Halloween bloodfest heats up at Southern California theme parks

October marks the return of the annual death match between Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Berry Farm and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood for the blood-splattered title of best Halloween theme park event in Southern California.

Halloween Haunt, celebrating its 37th year, is universally regarded as the granddaddy of Halloween events. Halloween Horror Nights, which focuses on movie-set-quality authenticity, is the bloodier and gutsier upstart bent on Halloween supremacy.

My recommendation: Hit ‘em both. You won’t be disappointed.

Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which includes its Halloween event as part of general admission, can’t compare or compete with the big boys. Disneyland, Legoland and SeaWorld San Diego focus more on family-friendly fare.

In Northern California, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom delivers a similar Fright Fest event, and California’s Great America offers its slim-downed take on Halloween Haunt.

2009 Halloween events at California theme parks:

Universal Studios Hollywood: Halloween Horror Nights with scare zones (including “Shaun of the Dead”), live shows (including a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” tribute) and haunted mazes (including “Halloween,” “Saw” and “My Bloody Valentine“).

Knott’s Berry Farm (Buena Park): Halloween Haunt (a.k.a. Knott’s Scary Farm) with four scare zones, seven shows and 13 mazes, including the “Zombieland” movie tie-in maze.

Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia): Fright Fest with six mazes, three scare zones, four shows and the wooden Colossus coaster running backward.

Disneyland (Anaheim): Halloween Time with Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and Halloween Screams fireworks show.

Legoland (Carlsbad): Brick-or-Treat with live shows and trick-or-treating for children.

SeaWorld San Diego: Halloween Spooktacular with animal shows and trick-or-treating for children.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo): Fright Fest with two haunted mazes, a zombie scare zone, animal shows and a Thriller dance tribute.

California’s Great America (Santa Clara): Halloween Haunt with six haunted mazes, four scare zones and three shows.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photo credit: Knott’s Berry Farm

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 2, 2009 at 8:58 am by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, California’s Great America, Disneyland, Fall, Family & Kids, Knott's, Legoland, Los Angeles, Magic Mountain, Northern California, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, SeaWorld San DIego, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Theme Parks, Universal Studios Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.