The Big Picture
- McKamey Manor is an extreme haunted house in Summertown, Tennessee that pushes visitors to their breaking points through torture and horrifying experiences.
- Visitors are subjected to waterboarding, drug use, self-extraction of teeth, and other forms of physical and psychological torture.
- Owner Russ McKamey records the experiences for his own twisted enjoyment and takes pleasure in controlling and terrifying the victims, who are mostly vulnerable young women.
If you're here, you probably love horror, scary stuff, the spooky, the macabre, and the extreme. However, McKamey Manor isn't your run-of-the-mill Halloween Horror Nights or local haunted house. It is much more extreme and terrifying under the surface. Hulu released Monster Inside: America's Most Extreme Haunted House, and it pulled no punches in exposing the dark and horrific secrets behind the grimy, dark walls.
McKamey Manor is located in Summertown, Tennessee. Owner and operator Russ McKamey is a former Navy vet who created the house out of his love for Halloween. What seemingly started out as a regular haunted house eventually grew out of control when Russ realized that the more extreme his haunts and scares were, the larger the audience he drew in to watch. The goal of the manor as we see it in the documentary is to push visitors to their absolute breaking points, regardless of what torture methods he has to use to reach that edge. McKamey Manor boasts a 40-page waiver that all participants must sign and get cleared by a doctor before being able to participate. The waiver even lists death as a possibility. The price of entry is either a bag or a couple of cans of dog food. If you can last, you get $20,000, but at what cost?
What Happens at McKamey Manor?
The documentary chronicles the experiences of some visitors to the manor. Each of these interviewees describes how they have a thrill-seeking personality type, and that desire for thrill is what led them to find McKamey Manor. Under the belief that they have the right to end the experience at any time and are given a safe word, the visitors take their chances on the possibility of death to take part in something like they never have before. One of the survivors of McKamey Manor reportedly used her safe word for multiple minutes before the employees stopped the torture. In the documentary, one woman recounted how she listed spiders as her greatest fear during her intake interview, and of course, she was tormented by tarantulas during the experience. She told the documentary that she was afraid for her life because the tarantulas were being mishandled and if she agitated them any further, they could bite and fatally poison her. Other visitors described how they had been water-boarded, and drugged, and they have even had visitors extract their own teeth under the guise of an "extreme experience." There is one visitor who described her experience and how she is forever traumatized because of what didn't happen on camera. After being tied up, drugged, and tortured, she feared what didn't get captured on camera because Russ told her he wasn't able to film the "good stuff."
Is Russ McKamey Abusing the Experience for His Own Pleasure?
No one has ever been able to survive and win the $20,000 that Russ McKamey boasts when the visitors sign up. Russ records all the experiences of each visitor, no matter how physically or psychologically demented it may be. Russ told WFLA that he records these for his own protection, but is it actually for his own twisted enjoyment? In the documentary, former girlfriends and friends spoke about how he would replay the footage and laugh at the fear that emanated through the screen. From an outside perspective, it appears that Russ takes enjoyment out of commanding control over the victims. One visitor who was actually asked to leave the experience reiterates that for viewers. This man fought back with Russ on camera and refused to give in to his mental breakdown tactics, and Russ asked him to leave before calling him a nutcase. The majority of the participants that Russ accepts are vulnerable young women, according to Bloody Disgusting.
McKamey Manor Draws In Thrill-Seekers
Stan Hsue and Allison Corn are the producers behind the show and in their Deadline interview they mentioned how careful they were about getting the inside scoop on McKamey Manor without further exacerbating the trauma that these visitors endured. They went as far as to bring on a human rights lawyer who specializes in the subject of torture. The documentary tackles a specific thrill-seeking personality type. There can be many reasons why someone would seek out such an extreme experience, but in the case of McKamey Manor, general consent alone doesn't seem to excuse the heinous things that happen there. Many have asked how McKamey Manor can still be operating, but because of the extensive 40-page waiver they have signed, there's a loophole for Russ to get out of any liability for what happens to the visitors during and after they leave. In the second half of the documentary, we see some of the interviewees subjecting themselves to other extreme situations similar to McKamey Manor. Regardless of the trauma they have developed from McKamey Manor, they still desire something to fill that void. Another extreme experience they showed in the documentary called Miasma offers a bit more aftercare and explicit instructions with a safe word given to participants. These standards alone show how McKamey Manor isn't an experience geared to the participant but is focused more on the owner and operator getting his fill.
Does Horror Media Today Desensitize Horror Fans?
It is not uncommon for horror lovers to dive into the deep, dark world of the grotesque and that is where they will find experiences like McKamey Manor and Miasma. Horror has taken a bit of a turn over the last decade, but there was a large rise in the popularity of splatter and torture horror in the '00s. Movies like Saw, Hostel, and Ichi The Killer show extreme gore, mutilation, and torture scenes that audiences get desensitized and accustomed to seeing. It's possible that watching these grisly scenes on television makes horror fans and thrill seekers feel more confident to participate in haunts to test their mental fortitude. Watching something on screen is much different than being buried alive or having your worst fears realized. Monster Inside poses the lingering question of why would anyone do anything so extreme. Is the intrigue worth the potential of enduring trauma?
Monster Inside is streaming now on Hulu as part of their Huluween collection.
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