A haunted house that has been investigated for ‘traumatizing’ visitors will remain open this year despite recent legal troubles and ongoing calls for it to be shut down.
McKamey Manor, owned and operated by Russ Alan McKamey in his single-story detached house in Tennessee, is considered one of the most terrifying haunted houses in the country.
The extreme haunt, dubbed by detractors as a ‘torture chamber under disguise,’ has attracted controversy for years, even becoming the subject of a Hulu documentary released in 2023.
McKamey confirmed that his house of horrors is still open and operating, even after complaints of visitors encountering violence and inhumane treatment.
‘If all of those crazy horrible things said about me are true, I wouldn’t be free, running around doing what I want to do,’ he told DailyMail.com.
The news comes less than a month after charges of attempted murder, rape and domestic assault against McKamey were dropped following his arrest in July.
He was accused of strangling and raping a woman identified as his girlfriend in a domestic dispute, The Tennessean reported.
An investigation into McKamey and the haunted house was also conducted following the release of the 2023 documentary, titled Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti launched the probe after concerns grew over practices in the house, WKRN reported.
A letter from the attorney general cited allegations of ‘horrors visitors are subjected to, which includes getting dragged via heavy chains or locked into confined spaces while water pours in,’ People reported.
Deputies have also been called to his property several times in the past, WKRN reported.
District Attorney Brent Cooper further told WKRN that a witness alleged they saw ‘a woman dragged behind a vehicle’. Another witness reported ‘seeing a woman being put in a vehicle against her will’.
McKamey responded with his own 32-page lawsuit, claiming that the recent inspections of his property violated his First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The operator defended his haunted house to DailyMail.com, saying he carefully vets visitors to avoid ‘knuckleheads’ getting in.
He said he is looking for ‘certain type of folks that will pass the screening,’ noting it requires days of interviews to be granted admission.
McKamey prefers candidates who have worked in law enforcement or served in the military.
‘Once in awhile the fakers get in and cause trouble, and they’ve been trying to ruin it for everybody else forever,’ he said on Friday.
Thousands of demands to shut down the house have been circulating for years. Online critics have branded McKamey as a sadist or a psychopath – creating and filming his traumatizing haunted house to satisfy his own dark fantasies.
He called the reactions ‘amazing,’ saying he would have been ‘locked up’ if the accusations were legitimate.
McKamey began creating haunted houses in 2001 in the backyard of his San Diego home. At first, it was for kids. But as it started to become more aggressive and extreme, adults were the only ones allowed to participate.
McKamey Manor moved to Tennessee in 2017, due to the ‘San Diego operation being shut down due to public outcry,’ the Charlotte Observer reported.
McKamey told DailyMail.com his San Diego haunted house ‘was more of a physical, in-your-face kind of show, while the Tennessee experience ‘is a mental game, no one roughs you up and no one lays a hand on you.’
McKamey considers it ‘a survival boot camp,’ The Guardian reported, one that generates anxiety, fear, revulsion and eventually relief.
The infamous haunt, which had a 27,000-person waitlist at one point, required visitors to sign a 40-page waiver along with having a sports physical and a doctor’s note that confirms a person’s mental and physical health.
The waiver stated: ‘Your hair may be chopped off, dentistry may be done, you may have a tooth extracted,’ People reported.
Other pre-entry screenings include passing a background check, a drug test and proof of medical insurance.
Past visitors, who must be 21 or over, claimed to have been submerged in water, trapped in small boxes and tormented by tarantulas – sometimes for up to ten hours.
In an interview with the Guardian, McKamey noted how he imposes physical and psychological stress until people reach their breaking point.
‘Pretty soon it becomes real,’ he said. ‘There’s no break. It’s non-stop. The whole goal is to get you exhausted so we have better control over you.’
The experience is so intense that he offered a $20,000 reward to anyone who finishes the tour.
So far, no one has.
‘You’re not going to get through it because it’s really tough and I’m really good at the psychological aspects,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘My skill is getting into somebody’s brain and doing what I want with it for the show,’ he added.
‘We’re known for no quitting and no safe word,’ McKamey said in the documentary. ‘Either you actually complete the tour, which is not going to happen, or you mentally or physically are at such a breaking point that it’s not safe for you to continue and I need to take you out.’
John Schnitzer is a previous participant who made a documentary about extreme haunts in 2017.
‘This manor gave me actual nightmares,’ he told The Guardian.
‘It’s the only one where you don’t decide when to quit. That can be an issue when you’re being being bound, masked and held under water, slapped and stomped on, and compelled to eat your own vomit.’
A Change.org petition calling for the end of the attraction was created in 2019 after waves of participants came forward with horror stories about their experiences – going home bruised, beat up and emotionally scarred.
It now has more than 192,000 signatures.
‘They do screenings to find the weakest, most easily manipulated people to do the haunt,’ the petition reads. ‘One man was tortured so badly he passed out multiple times, workers only stopped because they thought they had killed him.’
‘There’s been reports of sexual assault at the manor. There’s reports that he hires workers with violent histories & sex offenders. He uses needles to inject people with drugs, forces them to ingest pills/questionable items to force hallucinations also,’ it added.
McKamey Manor has gained national attention throughout the years, with many wondering how it is even legal.
‘It’s literally just a kidnapping & torture house,’ the petition continues. ‘Some people have had to seek professional psychiatric help and medical care for extensive injuries. I propose that all locations where this is happening be shut down immediately.’
McKamey wondered if the allegations of illegal activity were true, ‘why didn’t any of this stuff stick?’ he told DailyMail.com.
A California woman said that she was waterboarded and feared she was going to die after visiting the San Diego location in 2016.
Amy Milligan had her haunt posted on YouTube, showing her being pushed to the ground, slapped and pulled by her hair.
In another part of the clip, she is seen lying in a freezer in a few inches of dirty water and appears to be terrified and soaking wet.
Milligan was also forced to lie in a coffin as cockroaches crawled all over her face.
But she said that the worst parts of her experience didn’t make the cut.
The performers repeatedly pushed her head underwater to the point where she believed she was going to drown, she said.
The experience left Milligan with physical and emotional scars, leading her to go to the police with her concerns, but a report was never filed.
Still, no criminal charges have been brought against McKamey or the legality of his torture house.
