The McKamey Manor | Ep. 92

This week’s episode is a little different since we’ll be talking about a topic that is definitely real…but also unbelievable!

For those of you that enjoy haunted houses, you might want to think twice about partaking in the McKamey Manor. In fact, that is what the owner, Russ, says too! But, why?

Countless visitors have claimed they experienced more torturous activities rather than living out a horror movie fantasy. This includes waterboarding, injections, spitting, pushing, teeth and nails removed, shaved heads, and more.

So, would you ever consider visiting the McKamey Manor? Listen now.

America’s Scariest Haunted House: McKamey Manor

Would you ever risk intense physical and psychological pain for fun and games? What if there was a torture chamber, masquerading as a haunted house?

What’s up Bizarros? This week we dive into the story of McKamey Manor, one of the most extreme haunted houses in America.

Have you heard about McKamey Manor? Is it an intense haunted house, or a torture fantasy that allows actors to cross the line?  Let’s dive into the story of McKamey Manor.

What Is The McKamey Manor

The McKamey Manor is considered “The One and Only Original Extreme Haunted Attraction and Survival Horror Challenge.”

Technically on a basic level – it is a haunted house. But, it’s also much more than that.

This survival horror-style haunted house was founded in 2014 by 20+ year Navy veteran Russ McKamey in San Diego, California. 

Originally it was on his property and not quite as expansive as it is now.

It is now a year-round haunted house but it only allows a handful of guests each weekend. The tour challenges at the McKamey Manor can last up to 8 hours. 

This is not a backyard haunt either. This haunted house is almost sadistic with some of the actors shoving unknown substances and liquids into your mouth and forcing you to swallow, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In Russ’ own words, he says about McKamey Manor,

“Everyone is so blasé about what happens in the world. They need a safe release. It’s about creating a cinematic experience and making people feel they’re living their own horror movie. Movies can’t fool us anymore. It’s really hard to get emotions out of people. It’s survival horror boot camp,”

In addition, there is no fee to enter the McKamey Manor – although, they accept a bag of dog food for his pet dogs. 

However, guests must sign a lengthy liability waiver, which essentially forces you to lose the ability to sue for any injuries or damage, along with the inability to leave the McKamey Manor without the staff’s permission, the inability to touch or retaliate against staff members, along with accepting that the staff/actors may subject you to physical and psychological torture.

According to The Forest Scout, Part 51 of the Official McKamey Manor Waiver states, “Participant fully understands that injuries may occur during their Tour of MM, which may include, but not limited to, head, neck, and back injuries, death, stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain aneurysms, cerebral or retinal hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, loss of consciousness, whiplash, harmful heart reactions, nausea, headache, dizziness, lacerations, broken or sprained bones, torn ligaments, bleeding wounds, scrapes and/or cuts, heatstroke, or drowning, and does not hold MM responsible.” 

I don’t know if this is still the case, but the actors that dress like creepy characters with make-up and masks are completely volunteers. They aren’t hired or paid.

Needless to say, guests must be 21 or older or can be 18-20 with parental consent. Also, there is a huge waiting list, which has led to multiple locations in states like Tennessee and Alabama.

When the McKamey Manor first started there was so such thing as safe words to immediately end the tour, however, after years of controversy they have thankfully added them.

Throughout the years the tours have themes and sometimes will include cash prizes for people that complete the entire tour – which is very unlikely.

For instance, they had a ten-hour tour that was called Desolation where anyone that actually completed the tour would win $20,000. However, the staff deducted $500 for every failed challenge throughout your experience or for each word of profanity.

So, here is a list of some general experiences people claimed to have while attending the McKamey Manor – and again this is a free haunted house that people choose to go to. 

People have claimed:

• Locked in a coffin with insects and spiders
• Bound and gagged
• Tied up
• Force-fed unknown liquids and foods
• Waterboarded
• Held underwater
• Screamed at and berated
• Caged (Full Body)
• Having their head only in a cage with snakes
• Tattooed
• Finger bones broken
• Fingernails removed
• Teeth removed without anesthesia
• Hair pulled, cut, and or shaved
• Being injected with drugs

Many of the tours are recorded and uploaded to platforms like YouTube, too. Apparently, that was one reason why it got so extreme, people in the comments kept calling their actions fake and pointing out how they were essentially pulling punches when it came to certain scenarios.

Thanks to these comments they decided they’re going all out now, and for lack of better phrasing, won’t be pulling anymore punches.

So, even though it’s free doesn’t mean that the McKamey Manor doesn’t have requirements. This is pulled directly from their website.

