How Knott's Scary Farm monsters come to life at the park

BUENA PARK, Calif. (KABC) -- It's Halloween time again, which means another year for people to indulge in spooky delights at Knott's Scary Farm.

The nighttime event at the theme park features nine frightening mazes, four scare zones and two Halloween-themed shows. In the mazes and scare zones, more than 1,000 monsters roam around to terrify park visitors.

So how does the park become filled with ghosts, ghouls and goblins by nightfall?

There are dozens of make-up artists ready to turn these 300 scare actors into undead beings, horrifying corpses, out-of-this-world monsters and other creatures of the night.

Each artist is given 20 minutes with about four to five monsters for a few hours before the park opens to the public at 7 p.m. They use spray make-up, prosthetics, contacts and wigs to come up with each person's unique creature.

Make-up artist Alma said she's been creating horrifying monsters for 22 years. She said she's always inspired to add something different to each mask.

"Doing the same masks over and over again, you have to come up with different colors, different themes," she said. "Sometimes you do repeat (a monster). There's no way you cannot repeat."

One scare actor, who donned a bloody prosthetic mask, said he loved becoming a different creature in order to frighten people in his maze.

"It's a really good experience, you get to see how people react to you. Some people don't have reactions...but different people have different reactions so it's fun," he said.

In addition to monsters roaming the park and mazes to terrify visitors, there are Halloween treats and shows people can enjoy.

The park offers about two dozen Halloween-themed foods, such as a massive black-bunned Monster Burger and a thick ice cream and Oreo cookie covered Graveyard Funnel Cake.

Another feature of the park is the legendary Elvira. She will be hosting the last season of her show "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" at the Scary Farm. The show, which started at the park in 1983 until 2002 and returned again in 2012, is held Thursday through Sunday at 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

For more information on how to get tickets to Knott's Scary Farm, you may go to www.knotts.com/play/scary-farm.