Netherworld: Where Monsters Dwell

by: Dusti L. Lewars

In Norcross, Georgia, stands a portal shrouded in darkness, surrounded by creatures, grisly and fantastic. Entering a world right out of a Hollywood movie, visitors make their way on a self-guided tour through elaborate rooms, seeking safety and escape. This place "Where Monsters Dwell," is the creative vision of Billy Messina and Ben Armstrong.

Welcome to Netherworld one of Georgia's best Haunted Attractions.

Ben Armstrong
Some of us are hit early by the haunted house bug. Ben Armstrong was one of those people, as a child he turned his parents' carport in Florida into a Haunted Attraction. He started helping to create Haunted Events for the local elementary school carnivals, when he was in sixth grade and continuing through high school.

Theatrics were always a strong pull on both Ben's performing and production sides. Being active in role-playing games and the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) helped satisfy Ben's interest in acting. Procuring a job in TV production developed his talent for technical work. Eventually Ben had the opportunity to blend these talents and became the host of his own TV show. A television station in Tallahassee, Florida aired "Tales from 6 Feet Under," featuring Ben as Dr. Speculo. He appeared on Halloween night for three years, and then the show became a regular Saturday feature

for six months. Ben and his group of actors created commercials, skits, and video interactions for the show, in the vein of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." "There was one movie," Ben recalls, "where the guys on the screen were going to take a drink from their canteens. The audience sees me reach out, grab some canteens, add Tabasco sauce to them, and then hand them back. We then cut back to the movie as the actors take a drink from the canteens, then spit out the liquid! In the film, the reason was that water was hot, but...our audience didn't know that."

When "Tales from 6 Feet Under" went off the air, Ben moved to Atlanta and to the Fox 5 television station, where he is still employed as their studio supervisor. Ben's desire to scare people caused him to joined the crew of Silo X Atlanta, focusing on special effects, sound production, shopping for vendors, designing scenes and layouts.

While at Silo-X, Ben took on the project of a book with forty scenes and concepts, which included detailed costumes and storylines to go along with the scenes. The book was sent out to the various Silo X locations across the United States, but Ben found that too often his work was not used to the extent he would have liked, or that the costumes were abandoned for more generic clothing. Ben began to realize that the only way to have complete creative control was to own a haunt himself - and this idea began to grow.

As a part of his duties, Ben recruited new Silo X staff. A friend recommended someone for a job doing marketing and prop construction. That person was Billy Messina.

Billy Messina
A New York native, Billy once seemed destined for a lucrative job in the corporate world. He studied, and excelled in, business management while in college, winning awards in managerial sciences and marketing. However, during his college years, he was introduced to the movie business via job offers from Arnold Gargiulo. Working on low-budget films such as "The Undertaker" and "Graverobbers," Billy learned the art of special effects and prop construction. This experience touched on Billy's childhood memories of working on haunts constructed in friends' basement. "I was always afraid of those haunted houses," Billy confides.

When Billy found himself facing college graduation and the decision of what to do with the rest of his life, he was torn between the security of a good corporate job offer and the suspicion that if he did not give the movie industry a try, he would later regret it. Soon Billy received a phone call offering him work on a film called "Frankenhooker." Being hired for this movie, Billy launched himself into a career that keep him steadily working, often with twenty-hour days. "I soaked in everything I could, and as much of it as I could," he explains, and this method of learning paid off.

Billy's next big opportunity arrived when he was hired as part of the crew constructing "Back to the Future: The Ride," at Universal Studios Florida. This project was headed by Doug Trumbull, a pioneer in the world of special effects and one of the masterminds behind "2001: A Space Odyssy" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." During this yearlong effort, Billy continued to learn from talented people from around the world. This job lead to working on an attraction of motion-simulator rides for the Luxor Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, another Trumbull project.

During this flurry of work, Billy decided to move from New York City to Atlanta. He had been there for seven months while working on "Basket Case III" and found the change of pace appealing. His list of film credits grew to include "Eraser" and "Judge Dredd," the Michael Jackson album and video "HIStory," and various other music videos. He also got involved doing jobs for various Atlanta area charity haunts doing design work and building props. The work varied from model construction to prosthetic makeup, puppet-building to prop design, and even one memorable stint creating fake sardines to be consumed on camera by an actress who refused to eat the real thing.

Billy soon realized that his career was keeping him on the road too much. "I rented a house in Atlanta for four or five years," he remembers, "but because of work, only lived there about two years." He chose to start looking for more local employment, and toyed with the idea of creating his own haunted attraction. Fate intervened quickly in the form of a phone call, from Ben Armstrong of Silo X.

Netherworld
It seemed inevitable that Billy and Ben should end up coming out of the Silo X project together. Both shared a fondness for involved haunts that focus less on gore and more on theatrics, and both shared a desire to have more creative control over their ideas. So in 1997, when Silo X's lease fell through, the two men made the leap into haunt ownership. The risk they took was pretty substantial. Atlanta is a fast-growing city where real estate is very expensive. It is also known as one of the toughest media markets in the country, in part because there are so few radio stations and air time is hard to obtain. Also, for whatever reason, Atlanta does not seem to be a Halloween town. As Billy puts it, "Atlanta's not like Dallas or St. Louis. We do a decent business, but I can't imagine...I can't see thirty haunts [here]."

To counter this, the Netherworld team drew upon varying backgrounds to come up with an aggressive promotional plan that focused on underground marketing. Promotional events featuring a hearse and assorted monsters were utilized with great success. Private investors were contacted, and enough money was raised to create Netherworld 1997 in a rented 7000 square foot space.

