NETHERWORLD Haunted House Presents: Banshee!

The ancient evil city of Ys has risen from the ocean off the coast of Ireland bringing with it a plague of Banshees! These foul eyeless winged monstrosities feed on the dark energy of dying humans, seeking battlefields and natural disasters where life hangs in the balance. When there is no death and war they create their own by releasing mind shattering howls that summon evil from the NETHERWORLD! Thus the wail of the Banshee has always meant death to those who hear it, as it rips apart the wall between worlds and releases monstrous Fomorian warriors and other fell Celtic beasts to plunder and destroy! Drawn by the flickering pumpkins and falling leaves of the autumn season, the Banshees circle ever nearer, destined to create the most terrifying Halloween the world has even seen!

New Features for 2012

The Massive Bloody Crawling Eye! Crushed by the Primordial Giant! Portraits of the Undying! The Slime Crawler! Mauled by Crows! The Underwater City! The Beast From the Abyss! Mermaids and Tritons! The Formorian Hordes! The Wail of The Banshee! The House of the Dead! The 21 Foot Tall Tree Beast! The Moray Pits! Feel the horrors of a Halloween gone mad as the sunken city rises and Banshees fill the skies! More repulsive monsters, shocking scares and wild special effects than you have ever seen!

Banshee – Its Scream Means Death!

The FULL Story…

Listen my student as I tell you of the new doom that has befallen us even as we celebrate our victory over the Nightmare Kings. It is why you must now go to the ruins of our stronghold and find the passageway to the noxious island of Ys!

At the hands of the Illuminati the Blood Night was at last ended. As the dark clouds melted away to reveal the suns rays, the creatures of the NETHERWORLD, caught unaware were blasted into dust! Armies of gargoyles and hideous war beasts vanished instantly in the blazing burning light. But the damage had been done – ruined cities, crushed armies and charred corpses filled the landscape. But the nightmares of the NETHERWORLD were not all destroyed…some escaped into dark basements, dank sewers and abandoned dungeons emerging again at sundown to continue their foul predations. Nighttime would never be safe as these fiends continued to stalk us from the shadows only fleeing back to their hidden lairs at dawn’s first glimmer. A new class of paranormal investigators and warriors would rise, seeking to hunt and destroy these remaining beasts and expose them to our suns cleansing warmth.

But the shattered remnants of the NETHERWORLD army was not the only threat in these troubled times as new horrors rose from the depths of the primal sea! The use of the mysterious powers expended by the Illuminati in ending the Blood Night had caused other complications. Eons ago the ancient city of Ys, a place of unending horrors and primal evil had been sunk beneath the waves off the coast of Ireland. The vast positive energies depleted to stop the darkness that had enshrouded the earth had loosened the bonds that held Ys under the cleansing ocean and once again it surged to the surface! Obscene ruins where unspeakable rites were held in olden times now lay exposed to the open air as millions of birds circled the island to feast on dead fish, rotted vegetation and even stranger fare. Many and varied were the horrors of Ys but the foremost immediate threat was the freeing of the Banshees!

The Banshees had long been remembered as spectral beings whose mournful screams heralded doom. But the truth behind the nature of these dread angels of death was far more insidious. Trapped in the flooding of Ys they had gone into a dormant state paralyzed but forever undying. Now free the ancient Banshees took to the night skies once more to spread their particular form of terror as the flickering lights of Jack-O-Lanterns long remembered from the dark holidays of ancient times drew them like moths to a flame. Thus these winged eyeless horrors followed by the bloated crows of Ys came calling on the cities of man. For when a Banshee finds a Jack-O-Lantern on a cold October night it remembers its master whose dread flame filled Jacks first hollowed Turnip so long ago. Reminded of the treachery of Jack, it screams in rage! This horrid sound is more than just an audio aberration as it rends the very fabric of time and space to release twisted horrors from the NETHERWORLD! Dark Celtic spirits escape into our world as do the Fomorians – hulking monstrous savages in many forms all eager to spill human blood! The truth is that the Scream of a Banshee most certainly foretells of doom – as evil nightmarish goblins, ogres, Krampus and even Primordial giants are released by its call, to hunt and slay all the humans they can find.

The ancient Banshees now freed will soon fly to all corners of the globe to not only scream and free Formarians long banished, but to lay eggs and hatch their especially noxious offspring. It was known from moldy tomes of yore that the old Banshees of Ys fed mainly on the fleeing life forces of dying humans but that the wingless hatchling Banshees were known primarily as voracious eaters of human flesh!

