ATLRetro

Chambers of Horror, Atlanta’s adults-only haunt behind The Masquerade, has come a long way from a torture porn extravaganza to a creepy crawl through a septic, gritty underworld where atmosphere and story are strengths. This year’s storyline involves a plague infection of alien origin now running rampant in the underground of Dr. Splatter’s lurid experiments. This’ll be the last year at this location due to pending construction, so kudos to Luke Godfrey (ATLRetro exclusive interview with him here) and Ian O’Brien of Gorehound Productions for whipping up a must-see attraction, as long as you have a stomach for  extreme violence and the phantasmagorically pornographic. Let’s be clear–you won’t be seeing parasexual activity, but nakedness and deformed organs, including sexual ones, are in view.

If you visited Chambers only in its first two years, you missed its escalation into a full-out immersive performance experience similar to that which made the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse more than your usual walk-through haunt. Similar to the prelude to a Splatter Cinema evening (also ran and co-founded by Godfrey) begin with a photo op with a grisly prop with a green screen backdrop that by the finished print will reveal additional horrors. That’s followed by a video setting up the outbreak premise. Visitors are scanned for the alien virus and then ushered into an elevator that shakes and shudders to evoke a realistic ride down five stories into the depths that once were TortureCo and are now a US military facility. The point of a haunt is surprise, so without any spoilers, let’s just say that along the journey, visitors encounter scenarios with paramilitary officers, mutilated infected scientists and victims of twisted experiments engaged in disturbing dioramas. Sure, there were some jumpy scares and victims cried out mournfully for help, but haunt-goers are encouraged to linger and listen as the plotline unfolds and torturers threaten and tantalize visitors with a promise of pain.

One warning: Don’t dress in anything which you mind getting wet and even, on one occasion, foamy.

Chambers of Horror is open Wed. Oct. 28 and Thurs. Oct. 29 from 8 pm until midnight, and Fri. Oct. 30 and Halloween from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets are available at the door, or you can purchase them online in advance at Xorbia – Chambers of Horror Tickets