Requirements – Taken from the site

1. 21 and above, or 18-20 with parents’ approval.

2. Completed “Sports Physical” and a Doctors letter stating you are physically and mentally cleared.

3. Pass a background check provided by MM.

4. Be screened via FB face time or phone.

5. Proof of medical insurance.

6. Sign a detailed 40-page waiver.

7. Pass a portable drug test on the day of the show.

Here is their “About Section” from the website –

About McKamey Manor – From Their Website

“Be warned, MCKAMEY MANOR is not your standard (boo) haunted house. This is an audience participation event in which (YOU) will live your own Horror Movie. This is a rough, intense, and truly frightening experience. You must be in GREAT HEALTH to participate. Last year’s haunt was absolutely nothing compared to the new MCKAMEY MANOR.

Understand that each tour will be different based upon your personal fears, and can last up to 6 HOURS. Each guest will be mentally and physically challenged until you reach your personal breaking point.

Do not wear expensive clothing. Do not bring anything that cannot get wet. This can be an aggressive experience, and our actors will come in contact with you. You CANNOT in any way return the contact. If anyone becomes rowdy (pushing, shoving, running), they will immediately be removed – no questions asked. Anyone that has been drinking alcohol, or taking drugs will not be allowed into the haunt and will be asked to leave the property.

At check-in, you will be required to show I.D. The waiver process will last 2 hours. ONE performance only per week (year-round).  Specific requirements must be met in order to ever take the tour.

Think about the average 10-20 minute haunt, or a theme park at Halloween and what you’ve experienced. Was it really Interactive and Scary? At the new MCKAMEY MANOR you will experience thrills that you HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. You will be tested to your very core. If things become too much, you can always quit…if we let you…”

Warning – From the Site Of McKamey Manor

*WARNING* 

“You will experience the following at McKamey Manor:

Intense audio, lighting, extreme low visibility, strobe and fog effects, damp and wet conditions, physically demanding environments, close contact with creatures (you might be touched) very real and graphic senses of horror.

Not recommended if you are pregnant, claustrophobic, have seizures, heart or respiratory conditions, or are a big wimp.

No smoking, drinking, eating, running inside, or touching of props and/or actors. McKamey Manor reserves the right to refuse admission to anyone for any reason. The guest (you) voluntarily assumes all risks/dangers associated with participation in this event.

Enter at your own risk.”

Legality

A lot of people question whether or not this should be allowed or even it is legal. 

In Summertown, TN, a lot of people in Lawrence County have complained to the local authorities about the McKamey Manor. 

The County Commission has referenced a particular time when the police were called because a neighbor saw a woman that was screaming bloody murder as she was being dragged from a van.

He was quoted as saying, “Staged or not, this is simply something that none of us want anywhere near us.” 

However, District Attorney Brent Cooper said the program was legal because people subjected themselves to it voluntarily, though participants could withdraw their consent at any time according to Tennessee law.

A writer on The Truth about McKamey Manor accused it of recklessly endangering people by not properly training them.

“The possible consequences such as dry drowning or possible damage to lungs were never explained. If actors weren’t aware of these consequences and possibly life-threatening situations, it’s fair to say that they had no idea what they were doing. The actors were never told what to do in certain situations, for example how to properly approach someone who is having a panic attack or loses consciousness,” one wrote.

McKamey Manor Experiences

Here are some quotes from the Guardian detailing some of the actors in the haunted house as they wait for the new victims, to arrive. This is from the site:

One guy wearing a burlap sack claimed, “I’m not going to lie, I go hard on the big guys. I’ve got 3 kids, a lady, and six dogs… a lot going on in my life. This is a great destresser.”

Another quote from a different guy is, “I’m the enforcer. I’m here to make sure no one makes it out. I get carried away. I don’t really have a line.”

Amy Milligan shares her experiences from McKamey Manor

Source: the sun.co.uk

Amy Milligan visited the McKamey Manor and was left emotionally and physically traumatized to the point that whenever anyone even mentions the haunted house she gets immense anxiety.

She experienced the following –

• Being pushed around, slapped, and pulled 
• Being forced to lay in a dirty freezer, hands tied, as actors pour water of her head
• Having her head pushed underwater as she was begging them to stop
• At one point her hair wrapped around her neck and she legitimately couldn’t breathe. Upon telling the actors this, they started laughing and choked her more
• Waterboarding

Gabss – from her own YouTube

This experience from Gabss is pulled directly from her own YouTube Channel.

She discovered McKamey Manor while looking for haunted houses on YouTube. She used to work at a haunted house so she knew all of the tricks so she wanted something truly scary.

