Scare up Dollars

It's a crisp autumn night and dozens of nervous people are waiting in line. Screams echo from inside the building they've just paid to wander through. Shrieking girls dart out of the exit with a "chainsaw-wielding maniac" hot on their heels.

At around $13 a person, it seems like the owners would be making a killing. But running a haunted house is a lot harder and more expensive than it sounds, said Billy Macina, co-owner of Netherworld Haunted House in Norcross and a former special effects artist.

"It's kind of hysterical, when people walk through, and say, `Look at all these people, you guys must be making a fortune and you only work a month,' " Macina said. "And I say, `If you only knew.'"

Halloween is the second-most-lucrative holiday of the year, after Christmas, bringing in $6 billion in sales, according to the Halloween Association, a Halloween industry trade organization.

With such high sales, Halloween seems to be a good holiday on which to base a seasonal business. And many do.

In October, Halloween stores pop up in empty retail space at shopping centers and malls, pumpkin vendors set up on major roads and haunted houses manifest in deserted hospitals, abandoned warehouses and strip malls.

But while selling pumpkins may be a good way to make a quick profit (in a strong economy), a haunted house can involve months of preparation and thousands of dollars in production and employee costs, said several area haunted house operators.

"People have this perception of haunted houses as somebody's basement with black plastic sheeting hanging all over the place and kids with store-bought plastic masks," Macina said. "But this is pretty elaborate. It's a pretty tight machine."

Netherworld spends about $200,000 a year on advertising, Macina said. Producing the attraction, including make-up, decorations, walls, costumes, lighting and robots, costs about $500,000 a year, he said. Other costs include insurance, rent and employees, Macina said.

Netherworld attracted more than 50,000 visitors between both of its shows last year, he said. (At $13 a head, that would produce revenue from admissions of about $650,000.)

The space needed to handle such a large volume of visitors definitely isn't cheap, Macina said.

That's one of the reasons the vast majority of haunted houses set up shop in the suburbs, where space is less expensive, he said. Parking and population, however, are the two main reasons to operate outside city limits, Macina said. Highway visibility also is a plus for Netherworld's location, he added.

Kristie Grasis, co-owner with her husband, Robert, of The Abyss "Depths of Fear," said a relatively cheap, short-term lease was the main reason she chose to open the haunted house in Marietta. She's staying in metro Atlanta temporarily (she lives in Connecticut) to operate The Abyss.

"There's just no such thing in Connecticut as temporary lease because people are snatching up property left and right," Grasis said. "I have family here in Atlanta and one of my family members said, `Well, there's tons of empty buildings here.' "

Retail space in Marietta and Norcross generally rents for $6 to $8 a square foot. So if a haunted house were 4,000 square feet, rent would be between $24,000 and $32,000 per year.

In addition to rent, the employees needed to staff a haunted house can add considerably to the cost of operation.

The Abyss, a smaller attraction in the Town & Country Shopping Center off Roswell Road, has about 30 employees, Grasis said. Wages start at $7 an hour.

It takes considerably more employees to staff a large haunted house. Netherworld employs about 150 workers, 50 of whom are actors, Macina said. Their pay starts at minimum wage and can run much higher, depending on their position, he said.

A labor of love

But many of the actors aren't concerned with how much they get paid to scare people, Macina said.

"I can't tell you how many people, when I go around to hand out paychecks, say, `What's this? You mean we're getting paid for this?' " he said. "Most people there do it for fun."

The job draws people from virtually every walk of life, Macina said. Actors range from college students to lawyers and dentists.

Haunted house operators said they, too, work for the love of Halloween rather than hefty profits.

"We do it because we want to put on a good show," Macina said. "It's a lot of work. And the money we make this year will basically fund next year's show. We don't do this to get rich."

A spokesperson for the 10-year-old Nightmare Haunted House and Tom Savini's Crypt of Terror in Tucker, both owned by a family production company from Orlando, Fla., said the family's profits from the haunted houses are modest.

Grasis, a stay-at-home mom, said she also runs The Abyss for kicks but does need to be able to help pay the bills, though her husband has a secure job with an environmental company.

"When I was a little kid, I used to put them on for my younger sister," Grasis said. "I do it for fun. But I wouldn't do it again if we lose money. I need at least to make a little something."

Many of the haunted house owners put in countless hours designing, setting up and maintaining their creations.

Macina and his main partner, Ben Armstrong, work full time on Netherworld all year, he said.

"If you added up all the hours we put into this, we'd get paid about a penny an hour," Macina said.

The house is completely changed and rebuilt each year, he said, which is a significant undertaking.

Not in the mood for horror?

After the tragic deaths of thousands of Americans Sept. 11 and the threat of more attacks, many may not be emotionally ready to revel in Halloween celebration, especially in the gore and horror theme of haunted houses.

But several haunted house owners are counting on the nation's drive to return to normalcy to fill the parking lot.

"I think as long as nothing happens in this area, people will still want to go out," Grasis said. "Plus, the age group we're geared towards, which is mostly the teenager, young adult crowd, tends not to be affected as much by the national events as a middle-aged consumer."

Business has been mediocre so far but the beginning of October usually is much slower than later in the month, she said.

Netherworld's attendance has been better than expected after Sept. 11 and is expected to increase on schedule as Halloween creeps closer, Macina said.

"Business this year is going surprisingly well," Macina said. "Considering everything that's going on in the world, our numbers are as good or better than last year."

Macina said he thinks haunted houses may be a good diversion from the nation's troubles.

"We're just hoping that we can be an escape for people," he said. "They know they're going to go in and come out alive and everything's going to be okay. It's cathartic."