Now my apprentice you must go to the Mansion of the Prophet and find the dark portal to the cadaverous island of Ys. Most of the Banshees will have fled but Merrows and other worse things from the oceans depths now dwell there and guard its secrets! You must find a way to sink the island and free us from the Banshees! This must be done at once, as even darker forces dwell in Ys – let us hope the King in Yellow has not yet risen!

NETHERWORLD Haunted House Presents: The HIVE!

During the height of the Cold War in 1962 Robert Wellington-Hughes, a filthy rich genetics researcher, sealed up his staff and followers in an underground bunker called the HIVE. Eager to create a utopian society and a radiation survival vaccine based on insect DNA he disappeared beneath the earth for almost fifty years. Now we have discovered his horrifying plot to mutate all mankind into insect based life forms and to destroy all who dare resist him! You and you team must descend into the HIVE and discover the awful truth!

New Features for 2012

The twisted gore in the Dark Basement of NETHERWORLD grows even more vile with an invasion of giant bugs! Can you face – The Bone Snapping Crimson Hulk! The Colossal Writhing Centipede! The Flesh Shredder! Wasp Warriors! The Unstable Cobalt 99 Missile! Cocooned Horrors! Giant Spiders! Live Arthropods! Attacking Maggots! The Hideous Human Blob! More crawling, skittering, bloody insect nightmares than you can imagine!

The FULL Story….

Background Information:

Many of you may have heard of Robert Wellington-Hughes. In the 50’s he was a very outspoken genetic researcher terrified that atomic war would soon lead to the total extinction of the human race. What set him apart from the rest of the scientific community was the fact that he was filthy rich. His family, the Wellington-Hughes, had billions, mostly in chemical and pharmaceutical company stock and were deeply involved in the defense contracts. Thus Robert didn’t have to come to the government or industry to fund his crazy ideas or research, he just did what he pleased. In 1957 he wrote his most well known monograph The Way of the Insect espousing his theories: insects’ abilities to survive atomic warfare and how their DNA could be developed into a vaccine to resist radiation. The hardcore research he put forth at the time turned more than a few heads, but his lunatic ravings about the superior moral quality of “insect” societies made Robert a laughingstock among his peers. He did however amass an almost cult like following of researchers and like minded scientists.

The HIVE:

After his very public humiliation at the hands of the scientific community he began in secret the creation of the HIVE or the so called Human/Insect Vaccine Experiment. In an undisclosed location he built a massive underground bunker designed to survive nuclear attack equipped with the most modern of late 1950’s comforts and technologies. There he developed a utopian society cut off from the rest of the world, a self sufficient research facility focused on an insect DNA based radiation defense drug. At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 he sealed up the HIVE’s massive doors, certain of the impending doom of mankind. Attempts to locate the base failed and all signs of Robert Wellington- Hughes and his missing staff of 157 people were lost to time, one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the Cold War era. He was 43 years old.

Recent Developments:

All of this happened over 50 years ago, so it was rather unexpected when our latest threat detection AI program ALVIN began flagging seemingly unrelated data that correlated back to the Wellington-Hughes incident. It seems as though a series of shadow companies had been outsourcing massive amounts of research on insect based DNA, unusual weapons technology and dirty bomb radiation dispersal methods for decades. We put a team of our top agents on the case and made some terrifying discoveries. Apparently Wellington-Hughes had been working all this time in his underground bunker on these projects but his motivations had taken a darker turn. He felt that a “new” mankind genetically altered to resemble insects and immune to radiation should be the new masters of the earth. He has created a new HIVE drug that he intends to unleash on the world to cause massive insect-like mutations in anyone exposed to it. These new “men” would then fall in line with his utopia structured around Insect Society. But it gets worse. He has developed a massive warhead the Cobalt 99 Bomb that he plans to detonate and wipe out the rest of life on earth if anyone should attempt to thwart his plans. I know this is some far out stuff – I couldn’t believe the briefing when I first read it either!

