A Look Inside Atlanta’s Netherworld Haunted House

FanBolt was invited to attend both haunted houses at Netherworld, as well as participate in a walk-through, and both experiences were equally nightmare-inducing.

If you live in Atlanta, chances are you’ve heard of Halloween staple Netherworld Haunted House. The houses have been around for 18 years, with new themes to bring in the scares every season. This year the themes for the two houses are Season of the Witch (which features a wide array of (you guessed it) witches) and Spliced (which features grotesque sci-fi creatures and experiments gone wrong).

Coming up with those themes and how to execute them can certainly be a challenge, but co-owner Ben Armstrong told us that, “Every year when we create Netherworld, it’s full of challenges. The biggest thing is to outdo ourselves. What can we come up with that’s new and fresh, that’ll mess with people’s minds?” The mission was certainly accomplished this year.

On top of creating a terrifying experience for patrons, word on the street is the Netherworld space is actually home to some real ghosts and ghouls! “We recently hosted Roswell Georgia Paranormal Investigations, and they concluded after a multi-hour investigation that there is actual paranormal activity happening at the haunt,” said Netherworld’s other co-creator, Billy Messina.

Netherworld isn’t just known for its haunted houses either! With all of the productions that come through town now, Ben and Billy have had the opportunity to loan out and collect awesome props from movie and TV sets, such as Zombieland, The Walking Dead and Constantine! You can see the skeleton used from NBC’s upcoming Constantine below!

FanBolt’s Editor-in-Chief Emma Loggins and I attended a walk-through of both houses before we did the actual haunts, and let me tell you…even with the lights on, that place is still freaky! What’s fascinating is how much detail goes into the houses that most patrons (like me) don’t even get to see because they’re too busy trying to escape. The time and effort that goes into casting the actors, making the costumes, applying the makeup (there are over 30 make-up artists on staff) and building the houses almost feels like that of a real movie set (Which makes sense, because as we learned on the tour, the Netherworld family likes to think of the haunts as more of an interactive theater experience than your average old haunted house). There are even special scents used in the houses to make the ambiance more real!

When we went through the haunts, I thought I had an idea of what to expect since we did the walk-through prior to the real thing, but I was wrong. The thing that I love about the Netherworld houses is that they’re a sensory overload. Just when you think you’ve figured out that the scary witch will come at you from one direction, something or someone else pops up from another direction and catches you completely off-guard! Speaking of being caught off guard, if you decide to try Spliced, brace yourself for The White Room at the end. It’s completely filled with fog and completely disorienting. There were four of us in our group, and we all started out holding on to one another when we went in and it did absolutely no good. It was definitely my most memorable experience of any haunted house I’ve ever been through, so kudos to whoever came up with that idea.

Finally, we acquired some fun facts about Netherworld that we figured we’d share, as if you need more convincing to check these awesome houses out.

Netherworld Haunted House Fun Facts

• Netherworld has produced 37 different attractions in the 18 years that it’s been around.
• The work of Netherworld’s icon creature creator Bill ‘Splat’ Johnson can be seen in dozens of movies and TV shows including: Eight Legged Freaks, Halloween 2, Zombieland, The Sleepaway Camp sequels, Oculus, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Walking Dead, The Originals and Constantine!
• Netherworld is widely considered one of the scariest and best haunted attractions in the world. It’s been included in top haunt lists over the years including Fangoria, USA Today and Hauntworld Magazine.
• The path through Netherworld is longer than 6 football fields!
• Netherworld employs more than 300 people every Halloween season.
• This year, the Netherworld costume department houses over 3000 costumes, many of which are unique and can’t be seen anywhere else in the world!
• Tons of celebs have visited Netherworld including: Jennifer Lawrence, Janet Jackson, Josh Hutcherson, Chandler Riggs, Woody Harrelson, Usher, Ludacris, Andre 3000, Bow Wow, T.I and way more.

Netherworld is open nightly now through Nov. 2nd. You can find out more information about Netherworld at their website: www.fearworld.com

Photo Credit: FanBolt