She notes that the common videos you see now that are very graphic did not exist when she applied. It was way more toned down.

She just thought it would be like tied up, pushed around a bit, and like experiencing your own scary movie.

She joined a Facebook Group that was private, added Russ as a friend, and the FB group would list when there was availability. She saw there were like 20k people in the group and didn’t want to wait so she instant messaged Russ.

He said that 2 people dropped out so he squeezed her in.

Gabss claimed that she never saw a waiver before going in.

She was nervous and excited and met the other girl at the drop-off area. Then eventually an actor came up and put a mask and headphones on them so they couldn’t see or hear where they were going.

It was at this point that she saw the waiver, which she said was way water down like 2 pages, basic like there will be strobe lights and pushing and shoving, etc.

So, she was not expected anything super intense.

She got in the van and immediately the assault began with yelling, screaming, and shoving. When they reached the destination she had to crawl through little metal cages.

She said a lot of what she experienced was a combination of animatronics along with people pushing and guiding her.

She experienced:

• waterboarding
• locked in a deep freezer
• slammed on a freezer
• tied down with a tarantula put on her body and face
• choked
• her hair was cut and pulled
• they spit fake blood into her mouth
• having her nose plugged while they poured liquid in her mouth
• kept in a straight jacket with chains around their neck
• forced to keep her head up in a kiddie pool while the chains were around her neck

She did have a panic attack in the freezer and said she kept asking her partner if she was okay. She said it didn’t really feel like a haunted house at all, more like experiencing someone’s weird sick fantasy.

Our Last Experience Of McKamey Manor Comes From Laura Brotherton

This McKamey Manor experience was discovered on Reddit.

“I was waterboarded, I was Tased, I was whipped,

I still have scars of everything they did to me. I was repeatedly hit in my face, over and over and over again. Like, open-handed, as hard as a man could hit a woman in her face. … 

Even through them hitting me, I was just so numb by what had happened previous to that, I didn’t even make a sound, not even a grunt. Nothing. I didn’t cry, I didn’t scream, I didn’t say ‘ouch.’ ”

Laura was blindfolded with duct tape and submerged underwater by her ankles for so long that her body started involuntarily thrashing. 

They made her dig a shallow hole in a patch of dirt with her bare hands, then they made her lie in it while they covered her face with dirt, giving her only a straw to breathe through.

“[The dirt] started to go into my throat, and I started to swallow it. I was coughing and I keep saying, ‘I need water,’ and they would just splash water in my face. They wouldn’t actually give me water. That went on for, I want to say, 20 to 30 minutes.”

At one point, Laura said they started scratching and scraping at a fresh tattoo that she received there during her tour at McKamey Manor. She said it felt like a file.

“I didn’t panic, but I started to get a little bit emotional, and [one actor] is holding my throat, and at that point, I just started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I started crying, and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ whatever. But they don’t care if you cry. They don’t care if you pee or poop your pants, they don’t care because it’s all about the show. Not about a person’s safety.”

She claims that she repeated the agreed-upon safe word multiple times before the actors finally stopped abusing her. After a few moments of relief, she says they sprayed her down with a pressure washer while she still had duct tape over her eyes and then brought her back to the drop-off location.

“My arms and my hands were shaking so much from adrenaline, they thought I was seizing.”

Before she was allowed to leave, she says, she had to record an exit video. Everyone who visits the McKamey Manor does.

“Before Russ turned the camera on he said to me if I do not say good things about McKamey Manor and I start telling what actually happened, he’s going to sue me for $50,000,” says Brotherton. “I signed a waiver saying this could happen. So Russ forced me into saying all these great things, like, ‘Oh my God, my tour was so amazing, it was exhilarating,’ blah, blah, blah.

Once Laura got back to her hotel room and showered, her adrenaline started wearing off and she finally started truly understanding how hurt she was and how painful everything had been.

She ended up having to go to the hospital and had to wear a neck brace. Her face was swollen, she had scrapes on her cheeks and forehead, along with cuts on the corner of her mouth.

She had a bloody cut on one knee. She said that the actors opened up an old surgery scar that bled when they cut off her knee pads and forced her to crawl on the ground.

She also ended up with a hairline fracture on her foot.

This haunted house is not for the faint of heart.

What Are Your Thoughts On McKamey Manor?

What do you think Bizarros? Would you try to go on a tour challenge of McKamey Manor?

Would you be able to make it through the entire tour without trying to quit?

Is McKamey Manor, the most extreme haunted house in America, a haunted house, or someone’s torture fantasy?