Nothing stirs up customers like a chain saw-wielding maniac.

It might seem like an uncommon business practice, but at the Amenti Haunted House, it is just another day at the office.

Since 2006, DeKalb’s Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., has opened its doors around Halloween to raise funds for the building and raise hairs in the process.

According to Alex Nerad, operations director for the Egyptian, the concept came about in 2004 when the Kishwaukee Kiwanis needed a temporary location for its annual haunted house.

When the Kiwanis left two years later, Nerad says the Egyptian discovered the perfect opportunity to keep a good thing going.

“We saw this as a good idea,” Nerad said, who is also the co-chairman for the haunted house committee. “We really wanted to build upon what they had been doing in the community and really amp it up and do something a little bit bigger.”

A little bit bigger might be an understatement.

At 20 rooms spread out across six different levels, Amenti has reached notice on a national scale. According to its Web site, the attraction has been featured by the scare specialists at 13th Hour Magazine as one of America’s finest haunted houses.

To put together such a spectacle, Nerad says it took 150 volunteers to put in roughly 2,500 hours of work this year alone. He also made it a point to express that the work done for this year’s event has made it their best house to date.

He might be right. Nerad reported that about 1,500 people attended Amenti this past weekend, and he expects even more patrons through Halloween.

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