After a quarter of a century of dreaming up haunted house concepts in Gwinnett County, Netherworld’s owners are still trying to find ways to keep the popular haunted house feeling fresh and new.
Oftentimes, that meant trying to get creative with new uses for old props and costumes, and adding onto them to up the ante year after year.
This year, however, it also included going back to the drawing board and creating several new set pieces from scratch, including a massive new monster with lots of tentacles, according to co-owner Ben Armstrong.
Armstrong said so many new monsters were made this year that he’s lost count of how many of them are new.
Credit: Bruce Johnson
Credit: Bruce Johnson
“We like nothing more than to take our old things and kind of re-skin them, but this year, we made a bunch that were just literally from scratch,” Armstrong said. “Especially when you get to the end (of the main haunt) and you see the big Undying Horror that has all of these tentacles and eyes and mouths and it kind of flies around the room.
“There’s just a lot to see and it’s stuff you will see no where else.”
As is tradition at Netherworld, there are two haunts that people can go through. Technically, one is geared more toward horror and the other is more science fiction, as is typical at Netherworld, but there are science fiction themes in each of the haunts this year.
The main haunt, the horror one, is The Undying Horror, which blends cosmic aspects and horror aspects together.
“It is very much a story of cosmic horror where there’s a horrific monstrosity at the heart of the Netherworld and it’s launching its tentacles into our world and everywhere they land, they cause corruption,” Armstrong said. “It’s kind of based upon things like the works of H.P. Lovecraft, which is a famous science fiction horror author.”
Visitors go through a trail that includes tunnels with swirling lights, platforms that lift and fall, rickety floors designed to shift as people walk on them, walls that reach out to touch the guests and a maze of mirrors where people have to navigate their way as their own reflections can create the jump scares.
Credit: Bruce Johnson
Credit: Bruce Johnson
“I think every year of a haunted house is like a sequel to a movie,” Armstrong said. “You want it to have the feel and the magic of the original movie, but you’ve got to have something new and something exciting.
“So, that’s the challenge, to keep the stuff that everyone lives but then to find the crazy, new things and I think we’ve really done it this year. It’s crazy.”
The other haunt is the even more science fiction-based Parasitic. This haunt is about a plant life form that was reverse engineered off an old Netherworld character, the Harvest Man, and has now begun to spread and corrupt humans.
Parasitic is shorter than The Undying Horror, as is usual with the traditional science fiction-based haunts, but Armstrong said Netherworld decided to try something different with it this year.
“The second show in particular is a complete path reversal and people coming in here will be like ‘Where am I in this show,’” Armstrong said. “Even if you’ve been here a lot, you’re not going to know, and then you go outside for a bit.”
Netherworld also added a “You Scare” element for Parasitic where people can buy game tickets and use them to shoot 10 paintballs at a window which people entering the haunt have to pass. It’s designed so the people shooting the paintballs can see the people in the line, but those people can’t see the people shooting paintballs at them.
“So, you get to scare other guests as they’re entering the queue line, you get to be part of the action,” Armstrong said.
Credit: Bruce Johnson
Credit: Bruce Johnson
And, the midway area where guests can hang out and play games, eat food and pose for photos with Netherworld props underwent several changes this year as well.
“We added a bunch of new elements to it,” Armstrong said. “We have this new thing called Dr. Octane’s Bizarre Beverages where you can get these weird drinks that have like a bubbling potion. They’re very tasty and exotic.
“We have new flavored popcorn at some of our food venues and there’s a new giant dragon that’s in the middle of the midway. It’s completely re-arranged so, when you come, it has that classic Netherworld feel, that feel of Halloween. There’s pumpkins everywhere and it’s an overwhelmingly fun vibe.”
The laser tag area was also changed so that there is now an alien monster in there with the game participants and it can “infect” them and turn them into monsters that turn on the other players and try to “infect” them.
“Slowly, your group starts to turn into monsters and you get to see who can survive,” Armstrong said.
With all of those changes that have been implemented this year, Armstrong beamed with pride as he talked about the work that his crew has done in the last year to get everything ready for this year’s haunted house season.
Credit: Bruce Johnson
Credit: Bruce Johnson
“The thing about Netherworld is every year, we build on what we’ve done before and this year, the crew has just outdone themselves,” Armstrong said. “We have added so much more and Netherworld was already filled with so much.
“One thing I advise people, when they’re going through, is to keep looking up because there are all these crazy monsters that have been made that are just looking down at you. Of course, if you look up too much, that’s when the actors might notice you. It’s a bit of a distraction.”
Netherworld is located at 1313 Netherworld Way in unincorporated Stone Mountain. The attraction uses ticket entry tickets which cost $25 to $40 for general admission tickets purchased online and $30 to $50 for walk-up tickets, and speedpass tickets which cost $50 to $65 online and $55 to $75 for walk-up visitors. Ticket prices do not include service fees and sales taxes.
Tickets can be purchased at Netherworld or online at fearworld.com. The haunted house attractions are open on select dates through Nov. 12.
Credit: Gwinnett Daily Post
Credit: Gwinnett Daily Post
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