Dan Harkless' Knott's Berry Farm Info: Halloween Haunt 2006:
Red Moon Massacre
Red Moon Massacre debuted in 2001, replacing the also long-running Camp
Gonnagetcha. Though it was short on scares -- generally you got hard-to-see
monsters that half-heartedly shook a can of coins at you as you zoomed by on
your log -- it continued to be one of my favorites. I guess I just really
like Knott's approach to adding Halloween theming and monsters to their
signature non-rollercoaster rides (one of those special elements Knott's has
going for it over other Halloween theme park events). And the wolves &
werewolves theme worked really well with the existing decor of the Timber
Mountain Log Ride, especially with the addition a few years ago of extra
wolves and a full moon taken from the sadly shuttered Kingdom of the
Dinosaurs ride.
Also in the "sadly" category, I didn't manage to get ride-through footage of
this attraction. I went on it early in the evening because I came upon it
with a surprisingly short line, but I didn't want to tape it because it'd get
water spots on my camera lens that would mess up my filming of later
attractions (and I didn't have any lens cleaning supplies with me). I was
planning to go on it again as the last thing of the evening, but apparently
unlike the mazes, Knott's closes the rides several minutes before the
scheduled park closing, and I was thus denied entry. (I definitely prefer
Disneyland's approach on this one, where they leave ride lines open until the
official closing time, and just take into account that employees working on
popular rides will have to work for a given amount of time past that
scheduled closing.) For what it's worth for people who've been on Red Moon
before, I'll report that I didn't notice any major differences from previous
years.
In this video you can see them covering up the Red Moon Massacre sign for the
night so the ride can go back to being the normal Log Ride (albeit with a lot
of weird sheet-covered things inside) the next day, plus some other footage
of the outside of the attraction.
If you want to see more footage of the ride, Theme Park Adventure did a
video of it in 2005, which you can see in thejewfro789's YouTube
channel, but unfortunately they didn't do a ride-through video either
(maybe fearing water damage to their camera?), instead getting some kind of
cool shots from behind the scarers' positions.
I don't know of any public ride-through footage of Red Moon Massacre, and
sadly, there won't be any more chances to get any, as ThemeParkAdventure.com
reports that it'll be replaced in 2007 by a new attraction called Pyromaniax. Sadness about the loss of
Red Moon Massacre aside, that does sound pretty cool. The Log Ride seems to
present a unique venue for the safe use of fire effects in a Halloween maze /
ride.
I went on it early in the evening because I came upon it
with a surprisingly short line, but I didn't want to tape it because it'd get
water spots on my camera lens that would mess up my filming of later
attractions (and I didn't have any lens cleaning supplies with me). I was
planning to go on it again as the last thing of the evening, but apparently
unlike the mazes, Knott's closes the rides several minutes before the
scheduled park closing, and I was thus denied entry. (I definitely prefer
Disneyland's approach on this one, where they leave ride lines open until the
official closing time, and just take into account that employees working on
popular rides will have to work for a given amount of time past that
scheduled closing.) For what it's worth for people who've been on Red Moon
before, I'll report that I didn't notice any major differences from previous
years.
