Episode 2110 - Monsters, Manglers and Clowns…Oh My!

In this exclusive interview on The Ash Said It Show, NETHERWORLD Haunted House co-creator Ben Armstrong announced that the iconic Atlanta haunt is gearing up for its most ambitious season yet.

This fall, NETHERWORLD celebrates its 29th Season of Screams with two massive, new haunted attractions that promise to be the longest and most over-the-top in its history.

This Fall: Face the Powerful MONSTERS ATTACK! Then, Brave a Twisted Double Feature: OBLIVION: RETURN OF THE MANGLER & GRENDEL’S FEAST!

A Record-Breaking Season of Scares

For its 29th season, NETHERWORLD is pulling out all the stops. Opening Friday, September 19, and running for 35 chilling nights, the 2025 season is designed to be completely immersive. According to co-creator Ben Armstrong, these massive attractions cover a combined walking distance of 10 football fields, offering a true living nightmare for guests.This is a monumental season for fans of the world-famous haunt.

The New Attractions: A Deep Dive into Terror

MONSTERS ATTACK! will transport guests to a classic monster battle royale. In the cursed town of Whyshburg, savage werewolves, Frankensteinian fiends, and robotic war machines clash with a vast army of reanimated corpses. Guests will witness an onslaught of terror, facing titanic terrors, armored warbots, vampire lords, and undying giants as they try to survive the onslaught. This is the ultimate Halloween experience for fans of epic creature features.

Then, the horror continues with a second, terrifying double feature:
•OBLIVION: RETURN OF THE MANGLER: The demented surgeon known as the Mangler has discovered a dark dimension called Oblivion and seeks to control all who live. This attraction features gruesome medical madness, the mysterious First Citizen, and a journey through the twisted experiments of the Diabolical Dentist and the Stitcher.
•GRENDEL’S FEAST: A bizarre carnival sideshow awaits. Here, guests will face Mr. Grendel, an ancient, flesh-eating ogre disguised as a clown. Be warned—these are not your friendly clowns, and they have something else in mind for dinner.

Beyond the Haunts: A Full Festival Experience

In addition to the haunted attractions, NETHERWORLD’s Halloween festival-style Midway offers a full evening of entertainment. Guests can enjoy towering jack-o-lanterns, monster photo ops, two mini escape games, and a variety of food and drinks, including fan favorites like Dr. Octane’s Bizarre Beverages and “Blood Bags.”

For those who want to continue the adventure, NETHERWORLD also offers five year-round immersive escape rooms and a monster museum.

Stay tuned for an official announcement on when tickets go on sale. For more information on this Atlanta haunted houseand to join the “Netherspawn” family, visit www.fearworld.com.

Ash Brown: Your Ultimate Guide to Inspiration, Empowerment, and Action
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Discover the World of Ash Brown: AshSaidit.com & The Ash Said It Show
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Why Ash Brown is a Leading Voice in Personal Development
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Authentic Optimism: Ash's positive energy is contagious, empowering her audience to embrace new challenges with a more capable a

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What are you sad? The world? It is your girl,
the one and only Ash Brown, and this is the
Ash said It show over twenty one hundred episode since
twenty fourteen, half a million streams around the world. None
of this is possible without you, guys, So I thank
you so so very much. Today I've got one of

(00:23):
my favorite people with me. It's about that time. We're
right here in September, which means we're only a few
weeks away from the opening of Netherworld Haunted House. We've
got two new attractions this year, so I've got my
buddy Ben with me tonight. Hey Ben, how are you doing?

(00:45):
I am great? How are you Ben?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are working like crazy to bring you the craziest
haunted house you've ever heen.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yes, Oh my gosh. So this year's main attraction, Monsters
at It seems to be a pretty powerful celebration of
the classic horror archetypes. So what was the inspiration behind
bringing these legendary creatures to the forefront the season.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's interesting. Nether World itself is sort of a continuing storyline,
so in some ways, you know the themes are drawn from,
you know where the story is going next, and so
we're looking ahead to year thirty, so this is year
twenty nine. It's going to be incredible, but we're sort

(01:36):
of taking the story to your thirty but along the way,
you know, it's like, so, what are we going to
feature this year that's a little different, and the story
helps guide that, but also it's just the stuff we
like it. They felt right to bring out classic monsters.
It worked with our theme to have werewolves and Frankensteinian

(01:58):
creations and they're sort of opposing the undead and vampires
from the year before, so it really just sort of
became a classic monster mashup, but it's got this apocalyptic
element going on to it. Of course we have these
other gigantic monstrosities attacking. It's it's full of so many things,

(02:20):
so many new sets, so many new scares. It's just
really impressive. And every year I'm like, wow, this is
this is cool. And the last couple of years though,
it is just continues to just be crazy and the
amount of time to think we are working day and
night to land this plane. But it is going to
be incredible.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yes, I mean every year that I go, it's always
like it's a new experience, Like every time like, I
can't think of anywhere else on the planet you can
go and literally have a brand new experience every single time.
So I applaud you and the team. You guys do
an amazing job year after year with pretty much everything.