Your Mission:

We have located his facility at last. ALVIN did this by discovering a spike in missing persons ( Test Subjects?) cross referenced with unusual technology shipments and powerful radiation readings. Advance agents have located the tunnel and access shaft to the HIVE. You are to enter the facility and reveal the truth behind these allegations. Will you discover mutated insect people with a sinister advanced technology and a Cobalt 99 warhead? Or will you find a spry 93 year old man kicking back in his easy chair watching reruns of the Donna Reed show? Be prepared for anything! You and your team leave at once…

NETHERWORLD Monster of the Month: May 2012 Scarecrows!

“Listen to his body moan
make a wish and send us home
to spin the gold and silver stitches
we can turn his rags to riches…”

Scarecrow – Siouxsie and the Banshees

Alone, detached from the mortal realm, he stands faithful guard over a living field, ever diligent in his efforts to ward off harm. His sackcloth face is a mockery of man, mismatched buttons for eyes and crooked stitching for a mouth. He exhibits no temper, no lack of patience, no hunger or thirst or longing for companionship. He simply waits…

Scarecrows have long served us in our endeavor to keep vermin away from our crops. Hovering on a pole or perch, head and shoulders above us, they hang menacingly over the food they are charged with protecting, asking nothing in return. How effective they are is debatable – one wonders if they actually intimidate birds and rodents in the least. Yet there is something chilling about these silent sentinels, adorned (for lack of a better word) with cast-offs and hand-me-downs as they simply linger for our benefit. Stuffed full of dry straw, with inhuman proportions and random debris poking out at the seams, they almost seem to laugh at us, as if amused by the fact that this is how we see ourselves.

So, do these ragged non-men merely exist lifeless in the field, or is there something more sinister at work? Perhaps they do more than wear our discards -maybe they inhabit them, soaking in whatever life-force remains within the garments we toss aside? History is rife with tales of “living” scarecrows, animated in order to carry out some act of justice or revenge. Be they infused with a tortured soul, forever trapped in limbo, or resurrected by mystical means, the scarecrow has played a sizable role in the myths and legends of Americana.

As far back as 712 in Japan, the scarecrow has represented a silent watcher, knowing in the ways of the world around him yet unable to explore it himself. And while some accounts, such as the lovable protagonist of L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” stories, tell of scarecrows imbued with friendly human traits, more often than not this iconic character takes on a more diabolical role. Throughout the years, he has become a powerful vessel for exacting vengeance, his near-human appearance lending an air of dread as he carries out his sinister acts. Typically armed with a sickle or pitchfork he takes flight in the night to terrorize the object of his revenge. With no face to exhibit expression, he sets us on edge and it is nearly impossible to know his intentions until it is too late…

Such is the challenge as you wander throughout the halls of Netherworld Haunted House: is that lifeless face peering back at you truly devoid of life, or does it simply serve to disguise a more malevolent intent? Are those tattered clothes strewn over a human shape nothing but decoration, intended to chase away impending evil, or are they actually housing evil itself? How can one be sure what they are encountering is nothing more than a stuffed suit before it it’s altogether too late?

How indeed…

The Horror Returns with SLITHER on Mother’s Day!
Sunday May 13th – 8pm – Studio Movie Grill Holcomb Bridge
http://www.studiomoviegrill.com/BodyGraphic.aspx?ID=180

Meteorites have been delivering dreadful invaders to Earth almost as long as sci-fi and horror films have existed. Man’s fascination with what lies beyond the stars has conjured up some seriously disturbing possibilities, and there is no finer example of that than in the 2006 comedy/sci-fi/horror film “Slither”.

An unsettling-yet-hilariously entertaining love letter to 50’s science fiction B-movies, “Slither” spins a wild yarn about what happens in small-town middle America when an alien parasite transforms the innocent citizens of Wheelsy into zombie-like creatures with an insatiable hunger for meat. Featuring a stellar cast of cult-favorite character actors and hold-your-stomach effects, mixed with an ample dose of dark humor and memorable one-liners, this movie is pure joy for fans of the creepy and bizarre.

Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Jenna Fischer (wife of writer/director James Gunn) and Michael Rooker head up this engaging ensemble, delivering steady chills and solid laughs with equal enthusiasm. Shot over 47 days in British Columbia, “Slither” is one of those gems of a movie that slip under the blockbuster radar yet deserve a wider audience. Die-hard genre fans will especially enjoy subtle tips of the hat to Stephen King and “Basket Case” writer/director Frank Henenlotter, references to a slew of classic monster movies, and an unseen cameo by none other than more-human-than-human Rob Zombie.

