Knott’s Scary Farm visitors looking to add a touch of supernatural immersion to the granddaddy of all Halloween events will be able to use an interactive lantern in more than 100 locations to see between the worlds of the living and the dead.
The new Ghost Conductor’s Lanterns will interact with elements in the 10 haunted mazes, five scare zones and throughout the park during the 50th anniversary of Knott’s Scary Farm on select nights from Sept. 21 through Oct. 31.
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The Buena Park theme park has been looking for years for a way to create a new layer of immersion throughout Scary Farm, according to Knott’s maze designer Gus Krueger.
“We have been tinkering around with different technologies like this,” Krueger said. “This has been in the works for a long time.”
The $40 interactive lantern serves as a limited availability merchandise tie-in with one of the central icon characters of Knott’s Scary Farm 2023 — a supernatural train conductor who carries a railroad lantern.
The former Calico Railroad train conductor now uses his lantern to see between the worlds of the living and the dead, according to the backstory created for Knott’s Scary Farm.
The interactive lantern is based on a mold from the lantern used by the Ghost Conductor “scareactor” at Knott’s Scary Farm.
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Each of the Scary Farm haunted mazes will have at least two or three moments that will trigger your lantern — and some will have a lot more.
“Maybe if it’s a dark area, your lantern will go out,” Krueger said. “Or the color will change based on the room you go in.”
The Knott’s creative team did not want the lanterns to trigger special effects inside the haunted mazes.
“The lanterns are affected by the area much more than lanterns affect the area,” Krueger said….
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