(03:01):
So kudos to you guys, Thank you kudos on that. Now,
these attractions this year are quote unquote the longest most
over the top attractions in Netherworld's history, with a walking
distance of ten football fields. How do you and your
team design a narrative and a series of scares that

(03:24):
sustain this level of immersion and in such a massive
physical space.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, you know, I'm a hoarder. I've been gathering you know,
prop you know, we've been building things for twenty nine years,
and we've been buying things for twenty nine years, and
we've been getting things from movies for twenty nine years.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
And as a hoarder, I do not want to throw
away anything.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So we just keep packing more and more and more.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Into the show because every year we have to build.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
A ton of new stuff. We have to make a
ton of new monsters. We buy new monsters, and we
always have cool stuff that we get from various productions,
and so it's all got to find its way in.
And uh, we just keep adding stuff and we have
we have I don't know, we have hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of animatronics and special effects and just the

(04:23):
special effects and animatronics list. This year we're adding so
many more on top of the ones we already have.
It just it just it makes my head spense. And
then like all the actors and all these additional things.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
And then and like I said, the shows do they get.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
They get physically bigger. We find more ways to get
more paths. We've expounded the outdoor areas. Uh. And and
the second show, Uh, there's additional path and the interior
component and the outside is bigger. So it's the values
you get going to this haunted house. I mean, it
takes a while to get through, but it's not just

(04:58):
a bunch of corridors. It is none stop.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
It is like there's you go into an area.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
You know, you walk in through you know it's a scene.
It's a continuous action. It is NonStop, and there's so
many things. I mean, people can go to this show
again and again and again and constantly see something new happening.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
So it is centory.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Overload, and I'm just like, what the freak next year?
I mean, the stuff we have planned there too, it's
just out of control. So people keep coming, they enjoy it,
and we just want to give them more and more
and more. That's just that's what we do.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yes, And from what I've heard, mister Grendle, he's going
to be back in grend Okay, you know.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, So what we did. You know, mister Grendle is,
you know, one of our characters from the ancient times,
and we've been sort of revisiting a lot of our classics,
kind of ramping up to that thirtieth anniversary next year.
And so what we did was mister you know, mister
Grendall's birthday part of Horrors was last year, so we
took all of the elements from that and we pushed

(06:06):
him into the outside area and we made it bigger.
And in the interior of the second show, we have
a Oblivion return of the Mangler. Now, this is the
thing that's intriguing about this. So the Mangler was one
of the main icon characters of what we called our
downstairs show in Norcross, and so he is featured in

(06:29):
this show. But so was Oblivion. We first started that
downstairs show. Oblivion was I believe the second show we had,
and it was a very dark, terrifying show that sort
of had vibes of the old hell Raiser movies from
Clive Barker. That was kind of the vibe of it.
So in this year's second show we had the Mangler.

(06:53):
He's reached out and contacted this dimension of ablivion and
Abolivion is a place of pain and torment, and you
know the Mangler, you know he's into that kind of
stuff too, so they're kind of working together. The show
is intense, The show is gory. The show is packed
with so many new things. The artists really went bananas

(07:16):
creating a lot of new monsters and new characters for
you to see, and you know it's it's kind of overwhelming.
So you're going to go through monsters attack this massive
show just filled with just huge things. Almost got an
incredible midway, and then the second show is that it's
two elements. You know you're gonna get all the way

(07:36):
through this. It's absolutely intense Oblivion show featuring the Manglore.
And then you've got all the clowns from last year,
but new scenes and new stuff so yeah, it is
a lot. It's a lot, but it's gonna be fun.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Always a great time in another world. I mean, you
got another world is you know? It is a fame.
It's so famous for its elaborate sets and makeup and costumes.
How do you find and recruit those different type of
characters and actors? Like, what are those characteristics that you're

(08:13):
looking for in talent?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's interesting because we interview everyone who works here, and
we are going through that process right now, and we'll
take a good amount of time. You know, they go
to a bunch of stations, they meet people, and myself
and our casting director will interview every employee who's going
to work here. And it's always intriguing because you know,

(08:39):
I always ask them, you know, what brings you to us?
And we just like what draws them to come work
at a haunted house, And it's intriguing. You want to
find out like some people are into cosplay or LARPing
or gaming like you know, dungeons and dragons. Some people
love the scare pieceeople. Some people are from the movie business.

