Netherworld creators 30 years in: ‘We are the antithesis of AI’
As Ben Armstrong gave a tour of Netherworld Haunted House eight days before 2026 opening day, he apologized that not all the animatronic creatures were operational, that the lights weren’t all in place, that the space wasn’t as scary as it could be.
Perfectionism aside, there was no shortage of scares. Monsters “attacked” visitors. Lights ominously flickered. Armstrong even sneaked ahead and pulled off a proper jump scare as himself, pointing out a mirror that created a hiding spot for performers.
“Chaotic insanity” is how Armstrong describes Netherworld’s modus operandi as it enters its 30th season, now firmly ensconced in nondescript office and warehouse space in Stone Mountain. It debuts Friday and will be open to the public most days through Nov. 7. Prices start at $25 for one haunted experience and $35 for two.
Armstrong and his co-creator Billy Messina have run Netherworld since 1997, first out of an empty outlet mall space in Kennesaw, then the Georgia Antique Center off I-85 in Norcross. In 2018, they moved to their current home and expect at least 75,000 visitors in the coming weeks.
It’s a labor-intensive operation. On any given night, up to 250 people might work the grounds, 150 of them in costume.
“We are,” Messina said, “the antithesis of AI.”
“The complexity of this business is insane,” Armstrong added. “There are so many people, so much technology. Just managing the employees is crazy. I interview all the new employees.”
Their hard work has created the longest-running, most prominent commercial haunted house in Atlanta, spawning no shortage of imitators. The owners regularly hold off-season tours so wannabe haunted house operators from other cities and countries can glean ideas.
“Netherworld is the gold standard,” said Jennifer Bianco, chief executive officer of TransWorld, which oversees the largest trade show for commercial haunted houses and escape rooms. “They reinvest and raise the bar every year.”
Bianco has known Messina and Armstrong for 26 years and calls them “the most humble people I’ve ever met. Success has not changed them at all. I’ve met people who do haunted houses and are clearly dialing it in. They are not. They do the work. They don’t subcontract.”
Indeed, Netherworld has always prided itself on creating original characters and storylines featuring what Armstrong calls “icons” like the mad scientist The Mangler, tree-human hybrid monster Harvestman and the long-running, soul-gathering Collector, a regular on Netherworld billboards who returns this year. They spend zero dollars licensing existing horror characters like Freddy or Jason.
The thematics instead emanate from the fertile, somewhat twisted mind of Armstrong, whose face lights up whenever he discusses the worlds he’s creating. “Ben,” Messina said, “loves fantasy and lore.”
Messina prefers to stay behind the scenes, focusing on marketing and operations.
“They complement each other,” Bianco said. “And they actually like each other.”
Where Netherworld all began
In the early 1990s, Messina was a New York-based special effects makeup artist who moved to Atlanta after working on the low-budget horror flick “Basket Case 3.”
Armstrong, a Dungeons & Dragons fan as a child, came to Atlanta in the 1990s as a Fox 5 TV producer after hosting a late-night schlock horror show as Dr. Speculo, a mad scientist persona, while working at a TV station in Tallahassee, Florida.
In 1995, both men worked with Silo X, an apocalyptic-themed haunted house at North Point Mall in Alpharetta and part of a burgeoning national chain. But when Armstrong and Messina tried to help Silo X open at another site in Atlanta in 1996, the organizers bailed.
So the following year, they decided to do their own. They raised $100,000 from friends and family to create Netherworld in a 4,000-square-foot space in Kennesaw. They landed sponsors like Subway and Papa Johns while charging $12 for a 10-minute experience.
There were rookie mistakes. “One Thursday night, we had eight people show up,” Messina said. “We had double the employees working.” He tried to create a tamer daytime version for younger kids, but the kids still freaked out.
Then there was Netherworld’s first vortex, a feature still in place today. Attendees walked through a stationary walkway surrounded by a disorienting motorized spinning cylinder. Unfortunately, the motor would sometimes break, forcing two workers to manually turn the cylinder whenever anyone walked through.
