By Charly SHELTON

The monsters at Knott’s Scary Farm may have more in common than an appetite for unsuspecting visitors. Behind the fog, an interconnected mythology has been developing for the last seven years linking witches, haunted houses and ancient objects across seemingly unrelated attractions. And it’s been happening right under our noses, noticed only by those who dare to peer into the darkness and find the connections. 

At the center of much of it is Sarah Marshall, the Green Witch of Calico, and a mysterious book known as The Grimoire.

Sarah Marshall dates back to the very opening of the event in 1973 when she was known as Spooky the Witch, and later Spooky Sarah. From 1973 to 1979, she was a roaming character in the fog, scaring guests when they least expected it. In 1980 to 1989, she became the focal point of the nightly show, The Hanging. The townspeople of Calico accused her of witchcraft and sentenced her to hang in town square. Just as the noose is slipped over her head, a puff of smoke appears and she reveals herself as a witch and makes her escape. She curses the town of Calico to become a Ghost Town and fill with an unholy fog at sundown each year at harvest time and that the citizens would be as monstrous on the outside as they are on the inside. 

The maze Origins: The Curse of Calico from 2019 picks up moments after she disappears from the gallows and her curse takes hold in the town. It ends in the tunnels where Sarah is using her spell book The Grimoire to fill the town with fog. 

Then in 2022, The Grimoire got its own maze as backstory to where the book has been throughout time. But after that, The Grimoire started showing up in other mazes, seemingly disconnected yet bound by the appearance of this book. Mazes like Eight Fingers Nine, Widows and Mary: Haunting of Worth Home have all had The Grimoire show up in one way or another. This secret connection has been playing out right before our eyes, for anyone willing to look. 

In an exclusive interview, Knott’s creative designer Jon Asperin, who developed The Grimoire maze, confirmed that the connections are intentional. Asked whether Scary Farm overall is one connected story, he answered, “Absolutely.”

Asperin explained that around 2017 and 2018, the creative team began working toward a more unified mythology. Rather than forcing every attraction into the same plot, stories were wanted that could stand independently while sharing a common world. Some details are Easter eggs. Others establish possibilities for stories that have yet to be told.

“We’ve been very mindful knowing that a lot of our mazes are incredible by themselves and don’t require The Grimoire. What we’ve done is integrated The Grimoire to kind of tie back for our hardcore guests, that lets them know that it is a part of this bigger universe,” Asperin said. “And our universe of Scary Farm consists of different timelines, different places, different eras that paint this bigger, bigger picture of this huge, almost cinematic universe, in a sense, that has all these different stories, but they exist in our world.”

The Grimoire is one of those connecting threads. The supernatural book can change its appearance, disguising itself as a children’s storybook during the Civil War, classified documents during World War I or even a cookbook in the 1950s. But it isn’t the only magical object in this universe.

“And so, with the development of all these crazy ideas throughout the next coming years, it put us on this path where we’re currently at – where we’ve had the opportunity to introduce what we call Ancient Artifacts into our lore – The Grimoire being one of them,” Asperin said. 

Asperin confirmed that the team has been developing the idea of multiple “ancient artifacts” for years. They may appear quietly in attractions long before anyone explains what they are or what they can do. Guests hurrying through the mazes while being chased by monsters can perhaps be forgiven for missing the clues.

“Are these items fully developed? Absolutely,” he said. “Are we ready to share it? Unfortunately, not quite yet.”

With Origins ending its run this Halloween, Sarah’s maze may disappear but her story appears far from finished. The witch has been part of Scary Farm’s identity for decades and the creative team has left plenty of doors open for her next chapter.

The full interview and a breakdown of the connections appear in our video “Sarah Marshall and the Secrets of The Grimoire” on YouTube, which can be seen by scanning the QR code attached to this story. Just don’t be surprised if the next visit to Scary Farm involves as much clue-hunting as screaming.