Trick or Treat?

It’s Halloween season again, and time to get scared. Haunted houses are appearing all around Atlanta, enticing everyone to join in on the thrills and chills of this time of the year.

Chambers of Terror offers a house to scare the pants off of anyone who enters. This house is definitely for those who are hardcore fans of haunted houses. If you thought Texas Chainsaw Massacre was scary, you’ll certainly be shaking when you finally see the sweet relief of the outside parking lot.

Chambers of Terror is situated down a dark, empty street, and when you first wait to enter the house they place you in a dark, small room for a few minutes to get you in the mood.

The first section of the house is done with a guide, making it seem like a pretty normal haunted house and not too scary.

Then, after your journey through some terrorizing special effects in that first part, you are sent off on your own to conquer the rest of the house. This brings you to a maze of pitch-black rooms and scary villains, with a stint out in the woods. It is like being in your very own scary movie.

The house took me about 30 minutes to go through, longer than most houses and makes the $15 worthwhile. I have to recommend that any skeptics and those who are hard to scare check out Chambers of Terror and see if this house can scare them. I have never been so scared by a haunted house or a scary movie before.

Chambers of Terror is open on weekends from 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. It is located north of Downtown on I-85 and off of Beaver Ruin Rd. Look for the searchlights.

At Netherworld they greet you in the parking lot with monsters and scary clowns who tell you how many ways they can kill you. Netherworld has three houses that you can walk through.

The main house, Spirits of the Dead, is most like a normal haunted house, filled with ghosts, ghouls and monsters ready to jump out at you around every corner. They introduce their houses with videos that put you in the scary mood.

Spirits of the Dead is cool as well as scary, with special effects such as a tunnel that is very trippy and difficult to walk through and a graveyard scene filled with thick mist.

They manage to use many different techniques to frighten you. It took about 20 minutes to walk through this house.

Very Scary Tales is also a pretty cool house to walk through. It is not as scary, but it is worth the extra money to go through it. You are given 3-D glasses and the effects inside are different than anything you have ever seen before. They still manage to freak you out, using the 3-D that makes it even scarier.

This house is the brightest of the three, with scary nursery music and visuals that make you see things differently. It is also the shortest of the three; it took me about 10 minutes to walk through.

Oblivion is the third house, and the scariest at Netherworld. It brings terror to its visitors by leading them through pitch-black rooms. For those afraid of the dark, this house is the one to scare you.

This one was actually tricky to walk through because you keep running into the walls in the dark, but you do not know if it is actually a wall or a monster ready to jump at you.

Be careful or you might get lost in this house forever or be chased out by a man wielding a chainsaw 10-15 minutes after you enter the house.

Despite this, Netherworld has fewer men with chainsaws than Chambers of Terror, and I must say I appreciated that as I negotiated the haunted houses there.

Netherworld is open weekdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and on weekends till 12 p.m. It is located north on I-85 off of Jimmy Carter Blvd. Look for the searchlights. To go through the main house is $15, and $5 more per extra house.

The Center for Puppetry Arts is presenting Spooky Puppet.The Beginning for ages 18 and up. The age restriction is necessary considered the type of humor presented in this show.

A prequel to the popular Spooky Horror Puppet Show, Spooky Puppet...the Beginning chronicles a bit of the history of the characters.

The most interesting part of this experience is the walk-through haunted hallway that you have to go through to get to your seats.

Unlike most other haunted houses, spooks here can and will touch you. For the first few minutes it is rather scary, but once you know what to expect, it isn’t too bad.

The puppet show used many forms of entertainment including song, wicked humor, puppets, audience involvement and a cool stick dance.

However, the story was slightly boring, very strange, and not at all scary, if that is what you are looking for.

Nonetheless, it is an enjoyable attraction if you’re looking for something to get you in the spooky spirit but don’t want to risk going into cardiac arrest.

I recommend going to this show on Wednesday night, when it is half price for college students. Tickets are $16. Show times are available on their website.

The Center for Puppetry Arts’ website is www.puppet.org. The website for Chambers of Terror is chambersofterror.com and the website for Netherworld can be found at www.fearworld.com.