2022 Hauntfinder General NETHERWORLD Haunted House Review

Sean Padelsky

January 21, 2022

2022 NETHERWORLD Haunted House Review

Netherworld Haunted House (Stone Mountain, GA)- No Halloween season could be complete without a trip to Georgia’s crowned haunted jewel. Celebrating 25 years of setting the bar higher than nearly every other haunt out there, this was indeed a landmark event in this storied attraction’s history.

Now located in Stone Mountain, about 30 min northeast of Atlanta (where they’ve been since 2018), this sprawling new venue has proved most accommodating to this epic sized indoor haunt. And over the last 3 years it’s continued to grow and evolve into the beast that it is currently.

It was Friday, Nov. 12th, and Halloween was well in the rearview mirror by this point. Most everyone was now focused on Thanksgiving and the impending holiday season that was fast approaching. Except me, ofcourse. I was hellbent on making one last cross-country trek. And what better way to close an epic season than with this place!?

I got a bit of a later start than I wanted that day, so I had to make up as much time on the road as possible. An 11 plus hour commute is never easy, but I made decent time I suppose. Though I did sort of botch things at the eleventh hour by missing several exit ramps only minutes from the place. My mind was mush by that time anyway.

I wound up pulling into their lot about 8:45, which was considerably later than I’d planned. There went the idea of hitting a place afterwards.

Parking is free here, but there is a bit of a hike from the Life Storage lot to the attraction’s entrance gates. Fortunately by that hour and time of the season it wasn’t busy at all.

Walking up to the main gates I was greeted by the famed Collector character, standing nearby with shovel in hand, and greeting folks headed inside. I paused to ask him where I might find owner Ben, and was told in a muffled voice that he should be somewhere nearby.

I located a staff member standing near a barrier blocking off their massive empty queue line area ahead. There was obviously no need for it that night. The fellow radioed Ben for me, while I walked about taking pictures.
He appeared not long afterwards, not in costume this time. I never know exactly who I should be looking for when I come here anymore.

We chatted for at least 20 minutes or more out front, being interrupted sporadically by wandering line actors that happened by. One particular guy came sliding up on his knees and took me by surprise.
Eventually we had to cut it short, as it was almost 9:30 by now (they closed at 10 that night). I needed to get moving if I was to see the show. So Ben hooked me up with fast passes to both features there (gen. adm. ranges from $25-$35/fast passes $50-$60), and sent me inside.

I got a better glimpse of their amazing new inner line queue area. Resembling a large museum with giant Roman Colosseum pillars, this has got to be one of the most elegantly designed waiting rooms I’ve seen in my travels (see attached photo).

This year’s central theme of the main haunt was “Rise of the Netherspawn”. I’d asked Ben earlier what exactly a netherspawn was. And he was quick to give me a detailed reply, though I scantly remember what he said. I was reasonably certain that whatever it was, it would look pretty cool.

It was so unusual having virtually empty line queues entering inside. And not having any groups either in front or behind me for the bulk of the attraction was a real treat. No conga lines this time out!
I entered through a stone gargoyle lined gothic archway with a jack o’ lantern lined walkway with showering mist raining down from above. An appropriately immersive and theatrical lead up if ever there was one.
Emerging out into their massive main area of the haunt, an actor went soaring overhead accompanied by a realistic winged demonic angel figure standing nearby. Then the ground beneath my feet began rising, as if on the deck of a ship at sea.

From there, the path sloped downward through a nautical themed section which included a tilted floor in a shipwreck set. Surrounding this was an enormous prehistoric fish prop that flopped about, several moving squid props on walls, animatronic crab claws, and a roaring and snapping animatronic shark. Anyone that’s even vaguely familiar with this place knows the animated props here are top shelf, and serve as a major part of the visuals here.
Entering into a crypt area, I was surrounded by hooded figures, fog, and cemetery tombstones. I particularly loved the gasping animatronic figure of a dying girl laying on the ground here. The gargantuan snow beast roaring overhead was pretty badass as well.

A red-eyed tree beast tipped forward along the path, and a giant fish-headed animatronic came surging out of the darkness.

I stopped to help out a ghoul actor strapped into a tipping backboard against a wall that had apparently dropped his drink bottle on the ground and couldn’t reach it. They actor motioned for me to pick it up as I walked by, and I was happy to do so.

