McKamey Manor Cost, Details, and Horror Stories The Scariest Haunted House in the US

Table Of Content

• 'There's a chance of death': Inside the chilling 40-page waiver
• Beware! Why this Tennessee haunted house takes horror to a new level
• The Depraved Real Life Attraction Behind Hulu’s ‘Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House’
• The Untold Truth Of McKamey Manor, America's Most Controversial Haunted House
• Is McKamey Manor safe?
• Interactive horror house or a torture chamber?
• HuffPost Personal

After his experience, he isn’t sure there’s a manor anymore; instead, now it’s more of a boot camp meant to exhaust and embarrass you. They also need to show proof of medical insurance, pass a drug test and sign a "detailed 40 page waiver." The haunt can last 10 or more hours. To participate, guests must sign a liability waiver that includes the inability to leave the experience without the staff's permission, and being subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture, including having bones broken, teeth removed without anesthesia, and being drugged. Reservations are required to tour McKamey Manor, and only one or two people are allowed in at a time. Participants have to be over 21, or between 18 and 20 with a parent’s permission.

'There's a chance of death': Inside the chilling 40-page waiver

But there's another box that participants must check before being subjected to McKamey Manor's horrors, which is watching a nearly two-hour documentary that features many of the attraction's previous participants. The purpose of this particular requirement does little to reveal the specifics of what they'll be subjected to as, according to the website's warning, participants must "Understand that each tour will be different based upon your personal fears," meaning no two experiences are the same. Some haunted house attractions have photo booths so visitors can take home a snapshot of themselves, after experiencing thrilling yet tame special effects and actors in spooky costumes. McKamey Manor, on the other hand, lets participants record videos of themselves — bruised, bloodied, and battered — talking about how much they enjoyed the rush.

Beware! Why this Tennessee haunted house takes horror to a new level

Protests scotched an envisaged site in Illinois so he is now preparing another, undisclosed location. “The possible consequences such as dry drowning or possible damage to lungs were never explained. If actors weren’t aware of these consequences and possible life-threatening situations, it’s fair to say that they had no idea what they were doing.

The Depraved Real Life Attraction Behind Hulu’s ‘Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House’

Participants must also read aloud and sign a 40-page legal waiver. It’s packed with possible scenarios that range from pulling out someone’s teeth to shaving their head to having their fingers shoved in mouse traps. Haunted houses are a widely appealing experience, as anyone keen on a few harmless scares can get a rush from their simulated danger. McKamey Manor in Summertown, Tennessee, however, is something completely different.

The Untold Truth Of McKamey Manor, America's Most Controversial Haunted House

Then there's Brandon Vance, who not only endured the torments of McKamey Manor twice, but was actually looking forward to doing it again, according to Nashville Scene. For him, it was a means of returning to the intense emotional period he longed for since leaving the military. Even with the authorities breathing down the necks of those who operate McKamey Manor, there seems to be little they can legally do to intervene — for the time being, at least. You need to sign a 40-page waiver, make up a safe word, and get a doctor’s note to even get through the doors. Other participants describe being forced to eat their own vomit, having their faces shoved in rancid water, and being locked in coffins with insects and spiders. McKamey ManorThe show prohibits cursing, being on drugs, or being younger than 18.

What Is McKamey Manor, America's Most Extreme Haunted House? - House Beautiful

What Is McKamey Manor, America's Most Extreme Haunted House?.

Posted: Thu, 12 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Though participants can choose two — out of more than one hundred — that they want to avoid, everything else is fair game. For some, that’s enough to back out of the challenge right away. The Tennessee attraction is so scary, no one has ever completed it, he said.

Once someone gets through all those checkpoints, they'll have to watch a two-hour-long documentary that features dozens of people who attempted to get through the house over the past two years. Given a blanket, water and a cookie, he slowly revives and almost smiles when his erstwhile tormentors commend him on a “good job”. Sweeney, demonic lumberjack no more, is especially warm and chatty and compares notes with Caine about the experience, as if analysing a baseball game.

Although Russ McKamey claims he’s simply a Halloween fanatic who enjoys making horror “movies,” many believe he’s a predator who gets off on making people terrified and uncomfortable. "They do screenings to find the weakest, most easily manipulated people to do the 'haunt'. ... Mckamey Manor is a shame to all haunted houses, and needs to be shut down," the petition started by a person named Frankie Towery reads. SUMMERTOWN, Tenn. — A scary venue that is marketed as an extreme haunted house in Summertown, Tennessee, is now the focus of a Change.org petition striving to shut it down. The petition also claims that founder Russ McKamey hires employees with violent histories and makes people ingest pills that cause hallucinations.

Monster Inside takes a look at three participants of McKamey Manor; Melissa Everly, Gabi Hardiman and Brandon Vance. Kris Smith, who was reportedly friends with McKamey and was also interviewed by USA TODAY in 2019 where he stated he was a volunteer with the Manor, is part of the interviews talking about the man behind the horror house. There are immersive haunted houses and then there is McKamey Manor. The letter also raised concerns about reports that participants do not have access to the lengthy 40-page waiver that describes the risks involved with a tour before signing up. In previous interviews, McKamey called his extreme haunt "a game" and a "survival horror boot camp experience" that can last more than 10 hours at places around Summertown, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama.

Before someone can enter the “survival horror challenge” of McKamey Manor, there’s a physical exam. Then there’s a background check, a phone screen, a 40-page waiver and a drug test. If all that goes according to plan, participants have to watch a nearly two-hour documentary featuring every person who has attempted the haunted attraction in the past two years. Contestants who want to enter must get a letter from their doctor asserting they are physically and mentally fit, and there’s a drug test day-of. Oh, and you have to have medical insurance because you’ll probably get hurt.

McKamey is adamant that nothing weird goes on in the manor, despite a report from The Guardian that said visitors may be “bound, masked and held under water, slapped and stomped on, and compelled to eat your own vomit” during the eight-hour tour — if they last that long. McKamey insists it’s a more of a “mental game” between him and contestants, which he wins using hypnosis. "They want to be here because they just don't get scared at normal haunted houses," he says. "They are adrenaline junkies, they're thrill seekers. They come to me to experience terror or to experience excitement or whatever." McKamey Manor is a haunted house attraction that is known for bringing its visitors' worst fears to life.

For starters, you must be 21, or you can get parental permission if you're 18 to 20. Those interested in trying the experience must complete a physical exam, a background check, a phone screen, a drug test, and sign a 40-page waiver, per Fox Business. You also have to show proof of medical insurance and get a doctor's note stating you are physically and mentally cleared, per the McKamey Manor website. Real or not, it seems inevitable that McKamey Manor will continue to draw guests. Considered one of the world’s scariest haunted houses, it’s a magnet for endurance junkies and horror aficionados.

“People can actually make it through — it’s not as rough as some of them are,” he said. Those eight minutes have convinced thousands of people that Russ McKamey isn’t running a haunted house at all. Russ McKamey’s haunted house requires both a doctor’s note and and a signature on a 40-page waiver to enter.

It has been so intense that neighbors of McKamey Manor called the police when they saw a woman being dragged from a vehicle. Now Russ McKamey, owner of the manor, calls the police himself, warning them before a tour begins, Nashville Scene reported. If participants lasted long enough in the experience, McKamey said they would end up in Huntsville, Ala.