Red Beard's Revenge has fought an uphill battle since its debut at Knott's Halloween Haunt in 2004.  During its first year, the maze failed to live up to the hype that its talent was second-to-none at Knott's.  In sharp contrast, most of the Red Beard's crew truly disappointed long-time fans of the Haunt and really put a bad taste in our mouths.  The ill-fated pirate maze ended up on the rocks with TerrorVision, the other new maze in 2004, kicking Red Beard's butt hands-down.

When Haunt 2004 ended, something happened to Red Beard's Revenge that didn't happen to any other maze at Knott's; it stayed put, with its doors simply shut, to wait another year until the autumn air would signal its waking.  And during that dormant period, the maze was subjected to rains, wind, the summer heat and so on.  The aging process was in full effect for one year.  An interesting and in a way, very cool aspect of Haunt that 99% of the guests attending the event would ever think about - or care about, honestly.

But we thought about it throughout the year, wondering how the sets and props would handle the elements.  When we finally arrived at Knott's Berry Farm for Haunt 2005, we were anxious to find out.  Fortunately, the sets looked great - just as they had in 2004.  The second big question in our minds was, would the talent be much better than Red Beard's first year?

The answer was easily a yes... but.  The "but" was that the talent overall still wasn't completely over-the-top as it has been in the past with mazes such as Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns or even Jaguar - Temple of Sacrifice.  There were individuals giving it their all; there were lots of empty spaces and many individuals who were just "there" - hanging out, making a minimal effort to scare.

Red Beard's Revenge is a classic example of a gorgeous maze with a mellow crew that creates a completely anti-climatic show.  For visuals alone, Red Beard's Revenge is one of the nicest mazes at the Scary Farm.  As far as talent quality per foot, the maze is near the bottom of the ladder when it comes to our Scary Farm picks.

The length of Red Beard's Revenge is perfect in our opinion, the sets are fantastic and the soundtrack is very good.  Maybe it's Red Beard's Curse that causes trouble when it comes to the level of talent this maze hosts.  Perhaps the stigma of having a very rough debut in 2004 has proven to be a great hurdle to overcome.

Regardless of the reason, there remains big room for improvement when it comes to the Red Beard talent crew.  The level of intensity should be off-the-charts, so that the scares and the impressive quality of this walk-through go hand-in-hand into the Haunt history books.  Red Beard's Revenge should not go down as "the little maze that couldn't."  That would be an injustice to its designers and those individuals who have worked their butts off inside the maze, scaring and working it as hard as they could.

It's not an easy fix, apparently.  Whatever the problem is, Red Beard's Revenge has yet to hit its pinnacle as a Halloween Haunt maze.  It's frustrating, as it should be one of the greats in our opinion.  The first year was disastrous, the second year was mediocre - now we wait patiently to see how its third season will be, as all indicators point to Red Beard's return to Haunt 2006.

Our suggestion would be to over-hire for this maze, to pack it with more talent than ever (because the empty jail cells, empty bunk beds and quiet cavern halls are getting really old) and for the returning talent to completely motivate the newcomers and insist that they give it their 200% at all times while on stage.  Give us pirate fans something to really get excited about, you know?  Wow us this year with something very special and bring Red Beard's up to the level it was always intended to dominate at.

Theme Park Adventure believes in this maze, its theme and its crew.  Now bring it this October!

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