It's safe to say that Red Beard's Revenge has been fighting an uphill battle for the past several years since it made its less-than-underwhelming debut at Knott's Halloween Haunt in 2004.  From its rocky beginning, this maze and its crew have had the nearly impossible task of pulling its reputation from ruin.  It appears that four years simply wasn't long enough to get the bad taste out of fans' mouths; the stigma of Red Beard's Revenge being a less-than-stellar maze stuck and stuck hard for the long run.

Was it a bad maze?  No.  The design of Red Beard's Revenge was very nicely executed.  It came at a time when pirates were all the rage - and perhaps that was one of its downfalls.  It is conceivable that possibly the masses simply were over the whole pirate thing - Disney's bombarded the world with pirates and Jack Sparrow for the better part of the last decade.  Theme park fans have had to accept and get use to the changes within Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland.  Every other company out there, including Knott's with this maze, jumped on that treasure chest and like it or not - it's been pirates, pirates, pirates.  Perhaps the public was simply all pirated-out over the years.

Whatever the reason - Red Beard's Revenge was never a smash-hit, even with its excellent design (and there were elements throughout Red Beard's that were kick-ass, such as the section of floor that went up and down).  As silly as it sounds - and it does sound silly - it appears that the pirates theme never fit in at Halloween Haunt (we say silly, because many other totally absurd themes have fit in over the years).

Was the talent bad?  No.  With the exception of its miserable debut year, we feel that most years, the talent in Red Beard's Revenge was just as good as other mazes across the Scary Farm.  Unfortunately, what the Red Beard's team has had to endure that no other maze teams has, is the stigma of being a "bad maze" with "rookie talent" each year; a stigma that is both incorrect and unfair.  But, it is what it is - and it seems that try as Red Beard's might, that stigma stuck fast.  The truth is, there has been some really good talent over the years that has come through Red Beard's Revenge.  From dancing Wenches to hearty pirates snorting, snarling and lurking, Theme Park Adventure has been very pleased with the efforts we've seen over the years.  Unfortunately, like other Haunt fans, we just simply could never fully get into the maze.

The theming of Red Beard's Revenge was good as we've stated - the Haunt gods definitely didn't skimp on this maze over the years, although one might argue that there were some gore elements that were incorporated into the maze were over-the-top and unnecessary.  But the maze was peppered with good piratey fun - cannons, skeletons, a very creepy and dark crew's quarters and even a wonderful treasure-lined cavern area.

Will Red Beard's Revenge go down in history as a Haunt great?  Not by a long shot.  Will it be remembered and talked about 10 years from now?  Probably not much.  Granted, there are going to be fans that feel this was a great addition to the Scary Farm.  And there will be those that say that Red Beard's Revenge never got a fair shake from fans or even sites such as TPA.  That may be.  But again, it is what it is.  In our opinion, Red Beard's Revenge started horribly and finished without much fanfare at Halloween Haunt.

Once the dust settles, the on-going debate about this particular maze is likely to always be why it never caught on and why it never could shake the ghosts of its past despite a four-year run at the Scary Farm.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For whatever reason, we obviously didn't get as many shots of Red Beard's Revenge as we thought we had - if any readers wish to contribute their own images to this page, send them to Theme Park Adventure by clicking here.  Note that all images may not be used, nor does TPA compensate readers for the use of their images.

Return to our Haunt 2007 Coverage Contents Page