Blood becomes ink and imagination becomes reality when a 1930s animator gets pulled into the twisted and murderous world of his cartoon characters in the newest haunted house coming to Knott’s Berry Farm this Halloween season.
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The new Inked maze will join the lineup of Knott’s Scary Farm featuring 10 mazes, five scare zones, three shows and more than 1,000 monsters.
The 53rd season of the after-hours, separate-admission event kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 17 and runs on select nights through Oct. 31 at the Buena Park theme park.
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The new Inked maze created by Knott’s Scary Farm creative designer Daniel Miller will take visitors into the 1930s cartoon world of Morbid Studios run by washed-up studio head Mortimer Morbid.
To set the mood and establish the backstory, a trio of Morbid Studios cartoon shorts will be playing in the Inked queue: “Graveyard Grovelings,” “Haunted House Hiccups” and “Treats … No Tricks.”
Inked begins inside Mortimer’s studio where he’s working late into the night on a new animated cartoon for an upcoming Halloween television special.
“He pricks his finger,” Miller said. “Blood drips down on the cell and it comes to life.”
The animated characters pop out of the cells, transform into twisted monsters and attack Mortimer and the other animators in the studio.
“He realizes he can create this whole new animated world with blood,” Miller said. “He opens a portal into the animated world, inviting all the ‘toons in and they attack all the artists.”
The first third of the maze takes visitors inside the animator’s studio where we see the story unfolding.
Visitors are introduced to the three main cartoon characters in the Inked maze: Peety the Pumpkin, Chancy the Cat and Jeannie the Ghost.
The cartoon characters will interact with “scareactors” and animatronics in the maze via animation projected on nearly invisible scrims.
Visitors pass through a dip room reminiscent of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and a ghostly graveyard scene surrounded by a 360-degree wraparound screen where animation will play on a constant loop.
A skeleton band reminiscent of the 1929 “Skeleton Dance” from Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoon shorts will play in the jazz hall.
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The middle third of the maze pulls us into the black-and-white cartoon world where the animated characters are in charge and out for revenge.
Stepping into a cartoon world is fun, clever and cute — but not necessarily scary.
“My job was to subvert that and make it as horrifying as possible,” Miller said.
The last third of the maze returns to the animator’s studio where we see the aftermath of the cartoon attack.
“At the very end, you’ll see that the animation has re-entered into the real world and is about to take over,” Miller said.
Visitors passing through a blacked out rodent room will feel rat tails on their faces, mice scurrying at their feet and hear squeaking and squealing behind the walls.
Animated characters projected on the walls will interact with the “scareactors” in the maze.
Special effects will include a walk-through kaleidoscope that will transport visitors into a cartoon hell where they will meet an animated devil.
The black-and-white cartoon world inside the maze will be drawn in the style of famed animator Max Fleischer who brought Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor Man to movie screens in the 1930s.
The cartoon cat, pumpkin and ghost in the Inked maze were inspired by early animation from the 1920s to the 1940s.
“They each have their own personalities,” Miller said. “We also wanted to tap into all of history and the anthropomorphic nature of the 1930s cartoons.”
Any similarities to early black-and-white animated characters like Felix the Cat, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Oswald the Rabbit or Mickey Mouse will be just a coincidence.
“They’re definitely not those characters,” Miller said. “They’re all new characters.”
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The new Inked maze will be located under the Xcelerator coaster.