Air cannons galore fired at me as I continued, along with hissing snakes overhead. The entire environment here seemed to be in constant motion. If I blinked I’d miss something.

Elaborate building facade entrances (church, etc) were scattered along the path, adding to the eye candy. LED graphics displayed on oval mirrors depicted monstrous apparitions dwelling within. There was so much to look at both at eye level and above. Perhaps I’d slowed my pace some, because other groups began catching up about midway through. I guess I needed to pick it up a bit.

An intricately crafted living room set with an LED fireplace featured a lunging stuffed grizzly bear prop, along with others ahead that tipped forward, and in some cases smacked into me. One paricular cryptic ghoul actor plowed into me a bunch of times.

Inflatable carpets, a mirror maze, and uneven, shakey attic floorboards provided some fun physical navigation along the way. The attic set featured old Christmas decorations and relics, a spraying raccoon prop, and a naked showering woman silhouette with a surprise air cannon that blew the curtains up as I passed by. Whoever the creepy actors were here that peeked out of a closet, emerged from a wall and followed behind for a bit, they were quite effective. Most actors here didnt hang around long. They’d simply blend into the extravagant sets, appear suddenly, and vanish just as quickly.

The only clown section here was near the end, and I recalled it from my last visit here. A clown prop lined hallway featured a lone thrashing clown cadaver overhead.

A cult shrine section housed slow moving (and highly creepy) marionette puppets, and a miniature doll house with LED screens inside. I had to.stop fir a few moments here to check out all the detail work here.
A snapping tortoise head on a nearby wall, and tilting bedroom set with huge demon creature emerging from a closet provided yet more animatronic frights ahead.

An ultra long black vortex tunnel with neon green stars proved to be rather disorienting. Normally these things don’t phase me in the slightest. But I think since this one was as lengthy as it was, it was that much more dizzying.
The seemingly endless array of enormous fantasy inspired beast props continued with a massive tree creature holding out a human body in a circular coven-like chamber, and a tall one-eyed monstrosity in a wraparound path. I totally dug the animated snapping white worm creatures embedded in the walls.

Overhead serpents, dragon headed props and weird tentacle creatures (that resembled the ones from the from Stranger Things TV series) followed. A descending animatronic spider prop was also thrown into the mix here as well.
The rumbling soundtrack playing throughout morphed and flowed from set to set, which really added further dimension to the already immersive landscapes here.

A jack o’ lantern faced archway section gave way to twin reaper statues facing one another in a narrow halway. One shot straight up into the air surprisingly when I drew near.

A spider projection on a corridor ceiling lined with creepy portraits on the surrounding walls provided further intricate visuals. Upon closer inspection I noticed one of the paintings had a pair of inset eyeballs that followed along as I passed by. A very cool (yet minute) detail.

The Collector character (as seen earlier at the entrance gates) showed up several times throughout as well, randomly appearing in areas and running off, only to reappearance few scenes later.

A large mutated rat head came shooting out at one point, along with animated doll puppets that shot out at knee height and danced about. You really never can tell just what you’ll encounter here.

More inflatable floor sections, a tipping wall, a face poking through an elastic wall, and mosaic of moving contorted hellish faces adorning a wall provided further frightful sights ahead. A chair prop with moving arms that flailed about and lifted up into the air. But it appeared their big teeth prop located in a hall of black curtains wasn’t operating. I might’ve missed it if it was on a timer. I know many of the animated props here were.

The familiar giant eye and animatronic hand greeted me during the final act here, along with an executioner prop holding an axe above, and a Medusa figure in a Greek/Roman architecture section witn a tipping walkway. A red-eyed wallhugging creature there lunged at me as well.

The one tipping room walkway here was dizzying as all hell with the surreal image of an actor balancing precariously on the railing. A brief Egyptian chamber here featured a pyramid set with sarcophagus props, green mist overhead and screeching bat sounds.

Yet another vortex tunnel lay head, this one a rotating, red sci-fi inspired passage with various ancient symbols etched into it’s walls and outer computer lab entrance.

A green laser fog swamp section near the end had actors hidden below the murky smog and a large roaring dinosaur head for good measure. A starry night sky psssage signified the end here, which I immediately recalled from my previous visits. But not before a bungee actor came shooting out of hiding on the way out at the exit.
A short path outside also had an actor, along with a large snapping monster head and mechanical creature. This led out to the outdoor midway area, which looked bigger and better than ever this year.

