Netherworld Haunted House Review (2026)

Netherworld is easy to find and offers ample free parking in a lot located across the street from the attraction. Plenty of attendants are on hand to help direct traffic into the parking area and guide guests toward the ticket booth and queue lines, making arrival a relatively smooth process. The queue area is divided into sections based on the time slots assigned to guests’ tickets, and there are several photo opportunities and roaming characters to help keep everyone entertained while waiting. During the Halloween season, Netherworld offers two haunted walkthroughs, The Curse of the Collector and Beyond Oblivion, although the second attraction is only included with a combo ticket. Guests also have access to five escape rooms that operate year-round. One of the highlights of the property is its large midway, which is packed with photo opportunities, food and beverage vendors, an expansive gift shop, a short escape room experience, and even a coffin ride. The midway is accessible after completing the first walkthrough, with the queue for Beyond Oblivion and the exit from the second haunt both located within this area. Characters who entertain guests in the front queue area also make appearances throughout the midway, giving visitors more opportunities to interact and take photos. Overall, Netherworld offers an extensive collection of attractions and activities, with plenty to explore beyond the haunted walkthroughs themselves.

The immersion for The Curse of the Collector begins in the outdoor queue area, where guests encounter several scenic elements, photo opportunities, and roaming characters that help establish the atmosphere before entering the attraction. General Admission guests then move into a large indoor waiting area filled with props and displays to explore while waiting for their turn. Just before entering the haunt, each group has the opportunity to take a commemorative photo. Speedpass guests bypass these queue elements and head directly inside for their photo, allowing them to skip much of the wait. While the expedited access is certainly the main benefit of this option, adding a bit more thematic detail along the Speedpass route could help build anticipation before the walkthrough begins. Once inside The Curse of the Collector, guests are immediately transported into a chaotic world where creatures from the Netherworld are making their way into ours. The sets are incredibly intricate, featuring layer upon layer of scenic details that reward a closer look even as actors and special effects compete for your attention. Every space feels as though there is movement all around you. The environments transition between low-ceilinged spaces that feel tight and enclosed and expansive scenes where the scenery seems to stretch all the way to the roof of the building. This variety in scale, combined with the abundance of activity throughout the scenes, creates an immersive experience that feels consistently larger than life.

Beyond Oblivion has undergone significant updates since the previous season, with the attraction nearly doubling in size and now incorporating a sizable outdoor section in addition to its indoor environments. The experience begins with a short walk through a themed hallway before guests step into an elevator that serves as the entrance to the haunt. The opening portion does a nice job establishing the background behind the attraction’s storyline, introducing the mysterious “nectar” being created and used on humans. As guests move farther into the experience, the environments begin to suggest the disturbing effects of exposure to this substance, providing a natural progression from the initial setup into the consequences that follow. This added narrative element gives the attraction a stronger sense of direction and helps connect its various scenes. As with The Curse of the Collector, the sets feature plenty of detail and thoughtfully constructed environments, although most of the spaces don’t extend quite as high as those in the first haunt. The addition of the outdoor section also gives Beyond Oblivion a different sense of scale and variety, expanding the experience well beyond the indoor spaces guests might expect.

Netherworld utilizes a wide variety of special effects throughout both attractions, with an impressive combination of lighting, environmental effects, moving elements, and animatronics. The scenes and sets are consistently well lit, using a combination of ambient lighting to establish the atmosphere and carefully placed detail lighting to draw attention to specific props and scenic elements, including details several layers deep. Strobes and lasers also appear throughout the haunts, with one particularly effective laser swamp combining fog, laser effects, and a waist-high claustrophobia air bag to create the sensation of wading through the environment. Fog is used effectively in several areas, although a few scenes could have benefited from a little more to fully achieve their intended atmosphere. During our visit, the steady flow of guests through certain sections may have made it difficult for the fog to build up as much as intended. Netherworld also makes excellent use of physical effects, with various squishy flooring sections, vibrating floors, and even swaying walkways adding unexpected movement beneath our feet. These are complemented by a number of other moving elements, including a drop floor, moving walls, and vortex tunnels, as well as several air blasts and water effects.

Animatronics are another major part of the experience, and there seemed to be almost as many of these as there were live performers. Many are literally larger than life, and nearly all fit naturally into their surroundings while providing an effective distraction that allows actors to deliver their scares. We did notice a small number that may not have been operating or simply didn’t trigger during our walkthrough, along with a few instances where mechanical components were visible, but these were minor observations in an otherwise impressive collection of effects.

Audio is another area where both attractions excel, although each takes a somewhat different approach. The Curse of the Collector uses sound effects for nearly every creature and animated prop, while multiple layers of ambient audio combine to create a continuous cacophony of noise. This helps reinforce the sense of chaos and makes the entire environment feel alive with activity. Beyond Oblivion, by comparison, uses ambient sounds that are more closely tailored to individual rooms and scenes. Animatronics and other props still have their own sound effects, but the overall audio design is more focused on the individual environments than the all-encompassing soundscape of The Curse of the Collector. Together, the two attractions demonstrate the impressive range of effects Netherworld has at its disposal, with plenty of variety to keep guests visually, physically, and audibly engaged throughout both walkthroughs.

Both haunts at Netherworld are packed with actors, but The Curse of the Collector was especially impressive in this regard, often giving us the feeling that there was someone lurking around nearly every corner and in just about every shadow. Several performers even approached us from above, making good use of the extensive scenery to deliver unexpected scares. The costumes, masks, and makeup throughout this attraction were excellent, with no obvious details that took away from the realism of the characters or their surroundings. Although there were a tremendous number of performers in a variety of roles, many relied primarily on quick pop-out scares, clacker gloves, or sudden noises rather than extended interactions with guests. We would have enjoyed a little more character engagement, but we also recognize that the high volume of guests moving through the attraction can make that challenging.

Beyond Oblivion featured even greater variety in its characters, which complemented the wider range of scenes and environments found throughout the haunt. There were plenty of actors here as well, with their numbers and placement varying from one area to another. Some scenes featured several performers working together, while others relied on a single character to create a more unsettling atmosphere. We also noticed a few performers who seemed to move between different areas, giving them opportunities to surprise guests in more than one setting. The characters used many of the same scare techniques found in The Curse of the Collector, but they were generally more verbal and interactive, giving us more opportunities to engage with them as we moved through the attraction. Costuming, masks, and makeup were once again very well done, helping each character fit naturally into the scenes. Overall, both haunts feature an impressive cast and excellent character presentation, with Beyond Oblivion offering a bit more variety and interaction while The Curse of the Collector stands out for the sheer number of performers and their creative use of the scenery.

Netherworld offers plenty of opportunities for scares throughout both attractions, whether they come from the detailed scenery, animatronics, other special effects, or the actors themselves. The entertainment doesn’t stop at the entrances, either, as roaming characters in the queue and midway areas provide additional opportunities for unexpected encounters. The Curse of the Collector relies primarily on pop-out scares, with many performers using quick noises or clacker gloves near our heads and faces to catch us off guard. Several actors also made creative use of the extensive scenery to deliver aerial and overhead scares, adding another dimension to the experience. One particularly memorable moment came in a library scene, where an actor appeared to be hovering above us in a rather unexpected position.

Beyond Oblivion took a somewhat more aggressive approach, with performers delivering more forceful pop-outs and generally making greater use of verbal interactions to engage our group. Both attractions also feature a substantial number of animatronics that provide their own share of surprises, including several truly larger-than-life creations in The Curse of the Collector. With so many different scare techniques and sources of activity throughout the property, Netherworld has plenty of opportunities to be caught off guard.