Knott's Scary Farm
http://www.ultimatehaunt.com/
In a nutshell, there are just too many people to get scared since you see the monster scaring someone ahead of you before they have the chance to scare you. Also, since there are "scare zones" you can prepare yourself for when someone might jump out at you.
You can't ride the rides because the lines are too long. The two redeeming factors is that they have a lot of ticket promotions so it is worth the money and the haunted log ride is amazing.
You can read my full review here.
L.A. Haunted Hayride
http://www.losangeleshauntedhayride.com/
This is the biggest crock I've ever been to. It's way out near Malibu Creek State Park in the middle of nowhere. It's $20 just for the hayride on weekdays and $25 on weekends. That doesn't include the ghost stories, food, or the carnival games.
You also have to buy tickets in order to get food - 3 tickets for a hotdog - good luck. The hayride itself is 15 minutes long and not scary AT ALL. I get scared really easily too. There is only one part of the ride that is scary and it lasts for about 15 seconds. Avoid this place like the plague.
Pierce College's Halloween Harvest Festival and Fright Fair
http://www.halloweenharvestfestival.com/
http://www.frightfair.com/
By day its a harvest festival complete with farm animals, hay rides, giant slides, pony rides and pumpkin patches. But at night it becomes Fright Fair. Fright Fair has three different attractions: The Adventure Corn Maze, Creatures of the Corn Haunted Trail and the Factory of Nightmares Haunted House. We came here by accident after our awful experience at the hayride and paid $25 to do all three attractions (already a better price than the hayride). They give you one ticket that then gets hole punched at the entrance of each attraction.
We started with the Creatures of the Corn Haunted Trail. It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. First, they send you in tiny groups so it was just me and my boyfriend walking through the corn in the pitch black. You can barely see in front of you. Then creatures attack you from all angles. Sometimes they would jump out in front of you or creep up behind you. Sometimes you would get attacked three times in a row only to be left alone in the corn for 3 minutes. Terrifying. It by itself was worth the $25 bucks.
After the Haunted Trail, we find out that the festival closes at 10pm. It's 9:45pm. WTF. I can't believe the ticket person didn't say anything! That was sort of a black mark towards the place but we raced to the Haunted House to get it in. The guy at the door was kind of distracted and forgot to hole punch our tickets when we entered (sweet we get to go through it again!). The Haunted House was also awesome although not as scary as the Trail because we were in a bigger group and there were only so many places that the monsters could jump out from. The Haunted House features a maze also and a creepy elevator ride. Let's just say, you never know when the floor is going to go out from underneath you...
The festival was completely shut down when we walked out of the Haunted House but we learned that we could come back any day to use the rest of our ticket. The Corn Maze takes 45 minutes on average to get through so we are definitely coming back!
Overall, the Harvest Festival is far and away the best. Knotts is fun, but way too crowded. And the Haunted Hayride should be avoided at all costs. But they all close at the end of this weekend so make sure and go!