Stone Mountain, Georgia
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Why do we pay so much money to feel scared? The answer lies somewhere in our psychology, our desire for entertainment, and the primal thrill of surviving our inner boogeyman.
Halloween spending this year is expected to reach record levels across America, including large crowds waiting for their chance to be chased, startled and yelled at. The heart of a great haunted house thrives on the strange paradox of enjoying a good scare.
The Netherworld Haunted House in Stone Mountain, Georgia, which touts a history of scaring people for nearly 30 years, is not your typical neighborhood haunted house. A dense cast of over 450 animatronics and special effects and over 100 live actors create a full-body sensory overload designed to get your heart racing and your brain firing on all cylinders.
A werewolf that flies through the air on a hanging cord, an oversized claw puppet that drags you into the darkness and separates you from your group, a disorienting mirror maze, and moving floors are just some of the plays performed nightly at Netherworld.
Ben Armstrong, co-owner of the massive 10-acre scare factory just east of Atlanta that draws more than 1,000 people each night, describes the experience as more like an action movie than a horror one.
“There’s animatronics everywhere. There’s sound, there’s giant monsters, all of that sets the stage for the actors. It’s a distraction, it’s an over-the-top action, it’s a suspenseful thing where you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Armstrong told CNN. “Things are always popping up.”
However, the rise in fear is not only psychological. It’s biological and even fun.
Even if the haunted house of the underworld is pure theatrical illusion, your body doesn’t quite know it. Your heart rate spikes, the stress hormone cortisol spikes, and your system reacts as if the monster’s threat were real.
haunted house in the underworld
“There’s something in the brain called the amygdala,” Armstrong told CNN as he led a tour through the twisting labyrinth of the underworld, filled with oversized monsters and special effects. “It protects you by suddenly taking over your consciousness.”
“When the amygdala senses potential danger, it kicks in and your body starts to react. Your skin turns pale, all the blood goes to your muscles, and the fight-or-flight response begins,” Armstrong said.
However, experiencing a haunted house can also have positive effects on your body. “Dopamine is a neurochemical that brings us new pleasures and novel pleasures that we haven’t really experienced before,” says Nilo Feliciano, a practicing psychotherapist for more than 20 years who studies the science of fear.
“And you get a lot of dopamine because there’s something new around every corner and you don’t know what to expect and anticipate. The more uncertainty and unpredictability, the more dopamine those people will get when it actually happens,” Feliciano said.
In addition to the adrenaline rush and novelty, haunted houses also create connections between visitors.
“There’s a bond that produces oxytocin, the love hormone, and (visitors) also know it’s a safe and controlled way to experience that kind of thrill,” she said.
The combination of fear and safety is the secret sauce for Mike Juby, creator of The Headless Horseman Hayride and New York’s Historic Hudson Valley Haunted Houses. “People like to be scared, but I think they really enjoy knowing that they’re safe,” he said.
Juvie, a retired detective, traded his career’s real-world horror for staged mayhem and never looked back. “I’ve seen the real thing,” he said at the haunted attraction, which sits on 65 acres in the middle of New York state. The attraction features an actor playing the infamous Headless Horseman riding a live horse each night.
“We associate our event with a touring play on Broadway in New York City,” Juby explained. “Unlike theaters that bring out the illusion of a magical world, perform it only once a night, and then push it off the stage, our theater performs every two minutes,” he elaborated.
That interactivity is part of the magic, says Lawrence Samuel, cultural historian and author of “Supernatural America: A Cultural History.” “This theatrical event is being performed. But the difference is, we’re not just watching a play, we’re also involved. You know, it’s interactive. It’s 3D,” he said.
“Halloween is a catharsis for the fear of death,” Samuel explained. “This is just a way to contain and overcome our collective fears and, you know, have a very safe and socially sanctioned vacation.”
Feliciano agreed that people’s darkest fears are drawn to haunted houses each year during the spooky Halloween holiday. “Curiosity is often associated with death and things beyond death, and it gives us a pseudo-feeling of that,” she says.
The appetite for fear only grows. Americans are expected to spend a record $13.1 billion on Halloween this year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual consumer survey.
“It’s become this incredibly powerful collaborative event, and I think it’s the biggest event of the year,” Samuel said. “One day you just have a venting experience that flips the situation. We flip the rules by holding the kids accountable as well,” he said.
Whether it’s haunted houses, horror movies, scary novels, or chilling art, people are drawn to fear, and for many people it actually makes them feel good.
“Life can be a little mundane sometimes,” said Bushra Huk, still catching her breath after running through the winding corridors of the Netherworld as a paying customer.
“You work…9 to 5 and then you just want to feel something. I came here to feel something and it goes by really quickly. You feel confident and you feel brave after you’re done.”
That thrill galvanized the entire industry. Transworld Trade Show owner Jen Bianco has seen attendance at her big Halloween and attraction events soar in recent years as professional hunters exchange tips, techniques and spooky new ideas.
“Halloween is more than just trick-or-treating and costumes,” she told CNN. “Business is good.”
