You know you have a scary haunted house when people who scare for a living show up.
Nice work, Netherworld.
The annual scream-a-torium has hosted a number of notable guests recently, including James Wan, director of chilling flicks such as "Saw," "Insidious" and "The Conjuring." (He's in town these days directing the considerably less terrifying "Fast & Furious 7.")
Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl on "The Walking Dead," has also been spotted at Netherworld. Given all the zombies he encounters on the job, we suspect he made it through with barely a flinch.
Others checking out the sights and frights: rapper-actors Ludacris and T.I., football player turned analyst Hines Ward of the University of Georgia and NFL (and "Dancing With the Stars") fame and martial artist-actor Tony Jaa. Jaa and Luda are both working on "Fast & Furious 7" with Wan.
"We are excited that such a wide array of really great talent has stopped by to get in a good scream," said Ben Armstrong, co-owner of Netherworld Haunted House. "We are also proud to have talent within the haunt."
Indeed, some of the ghouls and goblins freaking out Netherworld visitors this season have also nabbed gigs on the “Hunger Games” three-quel “Mockingjay,” as well as “The Vampire Diaries” spin-off “The Originals,” which both are filming in metro Atlanta these days.
If that's not enough star power for you, makeup artist Ron Wooley has gained national attention on the Syfy channel's show "Face Off."
Located at 6624 Dawson Blvd. in Norcross, Netherworld is open nightly through Sunday. For details and ticket information, see www.fearworld.com.
We braved a visit to Netherworld recently, where chief spook “The Collector” gave us a tour himself.
“It’s spacious. It’s full of cobwebs. It has that musty smell,” he boasted. It was tough getting a straight answer out of him at times, though. For example, we couldn’t pin him down about how many bedrooms there are in Netherworld.
“We don’t do a lot of sleeping here,” The Collector responded. “Since we’re all dead, we have a lot of time on our hands.”
But we do have some things in common.
“I like to keep up with what’s happening in pop culture,” said The Collector while flipping through a copy of Fangoria magazine that just happened to feature a cover story on him. “Everyone wants to know me, or be me, or be dug up by me.”
