High made its debut at the
Scary Farm, Theme Park Adventure gave it the Best Soundtrack Screamy
Award nod. How could we not?
Hatchet High also introduced us to yet another group
of famous ladies to grace the Scary Farm over the years - the Prom
Queens. Beautiful, sexy and sassy, these ladies have stolen our
hearts and we love seeing them each season doing their thing! They
definitely have taken their place with the Vampire Brides, Blue-Haired
Girls and Grudge Girls when it comes to the famous women of Halloween
Haunt! Mad props to them all! Now, unlike some of the other
maze talent, there have been additions and subtractions to the Prom
Queen line-up over the years. Each season however, those stepping
into these roles have been awesome. We love you all!
And let's not forget the Hatchet High Cheer squad!
The cheerleaders have also carved out a niche in the hearts of Haunt
fans everywhere! We love heading through the cheer room,
watching their antics and seeing what crazy prop they will use next to
fire the crowd up with! A couple of years ago, when someone so
graciously painted "TPA" on the wall in the Cheerleader room, the ladies
were more than happy to root us on with a rousing "T-P-A! T-P-A!"
each time we'd come through! Great stuff! We do love these
awesome ladies as well!
In fact, the entire cast of Hatchet High should
be given props. They have been consistently great each and every
year, each and every time we have gone through the maze. From the
geeks and freaks in the dissection room to the always-hyper football
players - each and every one that has been a part of this maze should be
proud of themselves and their team mates.
The dark humor associated with Hatchet High is one of the
rare examples of funny actually working in a maze for us. Like
many Haunt fans, we prefer our Haunt mazes dark and heavy; in our
opinion, the humor is best saved for the shows at Halloween Haunt such
as The Hanging. There are, however, some instances where humor
does go nicely in a maze; not often - but it does
happen. Hatchet High is probably the finest example ever of the
marriage between humor and horror at the Scary Farm. The subtle
(and not-so-subtle) gags are rampant throughout this maze. From
special events banners draped across the halls to incredibly funny
teacher/class identifiers stenciled on the glass of the classroom doors
- everything works perfectly in Hatchet.
Two of the "classics" that will go down in Haunt history
from this particular maze are the genius giant frog that is dissecting a
student in the science lab (also given a Screamy Award back in the day
for Best Prop) and the "Sex Education" class stencil listing Kobe Bryant
as the instructor. These two example's of Haunt's razor-sharp and
wicked humor are amazing, and will always be remembered by Haunt fans
everywhere. God bless the design team for these and the other gags
found along the way in Hatchet High!
Now, the hard truth...
Like Lore of the Vampire, Hatchet High has become a
victim of time. There are no new thrills and there are no new gags
introduced to Haunt visitors anymore. If this maze returns
once more in 2007, we sincerely feel it should be its farewell season.
We've said before, that it is much better to go out with a bang than to
have fans begging for something new; that is no good at all.
Does Hatchet High have another good year in it? We think so.
Does it have two more good years in it? Definitely not.
Visitors and fans want - and deserve change at the Scary Farm. The
relationship between fans and Knott's is also a business; we don't go
back over and over and over to the same movie when it comes out usually
in the theaters (Rocky Horror doesn't count), regardless of how
good it is. If movie theaters played the same films over and over,
they would rapidly lose business and the interest of their customers.
Knott's has to be very careful of the same thing with its Halloween
Haunt offerings each year. Theme Park Adventure loves Hatchet High
and feels that it has become a legendary Haunt maze that will be
remembered for decades. It is however, time to close the yearbook
and move on.
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