2004 – NETHERWORLD Haunted House Year 8
2004 was the year that NETHERWORLD’s most popular Icon Character would emerge – The Collector from SPIRITS OF THE DEAD! Featuring a more elaborate version of the classic creature Top Hat from our first year, this haunt would contain an ancient graveyard filled with tilted monuments and ghastly undead, the emergence of the cannibal clan the Bostwicks, and increasing large animations and special effects that would totally wow audiences. The Collector eventually became so popular that albums, T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, shot glasses, buttons and even a bobble head featuring his likeness would be created and eventually sell out! To this day he is the main icon character of NETHERWORLD, and is well known in Atlanta for the many billboards his grim visage has graced. Many guests are thrilled to encounter him in the parking lot and pose for a picture with this most famous of monsters!
This year also marked the return of the 3D attraction, this year called VERY SCARY TALES which contained a series of fractured fairy tales and legendary horrors themed on a twisted book of childhood fears.
The downstairs haunt remained very, very dark but added an element of massive gore and Hellraiser-like characters with the twisted nightmare world of OBLIVION. This edgy attraction would continue to be aimed at more mature audiences over the years to come, with more blood, grime and shocking elements that wouldn’t be seen in the other shows.
From its beginnings, NETHERWORLD was a well known attraction in the haunt industry, but after the success of the previous years Dark Harvest and THE HARVESTMAN, the 2004 shows catapulted to national fame after appearing on Top Ten lists and capturing the imaginations of other attraction owners. From this point forward NETHERWORLD became one of the most well-known Haunted Attractions in the USA with the COLLECTOR leading the charge!
SPIRITS OF THE DEAD
After the cemetery was flooded in 1932, Whyshburg Burial Grounds was purchased by the mysterious Professor Victor Chillighast, along with an old manor house and funeral home located on the property. A wealthy recluse, he is rumored to have performed strange rituals involving spirits of the dead…some say to prolong his evil life.
Others say he was never a man at all, but rather an agent of the Dark Ones called the Collector, sent to gather souls for his masters and open the doorway to the NETHERWORLD! Whatever foul secrets are hidden in the sunken tombs and hidden catacombs of Whyshburg, it is certain that many who have sought the truth there have never returned!
Spirits of the Dead– In 1864, the Whyshburg Burial Ground began as a mass grave for thousands of soldiers slain in the Civil War. Although a bit swampy for a traditional graveyard, it was chosen due to its proximity to major roads, the unsuitability of the land for farming, and a long history as a final resting place for the local farmers and the Native Americans before them. Following the war, many families on both sides of the conflict began erecting monuments and crypts of great variety in honor of the slain soldiers: almost as if the battle had begun anew, this time to determine which side could create a more impressive army of funeral monuments.
The small settlement of Whyshburg began to prosper as a stream of stone masons, rock carvers and laborers moved in to supply the growing monument industry. Proximity to another natural wonder, the Jackson-Burroughs ridge, also made the growth of the necropolis much easier. This largely underground ridge of solid granite, the largest known in Georgia after Stone Mountain, bordered the burial ground on the south and provided much of the raw material to create the graveyard. New graves and crypts began mingling with older ones when in 1905, the Bostwick Mortuary was established. Now many well to do southerners and northerners began to bury loved ones here next to their famous warrior kinfolk.
By 1925, the Whyshburg Burial Ground was an amazing site filled with ornate crypts and statuary as far as the eye could see; bordered by the ridge on the south, the Mongahala creek on the north and east, and the massive Bostwick Mortuary and Funeral Home on the west. Sporadic acts of partisan vandalism in the mid 20s caused the Bostwicks to erect a large stone wall from the ridge to the creek, as they now owned all the land that comprised the burial ground.
More trouble began in 1932, when the Bostwicks began quarrying stone from an unusual outcropping of black granite for a World War One monument. The locals had long considered the formation cursed, and the setters called it the Devil’s Throne, due to its unusual color and shape. Midway into the blasting, they uncovered a hidden spring that flooded the Whyshburg grounds all the way to the creek, tilting monuments, exposing graves, and ruining the chance for further burials. For months, many attempts were made to stop the spring (Now called the Devil’s Wound) or divert the flow, but nothing worked. Within 10 years the small settlement of Whyshburg was all but abandoned, as the burial ground was no longer usable. The Bostwicks almost went bankrupt, until a mysterious benefactor agreed to pay the bills as long as the grounds were tended. They continue to operate the Mortuary to this day, focusing now on cremations and handling funeral arrangements for old money families in the surrounding counties, but their work has all but dried up.
As to the Whyshburg Burial Ground, it was closed up and hidden from the public, until historians and antiquarians began sneaking into the place in the 1960s. They found an amazing place totally overrun by nature, but brimming with weird supernatural phenomena. Throughout the 60s it became known as one of the most haunted places in America, as a stream of followers of spiritualism and other odd groups broke into the place to commune with the dead. Soon the Bostwicks were forced to string barbed wire all around the property to keep the unwanted visitors away.
Today the Devil’s Wound has dried up, due to changes in the water table caused by to the huge amounts of water consumed by nearby Atlanta. Once again urban explorers and paranormal investigators have begun breaking into Whyshburg, and they have reported many unusual things. Some say the grounds are honey combed with tunnels, almost as if someone has been burrowing into crypts and graves for years. Another legend tells of a weird black tomb sitting on the old site of the Devil’s Throne. Below the tomb is said to be a pit going deep into the ridge, filled with unusual artifacts. Many also tell of a tall ghastly phantom in a top hat roaming the grounds, digging up graves and consorting with the dead.