Altogether I was inside the first part of this haunt for 23 minutes. Though I definitely could’ve taken longer than that with the never ending barrage of visuals to take in. Its It’s definitely more than anyone (including me) can absorb in one pass.

I met back up with Ben outside, along with some familiar looking folks from Iowa’s newest killer haunt Hillside House of Hell who emerged not long after me from the exit. Ben led us all over to the second feature here, Planet X in 3D, which now included an all new laser tag line queue area (which Ben said would be converted into part of the actual haunt next year).

Everyone was handed 3D glasses on the way inside. I knew this was going to be a particularly interesting experience with both Ben and the Hillside crew in one big group.

3D artwork and vivid neon colors riddled the walls as we entered inside this sci-fi steeped side attraction. Recurring mad scientist actors running about would continuously drift in an out of vision early on. There weren’t as many actors in here as “Rise”, but they definitely recycled the ones that were present.

A rotating circular floor plate, red laser tunnel, and shaking cage room (that was tricky to maneuver through) provided some fun physical challenges early on.

Lots of giant insect ant animatronics, an alien cadaver laying on an examination table (that someone had humorous placed 3D glasses on) and a big retracting spikes passage (ala Erebus Haunted Attraction) continued the deluge of eye popping visuals and set-driven scares.

White fur covered walls with pink highlights indicated that we’d arrived at their arctic snow themed section. A fluffy white aboninable snow actor blended into a wall here, providing an opportune scare moment. The former Jurassic Park section here had been converted into something else this time out however. Much to my dismay. That had been a pretty cool set inclusion before.

A large dangling crane prop would’ve been much cooler if it actually did something. I did like the suspended talking severed head behind glass in the science lab set near the end however.

The ending passage featured a long, heated covered passageway with spinning fans and refracted beams of red & green light dancing all about. This was new for this season, and led to the exit which contained a lchainsaw actor, large robotic transformer creature and R2D2 looking contraption. Both of which looked somewhat familiar to these eyes.
Considerably shorter at 11 minutes, this attraction was still a blast with an impressive array of eye popping visuals and imaginative set designs.

Roaming about the labyrinthine midway taking pictures, I ran into some of the female Hellsgate staff over by the concessions area. They gave me a big thumbs up for my HellsGate Haunted House hoodie I just happened to be wearing that night.

Ben also introduced me to one of the owners from Erebus as well, who just so happened to be on hand. It seemed a lot of industry folks were present this particular night.

I had to wear a face mask in the gift shop (though nowhere else for whatever reason). The merch was mostly all blown out, but I’ve already got plenty of Netherworld stuff anyway.

Ben also gave me a brief backstage tour, which was an unexpected surprise. I’d had prior tours of the property before, but it’s always a fascinating experience to see the inner workings of this mega haunt whenever I get the opportunity.
And then I was given the green light to go through “Rise of the Netherspawn” one more time! And my second pass allowed me to take in more details and catch things I’d missed before.

An announcement was made at 11:14 that the attractions would be closing soon. Ben asked if Iwanted to do Planet X again, but I was pretty well set on that. I was pretty beat by this point in the evening, and kind of needed sleep more than another trip through a haunted house. But he did hook me up with chili cheese dogs and drinks at the Collector’s Snack Shack before I rolled out. Many thanks!

On the way back to the car, I ran into some staff standing around a Nethetworld van that stopped to ask me what I thought of this year’s show. Ofcourse I relayed my satisfaction for yet another standout presentation. Then we spent a few minutes looking at cop car lights in the distance through the 3D glasses I still had in my pockets, which was sort of trippy.

Perhaps Netherworld’s best showing yet? I’m thinking quite possibly. It’s hard with a place like this that just constantly puts on such high quality shows. Every year is a 4 star event regardless of what theme they’re doing.
I will say that this place remains the best indoor haunt in the country, and if you have yet to check it out to do so asap! They dont get any better than thus folks. Trust me.

Huge thanks to Ben and the amazing (and super accommodating) staff at Netherworld! It’s always a pleasure seeing what new wonders they’ve cooked up here every year. An absolute mandatory bucket list haunt, you simply have to experience this place once in your life. So by all means, make Netherworld a priority next season!
Hauntfinder Rating: 4 (out of 4)