Netherworld Haunted House Review (2020)

Netherworld has a massive crew of passionate actors and staff that love to entertain. Both in and out of the haunt, actors brought their characters to life through their love of the craft. While many parts were non-speaking roles, the body language these actors used was more than enough to make us believe. The acting styles in each part of the attraction were quite different, lending even more variety to the experience as a whole. Notably most actors were further away than usual, generally blocked by a railing or set piece that they would reach over. This makes good scares much more challenging, and they rose to the task brilliantly.

Halloween Nightmares was full of monsters like werewolves, vampires, animated statues, and murderous bat people. Each was unique and terrifying, waiting for the opportune moment to get that scare. They helped build the overall feel of the haunt being both creepy and wild, sometimes leading us on to build tension and other times reaching out from the shadows to scare the pants off us. Several times we found an actor where we didn’t expect one, and often they weren’t there when we looked again. It kept us guessing and off balance in a wonderful way. Actors with speaking parts were interactive and responded to our replies playfully.

Cyborg Shock was loud and crazy with actors jumping out from behind curtains and spraying us with air guns. The characters were robots and cyborgs and scientists of all kinds, running amok to create a general feeling of chaos that really built tension throughout the haunt. Nobody really stopped to talk to us, but it made sense in the confusion of the setting and the characters present. The actors in the finale were really strong, terrorizing their victims mercilessly.

Halloween Nightmares: 9.28

Cyborg Shock: 9.33

Netherworld Haunted House has wild transformative costumes. The detail in many of them is exquisite, and in some cases the scale of them had us reeling. Creatures often look misshapen or have inhuman silhouettes that keep you guessing what is a prop and what isn’t. Each scene has its own style, and the costumes for the characters match this very well. Many if not most characters were adorned with wonderful full face masks that added to the inhuman nature of them. Others had safety masks that were painted to be part of the costume, often being missable at first.

Halloween Nightmares costumes were monstrous and creepy. Incredibly convincing statues were made to look like others nearby. Some kind of swamp creature appeared from around vines that it blended in with well, giving me a great scare! Some of the best scares were while I was looking at a costume without even realizing it wasn’t just part of the set.

Cyborg Shock had a more focused theme, being mostly robots and scientists. However, the costumes here were no less unique. We didn’t see any two characters that looked too alike. The creatures became more and more strange and twisted as we got deeper into the haunt, really selling the story of the factory experimenting with cybernetics.

Halloween Nightmares: 9.75

Cyborg Shock: 9.65

Netherworld’s website has all the information we needed to plan our trip. Tickets were purchased in timeslots. Our GPS took us directly to the building, where we were guided to turn around and park on the other side of the street in front of Life Storage. Traffic was pretty tight which was unfortunate, but there was plenty of parking when we got to the right lot. We suggest you arrive a half-hour before your ticket time to make sure you have time to park and cross the traffic at the light to get to the ticket booth before your arrival.

The staff was well marked, friendly, helpful, and numerous. Most wore small speakers to make them easier to understand when speaking through their safety masks. Face coverings are enforced and sanitization stations are frequent.

Netherworld Haunted House really goes all out with their atmosphere. On arrival, we found a huge building with banners, signs, props, music, and announcements. Actors in all kinds of costumes roamed about, posing with and spooking customers while we gathered and had tickets checked.

As we entered the building, the staff and scenery gradually worked us into the haunt. The queue line had grand obelisks and decorations like some kind of museum, and staff members were more completely costumed. The last leg of the queue is in a spooky house hallway with an actor handling group spacing, doing a wonderful job leading us into the world of the haunt. The space between Halloween Nightmares and Cyber Shock was a welcome breather, letting us reset as we walked the futuristic hallways into the hijacked factory.

After both haunts, we got to enjoy the huge animatronics and photo opportunities, along with several playful actors that made the last note of our visit a good laugh.

Netherworld’s primary focus is on their detailed sets and wild animatronics. Their massive top to bottom scenes with larger than life animatronics is an experience of its own. Every scene is filled to the brim with mood lights and sound and props that build strange and wild environments to explore. In fact, we felt like we could go through two or three more times and still see things we hadn’t noticed before.

The sheer quantity of awesome stuff is astounding. But it doesn’t end there. The attraction is arranged and run to shock and entertain, and it does this wonderfully. The timed ticketing and spreading out of groups this year made the pacing of the haunt much better. Scares were well timed, and the breathing room between them allowed tension to build between frights. Looming monsters and crumbling archways over cobblestone and treacherous bridges kept us surrounded by the world of the haunt at all times.

Halloween Nightmares: 9.8

Cyborg Shock: 9.5

Netherworld’s two haunts gave different sorts of scares. Halloween Nightmares surrounds you with strange and scary things and creatures. Characters appear from seemingly nowhere and retreat into the shadows. There was a lot of mystery and suspense as we wandered, enjoying each scare as they came. Some wonderful misdirection was throughout, getting us to look precisely where we were supposed to in order to have the most effective scare.

Cyborg Shock was louder, more chaotic, and gave a greater overall sense of panic. Its creatures were more direct and felt more threatening. Often one scare led to another and another, rather than having your attention guided to the correct place. The variety in each haunt was wonderful, and the different feeling of each area kept the whole experience fresh. If you’ve been to Netherworld before you’ll likely recognize some scares. However, be prepared for plenty of new ones!

Halloween Nightmares: 9.23

Cyborg Shock: 8.93

Netherworld Haunted House is an enormous experience. There is just so very much to see, and their change of pace from congo lined groups to spacing the groups out has very much added to how enjoyable the whole event is.

This year, both haunts are included with the general ticket price. That means everyone gets even more haunt. Before and after the main attractions there are concessions and plenty of cool things to see. They also have a laser tag experience and their year-round escape rooms. Our walkthrough of the haunts was about 35 minutes from end to end, including the short two or three-minute break between. At 35 dollars, this makes Netherworld have one of the best minutes to dollar ratios we’ve seen this season. We loved our trip to Netherworld this year, and are excited to see how they evolve in years to come.