Ringing in the frightening fall season with its 20th anniversary, Netherworld Haunted House is back for a final season in Norcross–and as bloodcurdling as ever.
Senior Rachel Armstrong, daughter of the owners, describes the attraction for those who have never experienced it.
“It’s a walk-through haunted house and you’re actually going through scenes and monsters are popping out at you. It’s almost like you’re in a horror movie because you’re walking through all of it,” she said. “We have big animatronic robots and also actors in costume. As you go through, there’s different sets with things like spinning vortexes, entire rooms that will shake, and walls that will cave in–it’s like a whole in-depth experience.”
Many students around Chamblee who have visited the attraction in previous years praise Netherworld for its terrifying thrills.
“I love Netherworld,” said junior Sarah Mackey. “I think it’s super fun to go through the houses and scream a lot because that’s what they want you to do. And it’s fun to hear the screams from in front of you–that lets you know that something cool is coming. I also like the people dressed up outside that you can take pictures with. The whole atmosphere is really fun and gets me in a good spooky mood.”
Almost all can agree that this top-rated attraction invokes raw fear.
“I was scared to the point of confusion,” said senior Marshall Peters. “ Like, I got freaked out by so many things at once that I started to question everything. Like, ‘Why am I scared right now? What are these people like behind the makeup? Do their families see them and cower in fear like I do?’”
Even Armstrong, a behind-the-scenes expert of the haunted house, is still frightened at times as she walks through.
“I feel like, what scares me when I go through, are the startles,” she said. “No matter what, when something pops out in your face and is really loud, you’re going to get scared. It’s funny because people are always like, ‘Oh you’re not scared when you go through because you already know what’s going to happen.’ And, that is true, but it almost makes it worse because I know it’s exactly what’s coming and what’s going to happen, but I don’t know when it will.”
Annually experiencing the process of setting up the attraction, Armstrong sheds light on how the haunted house looks when it isn’t engulfed in an eerie darkness.
“I mostly work in the gift shop, and that also entails coming in in the summer and throughout the year to get ready and process all of the T-shirts [because] we have a bunch of products in there,” she said. “It’s really cool because the lights are on and you can honestly see so much detail and set work that you don’t even notice when the lights are off. But trust us — it’s there.”
She further expands on the effort put into Netherworld, noting that with each season comes a new and unique genre of horror.
“If you really looked through it during the day you’d realize how much time we’ve put into this,” said Armstrong. “We’ve been working on it all year and we change the theme each year. And so walking through [with the lights out] is a really different experience. And actually this year we’re offering a kind of behind-the-scenes tour every night before we open. It’s a pretty expensive ticket but we figured that, since we’re moving next year, we’d want to show off our last season.”
As some are already aware, this is the last year Netherworld will be located in Norcross. On the topic of moving, Armstrong clarifies that, although the beloved haunted house may be leaving it’s previous location, it definitely isn’t going anywhere.
“Some people are still confused,” she said. “We’re not closing all together, we’re not opening two, we’re just moving. Currently we’re up 85 and Norcross and we’ve been renting the building for the 20 years we’ve been there. So this year will be our last time there. We bought a building on West Park Place Boulevard off of 78 in Stone Mountain, still in Gwinnett County.”
She ends on a positive note, assuring fans of Netherworld to expect even bigger and better things for upcoming seasons in the new location.
“It’s a bigger building with more space opportunities,” she said. “We actually bought the building and it’s on several acres. So it’s definitely a move for the better.”