The Bostwicks have redoubled their efforts to keep the public out in recent years, even as massive lawsuits by the families of the dead are demanding admittance to the grounds. One way or another it seems, the dead of Whyshburg Burial Grounds will soon give up their secrets, and join the rest of us in the 21st century.
VERY SCARY TALES
Sam found the book one day in an old dug out hollow in the scary tree in his back yard. As dusk fell he began to read the stories: tales of hungry spiders and evil witches, smelly trolls and big bad wolves. Later that evening he dreamed he was looking at the tree and it was looking back…looking back with hungry eyes! That’s when it ate him. Then next morning, when the police were searching the neighborhood for the missing boy, no one thought to read the silver bound book by his night stand. If they had, they might have noticed the last story in the book called…THE NIGHT SAM WAS EATEN.
Now it’s your turn to flip the page, to learn the secrets of VERY SCARY TALES in 3D!
BLEEDING IS FUNDAMENTAL!
OBLIVION
Marcus didn’t remember the accident. Were was he? Awakening on a cold steel floor, he saw the Surgeon. Garbed in shiny plastics and rusted metal, it clicked and drooled as strange appendages writhed beneath its blood soaked surgical gown. It seemed to read his thoughts, and in a strange humming monotone, it explained the nature of his predicament:
WHEN you DIE…And you are evil…before you are cast into the pit of eternal agony…
You come here…to OBLIVION. WE will prepare you for your new life.
We will modify your flesh to survive and flourish in your new home.
If you adapt to our experiments you will become a thing of power, a creature of torment…
But if you fail, your suffering will be amplified for all time.
Welcome to Pain. Welcome to Darkness. Welcome To OBLIVION!
Reviews from 2004
“One of the Top 10 Haunts in the nation”
– Hauntworld Magazine
“It just wouldn’t be Halloween in Atlanta without the mind-bending frights of the renowned Netherworld Haunted House.”
– Sunday Paper
“The massive animatronic creatures inspire awe.”
– Creative Loafing
Telly Award Finalist for “The True Netherworld Story of the Harvestman”
“Netherworld scares the bejesus out of us!”
– Creative Loafing
“Netherworld offers a harmlessly horrifying respite from real-life anxieties.”
– Creative Loafing
“One of the city’s best attractions, Netherworld continues to offer frightful Halloween experiences.”
– AJC access Atlanta
“Filled with terrifying life actors, amazing special effects, and incredible monsters.”
– INsight
“In Atlanta’s storied tradition of truly harrowing haunted houses, there’s Netherworld, and then there’s everyone else.”
– AOL city guide Atlanta
“Netherworld haunted house—Halloween’s most harrowing frightfest.”
– AOL city guide Atlanta
“Three terrifying stories to follow and the foulest demons you’ll ever see—our pick for the best spook house around.”
– AOL city guide Atlanta
“Horror-ific Halloween fun.”
– AOL city guide Atlanta
“Being scared has never been so much fun!!”
– The Weekly Online!
“With elaborate sets, cutting edge special effects, terrifying actors, and intense lighting and sound, NETHERWORLD Haunted House will shock and amaze you at every turn.”
– The Weekly Online!
“An event that is sure to both frighten and entertain.”
– The Weekly Online!
“One of the nation’s most popular Halloween events.”
– The Weekly Online!
“Netherworld is one of the most creative and ingenious Haunted Attractions ever conceived. Each year the Netherworld team creates an unbelievably new and frightening environment for those of use who love to be frightened!”
– Leonard Pickel, Editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine
“NETHERWORLD has been applauded by the likes of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Rue Morgue Magazine, and Hauntworld the Magazine as one of the top Haunted Houses in the country.”
– INsite
Ranked in the top 13 haunted houses in the nation by Hauntworld Magazine
“Throughout our surveys, Netherworld was clearly the most popular haunted house.”
– Hauntworld Magazine
“Is anyone doing makeup and creating custom monsters on the level of Netherworld?”
– Hauntworld Magazine
“Think about everything you wanted to get from the movie “Van Helsing” but didn’t—that’s Netherworld.”
– AJC Gwinnett News
“The three separate attractions don’t simply ‘BOO!’ audiences to death. They scare, disorient, disturb and scare again.”
– AJC Gwinnett News
“Visitors from across Georgia and even the surrounding states come to see the new thrills and chills Netherworld has to offer.”
– Gwinnett Daily Post
“This isn’t your typical cheesy haunted house.”
– Atlanta Buzz
“Featuring three new shows, professional actors, Hollywood style makeup and costumes, state-of-the-art special effects and tons of other haunting surprises, Netherworld offers you the Halloween experience of a lifetime!”
– Atlanta Buzz
“Netherworld Haunted House: Bring a friend to cling to!”
– Georgia State’s Rampway.org
“I screamed so loud and so often that I felt my eardrums pop.”
– Georgia State’s Rampway.org
“The original, and by far the most petrifying.”
– Georgia State’s Rampway.org
“Hands down one of the most creative and scariest haunted houses. Ever.”
– Where Atlanta Magazine
“Experience a world full of frightening tales and haunted spirits—Netherworld offers scary tales and haunted hallways that will spook you into this Halloween season.”
– Georgia Magazine