“It was nothing compared to what it is now,” said Bill “Splat” Johnson, a special effects expert who introduced Messina to Armstrong in 1995 and was an early co-owner of Netherworld.
Nonetheless, Netherworld actually turned a small profit its first year, drawing 19,000 people, though Messina and Armstrong barely compensated themselves. “We made maybe 25 cents an hour,” Messina said. “Our investors made out better than we did.”
In 1998, they found a new, much larger space in Norcross right off I-85.
For the first few years, they scraped by. Armstrong, who had a wife and two children to raise, kept his Fox 5 job.
“It was a labor of love,” Messina said. “I ate a lot of ramen.”
But word spread. They began landing on national “best haunted houses” lists and getting glowing press.
“People saw our energy, our sincerity,” Messina said. “We just wanted to entertain people and scare people.”
Armstrong finally felt comfortable enough to leave Fox 5 around 2005 and devote his time to Netherworld 100%: “From there, I never worked harder. I devoted every moment to Netherworld. We figured out queue management so we could get people through quicker.”
Messina said he sensed a shift after Travel Channel featured Netherworld on a special called “Halloween’s Most Extreme” in 2007.
“I was talking to people in line, and they said they flew down from Virginia just to come to Netherworld,” Messina said. “That’s the first time I heard that. I really began to feel something special was happening.”
Celebrities began appearing, too, he said, fueled in part by Georgia’s film and TV tax credit bringing Hollywood stars to Atlanta. He met Woody Harrelson (“Zombieland”), Jennifer Lawrence (“The Hunger Games” sequels) and Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”). Locals like Bow Wow, Evander Holyfield, Ludacris and Usher stopped by.
“Slash comes in every time he’s in town,” Messina said. “He actually hits me up.”
But they had to pivot in the mid-2010s when a new landlord took over their Norcross shopping center and told them they had to leave by 2017, when their lease was up.
With the clock ticking, Messina and Armstrong visited 30 to 40 locales over 18 months, from Norcross to Marietta to Loganville, seeking just the right combination of price, square footage, parking and location. “Then we stumbled into this location in Stone Mountain,” Messina said. “It had 10 acres, parking in the back. There was office space and warehouse space with high ceilings.”
They found their new home.
Besides more space for two experiences, the location let them create a legitimate outdoor midway with roaming monsters, photo ops, games and food trucks featuring Dr. Octane’s Bizarre Beverages and Zombie Rampage Energy Drink. They are now also open year-round with escape rooms and the House of Creeps Monster Museum.
A haunted family affair
For Messina and Armstrong, Netherworld is truly a family affair.
Armstrong’s wife Laura works the box office. His son Max oversees all technical aspects of the haunt. His daughter Rachel handles front-of-house operations. Messina’s wife Elizabeth runs the gift shop while his young kids are already clamoring to help out.
Rachel said Armstrong’s job definitely made him a cool dad: “When I was a kid, they’d come to school for career days with silicone masks and props. We’d take family trips to haunted house conventions. It was always a fun place. I began working in the gift shop as a teenager.”
She has nothing but admiration for her father’s tenacity and creativity. “He’s the dungeon master of us all,” she said. “He and Billy have created this amazing world. I may be biased, but this is truly an iconic place. People come here on dates as teenagers and bring their kids decades later.”
Many on the seasonal staff have also been working there for decades. “It’s this big extended family that has watched me grow up,” Rachel said. “It’s such a great sense of community.”
Armstrong said he and Messina have no plans to retire from Netherworld any time soon.
“We’re like a band that puts out a new album every year,” Armstrong said. “We’re always striving to create fresh characters, fresh scares, fresh technology nobody has seen before. We’re always creating memories.”
If you go
Netherworld Haunted House
Open most days between Friday, Sept. 18, and Saturday, Nov. 7, but check the calendar. $25 and up. 1313 Netherworld Way, Stone Mountain. www.netherworldhauntedhouse.net