Halloween Updates: Universal Studios Hollywood VS Knott's Berry Farm

The bloody writing is on the wall: Universal Studios Hollywood is this close to overtaking Knott’s Berry Farm for the top Halloween event in Southern California.

As in years past, it comes down to quality versus quantity: Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights puts on a far better show, but Knott’s Halloween Haunt is still twice as big and far more established.

For 2009, Knott’s has 13 mazes, seven shows and three scare zones over 28 nights compared with Universal’s four mazes, two shows, six scare zones over 16 nights.

Up until a few years ago, Knott’s had a corner on the Halloween market in Southern California. Universal, which had attempted halfhearted Halloween events on and off since 1986, threw in the towel in 2000. Even Disneyland conceded the haunted holiday to its Orange County neighbor.

Then in 2006, Universal returned with a vengeance, and, since then, the movie and television theme park has had Knott’s in its crosshairs.

Universal has taken a decidedly different approach than Knott’s — relying on marquee movie monsters over generic vampire, alien and zombie themes, while significantly amping up the blood, guts and gore.

Universal’s formula worked well. Too well, in fact. The popularity of Halloween Horror Nights has resulted in too many people clogged into too few mazes over too few nights. The result: hour-long waits for traffic-jammed, meat-grinder mazes with no room for scares.

The ironic solution: Universal will never knock Knott’s off the Halloween hilltop until it offers more, more, more — more mazes, more shows, more nights.

Knott’s isn’t exactly shaking with fear. The Buena Park theme park still offers too much Halloween for just one night — even if Knott’s Scary Farm has grown a bit stale and staid in places.

After 37 years, the granddaddy of all Halloween events can’t get any bigger, but it can get better. And Knott’s officials have conceded as much — acknowledging Universal’s looming threat and vowing to focus more on quality over quantity.

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