(*note of interest: Netherworld co-owner Billy Messina worked on the Special Effects crew for Henenlotter on Basket Case 2 & 3 as well as on the unforgettable Frankenhooker)

“Slither is totally retro from several eras…”, says Netherworld Haunted House co-owner Ben Armstrong. “It just seems out of place and I love that about it…! Start with a taste of “I Married a Monster From Outer Space” fun wacky sci-fi from 1958, add over the top gore a la 1982’s ‘The Thing’, add in some dark comedy and stir…you get a film from another era that is lots of fun and lots of disturbing!”

Take the time to soak in this gross-out fun-fest, and allow yourself a little time afterward to enjoy a thick, juicy ribeye. Or eight. Naw… ten. Uhm, no, no. You know what? Gimme fourteen.

You’ll get that one later…

Enjoy Slither and Netherworld Trivia with great prizes before the movie starts plus Studio movie grill has great grub & tasty beverages of the adult variety delivered right to your seat…check it out at:
http://www.studiomoviegrill.com/BodyGraphic.aspx?ID=180

Hope to see you on Mother’s Day!

“I think their predominant color was a grayish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked … They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design – living and horrible.” – The Shadow Over Innsmouth

With this chilling passage, H.P. Lovecraft drew attention to the Deep Ones, horrific creatures spawned from the depths of the ocean. Prone to a desire to mate with humans, these sea-dwelling humanoids are said to be immortal, none dying by natural causes. They exist in servitude to Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, and the malevolent entity known as Cthulhu. Primarily living a marine life, Deep Ones are able to survive on land for periods of time.

Long ago, a bargain of sorts was made between the Deep Ones and humankind. The Deep Ones would provide abundant fishing and lavish riches in the form of gold jewelry in exchange for human sacrifices and a vow of mating between the Deep Ones and mortal beings. These hybrid offspring would begin life in human form, transforming later in life and attaining immortality.

This bargain was a dark secret of the seaside town of Innsmouth, where citizens undergoing the transformation were hidden away from the public until the physical changes were finished. Much of the town’s population exhibited what became known as the “Innsmouth look” – fish-like qualities such as bulbous eyes, scaly skin and the development of gills on the sides of the neck. Eventually, the transformation complete, these children of an unholy union would retire to the sea and live the remainder of their lives in underwater cities, far removed from the world of man – awaiting the calling of their powerful gods.

For centuries man has reported sightings of humanoid sea creatures, with witnesses describing a myriad of lifeforms. Aside from the beautiful, fantastic mermaids sailors would spot, other amphibious beings have been noted in various parts of the world. Countless tales tell of marine-based entities with human characteristics, walking upright and wandering into human villages seeking mates among the unsuspecting population.

In 1840, on the heels of a loss in profitable trade due to shipwreck and war, Captain Obed Marsh is said to have initiated a cult known as The Esoteric Order of Dagon. He had heard of such a practice among islanders he encountered in his many travels, and soon the fishing industry of Innsmouth, Massachusetts felt a tremendous increase in profit. However, Marsh and his followers were incarcerated, and the human sacrifices they had promised the Deep Ones ceased. In 1846 a mysterious “sickness” overcame the citizens of Innsmouth, and a large majority of the population was lost. In truth, this unknown plague was actually the results of the Deep One’s vengeance, and once the cult began anew the fishing increased. As did the inbreeding of Innsmouth’s residents with the Deep Ones.

Soon, as dark rumors circulated about Innsmouth and its curious populace, the town became shunned and people avoided it for many years. It fell into a state of decay, worsening closer to the shoreline. In 1927, amid speculation of bootlegging, Federal authorities sent investigators to the crumbling burg. What was found has never been officially disclosed, but the following year officials detonated explosives in nearby Devil’s Reef and the townspeople were arrested – although no record has ever been discovered in any jail of the surrounding areas. For all intents and purposes, the residents of Innsmouth, Massachusetts simply…disappeared. Sightings of the Deep Ones, however, did not.

Stalking the moody corridors of NETHERWORLD Haunted House, these diabolical Cthulhu worshippers have been spotted darting in and out of the light, constantly seeking mates to continue and expand their bloodline. Awaiting the return of their dreaded master, human-fish hybrids lie in wait as the very battle for control of the mortal Earthly realm wages around them. Knowing all too well that they will live eternally, they simply bide their time as events unfold that will determine their place in the future of this planet…