(09:02):
Some people are in theater. Some people came do rocky horror.
You know a lot of people just love Halloween. And
the biggest thing that draws them all together is they
love to scare and entertain people. That's the biggest commonality.
And it is so exciting when you get to meet

(09:22):
all these people and they're coming to work here, and
many of them have incredible stories about Oh, I've been
coming to Nether World for fifteen years and you know,
and I come every year with my family and I've
always wanted.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
To be a part of it, and this year it
worked out.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
So I'm here and they're like, they're looking around and
they're so excited. It's like, that's what you when you
say what you look for. What I think I look
for the most is energy, the ability to project energy,
to scare people, to entertain people, to I want to

(10:00):
just embody a character. But I also love the incredible
diversity of the types of people that will be here,
because you may have someone come in who is, you know,
incredibly tall, someone else could be very short, someone who's
like very athletic, someone who's a great screamer, someone who

(10:21):
who can do improv and can talk all day long
and just like a character would, and they're all different,
and that's what kind of brings it to life and
also at another world. We're open a lot of nights,
so our cast, who's playing a specific character, well may change,
you know, on a given night, So when you come

(10:43):
here other nights, you're going to have a different kind
of experience. We may have different monsters out on a lot.
You know, you never really know, and so it's always
a little different. And the human element is what creates
that that variable.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
That what's going to happen, because we can build.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
The coolest sets and make the coolest special effects, but
it's the human beings or the monster. So the inn
human beings waiting for you in the dark with the
intent to scare you or entertain you or scare your
friend or whatever. They're the ones that add that element
of uncertainty. And that's what actually, I think patrons want

(11:22):
to see the most.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
The actors definitely always with the personality and the conversations.
Oh I hung out with a couple of gargoyls last year.
That was fun.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh yeah, that was so good.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, always good for a good chat. Guitar.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
They're so angry about the pigeons when they show up, brilliant.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
I love it. Oh my goodness. So there are also
hints at a battle between different monster factions in Monsters Attack. So,
what's the biggest storytelling challenge in a battle Royale style hunt?
And we're are you, you know, where you have so
many different types of creatures and chaotic scenes to manage,

(12:06):
Like what is that like?

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, you know, like I said, it's sort of it follows,
you know, a story. So we have the cursed town
of Weischberg, which is kind of our main where you
begin the show every year in the town, and a
couple of years ago, these elementals kind of invaded and
they've been captured, and that energy that the elementals had

(12:30):
that's what people are fighting over. So in last year's show,
the humans were using that energy to try to create
weaponry to battle against another world, whereas the armies of
the dead were coming up to feed on this life energy.
And so this is sort of the second year of
that battle. And so the humans have created these giant

(12:51):
war machines with these huge robots and kind of battle
vehicles that they have, but they've also their warriors are falling,
so they've been infusing them with energy and they've been
making they've been altering them to surgery to make them
into these Frankenstein like monsters, so they're a lot tougher
in battle. So they're there, and then they're also a

(13:13):
component of the people in the town. They've injected with
this werewolf virus and they've turned them into were wolves.
So you have the werewolves. They shot the werewolves out
to go attack the hordes that are coming. So you
have all the werewolves in a section of the forest area.
But we have tons of werewolves. We have you know,

(13:34):
there's lots of actors. There's stunt actors that are werewolves,
there's animatronic werewolves. This is a ton of werewolves. And
like in the town, you've got these Frankenstinian creatures and
they're they're in battle armor and they're fighting off the undead.
But also you know, the nether world has sent these

(13:54):
this gigantic creatures called the Undying, these huge monsters, and
they're they're basically going into battle with these giant robots.
So it's a it's.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
A lot going on. And then but then as.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
You journey further along, you know inside the mansion there
are just vampires everywhere. If you love vampires, there's on
the vampires. Like I said, there's there's animatronic vampires, there's
lots of actors. There's actors on stunt their vampires, and
as you go into the actual depths of the nether World,

(14:26):
there's some really crazy There's a really crazy new scene
that we have towards the end that I think people
are going to walk out and go like, wow, that
was super cool.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
But you know, the thing too is like then.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
The midway changes. We've built a number of the new
structures out there, things you can walk through. We have
new food offerings. Uh, we've got new entertaining animatronic things
out there. And the gift shop it is packed with
so many full new nether World items you can only