Inside that space, Ben and Billy started putting their haunt theory to work. "I've always loved monsters," explains Ben. "I don't like slasher stuff. I like monsters. Not gore...supernatural stuff. When I was younger, I was into all that gaming stuff. Then I got into the SCA. The SCA had medieval stuff and theatre and fun, but no fear concept. When I got older, I saw that you could do scares and storylines and show them to lots of people. With a TV audience, you had 15,000 people watching. In a haunt, you could have a huge audience! It's exciting to have that creativity."

Billy also prefers the creepy, macabre sort of scare, where very little gore is seen. "Our motto is, 'Netherworld: where monsters live,' and that is what we try to create," Ben adds, "Violence caused by monsters is fantastical. We *do* use bodies, but [things like] mummies, zombies and very old corpses." Aware that the modern haunt fan can walk into a mall or pick up a catalog and find many of the standard items used by dark attractions, there is a strong push by the Netherworld staff to give visitors something new and different. Drawing on Hollywood-caliber talent, Billy and Ben are able to create a haunt that is reminiscent of a movie set, complete with prosthetic makeup, custom-made masks, and one-of-a-kind props. "Our show is mainly made up of wires and tubes everywhere," jokes Ben, "It's way too complicated." Air cannons, jackhammers, pop-ups, sensor-run animations, several sorts of puppets, and yes, gore and chainsaws are used sporadically within the walls of Netherworld.

White Wolf
In 1998, a promotional partnership was formed between Netherworld and White Wolf Games, the creators of "Vampire: The Masquerade," whose headquarters are in Atlanta. The two companies pairing up was a natural. Among White Wolf's contributions as sponsors, Netherworld the Haunted Attraction is featured in local ad campaigns and a 3D virtual reality haunted house (still available for viewing at www.fearworld.com). In return, Netherworld created half of their haunt using characters and creatures based on the "Vampire: The Masquerade" gaming system. Beautifully detailed costumes brought a cast of vampires, werewolves, and gargoyles to life, while a detailed storyline allowed visitors to become part of the action. Visitors to the haunt basically got a two-for-one deal, for just when they thought they had escaped the terror, they entered part two of Netherworld - a biological/technical nightmare walk-through called "Vault 13." This approach meant an obvious break in the storylines, but as Ben describes, "The main difference was lighting. Vault 13 had strobes, LED's, and beacons; the vampires had gels and was generally darker. Both had just as many gizmos, animated creatures, and air blasts."

The Cast
Running a haunt successfully is a uniquely challenging, stressful situation. The 1998 show required 30-40 actors each night. To find that many qualified actors, Billy advertised in local theatre papers, on the Internet, at sci-fi conventions such as Dragoncon, and even used a talent agency. The resulting mix of employees ranged from theatrically trained actors to haunted house trained actors. The combination worked well. "Haunted house actors know how to scare. [Theatre] Actors know how to act, and the two groups learn from each other," explains Billy. Most of the actors return each year, which provides an experienced acting core to work with - a testiment to both Netherworld and Billy, who manages the acting staff.

When it comes to the actual construction of the haunt, most of the work is done by a group of five people. Ben (who focuses mainly on the special effects, storylines, design, and lighting of the show) and Billy (who also handles marketing, some prop construction, and media relations) are joined by Bill Johnson (monster maker and makeup artist), Jayne Rogers (scenic painter/costumer), and Philip Rogers (EMT/security manager). Together, these talented people form a powerful production team that shows in the quality of the attraction. Some of the job descriptions certainly overlap, Billy may join in with the makeup work, and Ben sometimes joins the acting staff, even putting in the odd appearance as Dr. Speculo. Ben also has been known to "help" in the process of prop construction, though he confesses it is usually "out of desperation." The partners joke that some of Ben's creations inspire comments such as, "Light it creatively!" or "It looks like a lurker," indicating that this particular monster might do better hidden in a dark corner.

1999 Season
This year's incarnation of Netherworld promises to be the most ambitious ever. With a newly leased property of roughly 15,000 square feet and two years of success under their belts, Ben and Billy are fairly close-mouthed about what visitors can expect from the show.

What they *will* say is that plans are underway to create two different and separate haunted attractions. One will focus on an apocalyptic theme, featuring scenarios focusing on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The other will use modern 3D effects in a carnival/haunted mansion scenario. The staff will be working very closely with Chromatek for the 3D haunt. Fans who have been following the progression of Netherworld will see some familiar faces and objects in whole new contexts, and should be pleased to find that there is an ongoing mythos connecting the storylines from three years of the haunt. As for the rest...you will have to see for yourself.

2000 And Beyond
What the future holds for Netherworld and this creative duo, is full of possibilities. "We could work on creating multiple locations, or decide to take the show on the road," muses Billy, "I'd like to do a haunted opera at some point." Ben's answer to the question is a little more vague. "I don't know. We'll just take it year by year." Netherworld and its creative team have hit upon a successful formula of creativity and originality. In its short lifetime, it has risen to the top in a tough Atlanta market and gained national notoriety. Two men from decidedly different backgrounds fused their dreams of ownership and creative control into an attraction that is making the industry take notice!

Dusti L. Lewars is the casting director/trainer, for Grisly Gothic Gables in Philadelphia, PA. She also serves on the IAHA board, and is a freelance writer of things macabre. She can be reached at Elionwyr@onix.com