(14:59):
get and as usual, the high quality, you know, classic
Halloween stuff. I walked through the other day and I
couldn't believe all these things they happened. So if you
love Halloween, you love being scaredy, you love seeing just
a crazy over the top of our jam, that's another world.
It's a way to me.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yes, oh my goodness. And as we're going into that,
you know, throughout the years there have been so many
additions to the attractions, and you know, we've got the
escape rooms and also the Monster Museum. Are we going
to see any maybe some new pieces in the Monster
Museum this year.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
We're always adding bits and pieces to that museum. I'm
trying to remember if there's anything new since last year.
We've added several big pieces in the last couple of years,
so I'd have to go look into that. But the
cool thing about the Monster Museum is is it's a
chill location. Like everyone else is like going crazy.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
But when if you're playing the escape games.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
You're going to be a scape lobby and then you're
in the Monster Museum, it feels like you're a whole
other place from the restaur hant because the Haunt is
so crazy and loud and intense in the outside areas,
it just is like a festival, and you go in there,
it's like creepy and dark and and kind of chill.
It's a totally different thing. And let me tell you
something else we did this year. They took a ton

(16:25):
of time and it was it was It was a
big project, but I think everyone will enjoy it. We
have a huge We had a huge amount of displays.
We had back into our cross cases filled with our history,
with props, with bones of all this stuff, and we
put them in a section of the building that was

(16:46):
a part of our queue line originally when we moved
to this location, but we decided to change how we
did our cues. So for years these items have not
been seen. But now in our giant queue line area.
It's the big room we call the columnque of these
massive columns. It's packed now with these cases filled with
all of these creatures from the Other World's history. There's

(17:08):
so much in there, it's unbelievable, and so we moved
these cases. We refurbished it so this stuff people haven't
seen in I don't know, nineteen years that are on display,
and you're going to walk into that column. You're gonna
be like, what is all this stuff? But of course,
you know you're at that point you're just like I'm

(17:28):
getting in the Haunted House, you know.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
We also we refurbished a creature and made.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
This colossal gargoyle that's going to be presiding over that
that whole room. So it's a lot of neat stuff,
you know, and people who come to know the world,
they'll recognize some of the old pieces.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
But someone walking in there for the first time is
going to.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Be just like, what is happening. It's a lot. We're
also working on this, you know.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
I don't want to give it away, but when.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
You parking lot, gotcha go check it out.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Parking lot is always there's always a creature or two
or three floating around. You never know who you're gonna
meet when you're another world. You never know. So it's
always good to keep up on that, Ben as usual.
It is a pleasure catching up with you. So I
didn't get too many secrets out of you this year.
Maybe next year for the thirtieth, or get some more stick.

(18:29):
You know, you will see.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
There's always stuff that you know.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
I'm sorry, listeners, We're gonna pack in at the last second. Yeah,
oh my god, I'm sorry, listeners. I tried. We almost
got that. But you gotta come out and see. You
gotta come out and visit.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Opening night I believe is September the nineteenth.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Ben, it is indeed all right and soon.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yes it is. It's just around the corner, like it'll
be here in no time, So let everyone know. Also
been the best way to get some more information and
to follow you guys on social.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, so the best thing to do is of course,
one of the things we've been doing for a number
of years now is time ticketing, and so virtually all
of our tickets are sold online and you can pick
your time slots, and this entire process has made getting
into Another World a whole lot smoother. Back in the day,

(19:28):
people just showed up and they got in this enormous
line that could be in it for hours and hours.
But now or this time ticketing thing has been fantastic.
It really sets you up where you know you don't
have to wait an incredible amount of time, and you know,
we've got all these different things going on in que line,
so it's way better. So go online, go to our website,

(19:49):
Fearworld dot com, but you just type in the other World.
You know, I'm sure Google wants to tell you exactly
how to find this, but you'll find your way to
getting tickets. And and obviously we hit we're in probably
the social media is we're most active in with the
Instagram and Facebook, so a lot of things are posted there,
but we'll keep things updated on our blogs on our

(20:12):
primary website. And yeah, we're also always putting out stuff
to the press, and the bloggers is like yourself, and
you know, so we'll be communicating to everybody in that way.
But no, we're we're excited. We're excited for this year.
We're excited to do. You guys see the work we've
been doing, and I think you're going to get a

(20:34):
blast out of these shows. And we're just ramping up
to year thirty. But you're twenty nine is going to
be a doozy or as we say, this year is
going to be a monster.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh, it's definitely going to be a monster. So yes,
you know, to tip my hat off to you and
the team, twenty ninth season is going to keep kicking
off in no time. So you guys heard it, Go
and get your tickets. Ben as usual, pleasure love chatting
it up with you, And I appreciate everyone that supports

(21:05):
the team and supports everything that is. Ash said it
dot com. Ash said it dot com. Keep in mind,
anyone to tell you that you can't do what you
want to do, you look them square in the face.
You tell them, don't believe me. Just watch watch what
I do, Watch me make it happen, watch me make history.
That's what we're doing this for the history books. Social
media is nice, but real life is so much better.

(21:28):
Until next time you guys,