An ‘extreme’ haunted house

There is a physical examination required before one may participate in the "survival horror challenge" at McKamey Manor. A background check, a phone screening, a 40-page waiver, and a drug test are also required. Everyone who has attempted the scary attraction in the previous two years will be featured in a nearly two-hour documentary, if everything goes as planned.

The Summertown, Tennessee-based McKamey Manor describes itself as "a participatory event in which (YOU) will live your own Horror Movie."

The website states that each trip will be unique depending on your personal phobias and can go up to 10 HOURS. Each visitor will experience physical and mental strain to the brink of personal breakdown.

Tens of thousands of people have signed an online petition calling for state officials to close the attraction, claiming it is all a front for a torture chamber.

According to the petition, which had more than 67,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon, the difficult selection procedure for McKamey Manor is intended to choose visitors who can be easily influenced as the attraction's cast duct-tapes their heads, forces them to ingest stuff, and waterboards them. The petition asserts that the company's founder, Russ McKamey, forces people to take hallucinogenic drugs and hires workers with violent criminal records.

The petition claims that the facility is merely a place where people are abducted and tortured. For severe damage, some people have been forced to seek professional psychiatric assistance and medical attention.

According to McKamey, there was no torture or unlawful activity involved in the experience, but he added that he didn't "want to confirm or reject which portions are true and which are not" from the petition. He claimed that law enforcement keeps a careful check on the manor and that he phones authorities to alert them prior to the start of each new participant's tour in case they receive reports of any problems.

Yet, according to McKamey, he does utilise psychological tricks to make individuals believe they are experiencing things they are not. He claimed that he records every visit so that he has evidence of what did and did not occur.

Under hypnosis, he explained, if you lead someone to believe something terribly terrifying is happening, it is only in their head and not real. "There is no torture, there is nothing like that," he stated.

Every year, especially around Halloween, hundreds of haunted house attractions thrill and frighten Americans. Less frequently encountered are "extreme" haunted houses, which seek to scare through mental and physical hardship. When thrill-seekers queue up for the chance to be terrified out of their minds, they are frequently the target of harsh criticism.

After a WFLA-TV article on the manor went viral online earlier this month, McKamey said he has put his phone on "do not disturb" because tens of thousands of people have called to schedule visits. He claimed there is a long waitlist for the attraction.

He claimed that the manor is an interactive experience that makes use of mind tricks designed to deceive visitors into thinking certain things are actually taking place. He claimed that although he utilises hypnosis and other mind-control methods to make victims believe they are being waterboarded, it is not actually the case.

McKamey claimed, "If you're good enough and you can get inside someone's head like I can, I can make people believe whatever I want them to believe.

McKamey, who claimed to have spent 23 years in the Navy and works as a wedding vocalist on the side, began the mansion 30 years ago as a fusion of his theatrical training with his passion for haunted houses. He claimed that nobody had finished the entire experience in all that time.

Only one or two visitors are permitted inside McKamey Manor at once, and reservations are necessary. Participants must be at least 21 years old or, with parental consent, between the ages of 18 and 20. We strongly advise against participating if you are pregnant, claustrophobic, have a seizure disorder, a respiratory condition, or a cardiac condition. A bag of dog food for McKamey's five dogs is the entrance fee.

According to McKamey, participants begin the trip with the opportunity to gain $20,000 and stand to lose $500 for each activity they fail. Also, he takes away $500 if a visitor uses an offensive word because the manor strictly prohibits such.

McKamey remarked, "I'm basically the most strait-laced guy you could imagine, but here I run this insane haunted place. And individuals turn it around in their limited imaginations.

McKamey claimed to have invested more than $1 million in the mobile attraction. Visitors begin in Summertown, but according to McKamey, he travels them to several Tennessee areas and hires out other people's farms and abandoned structures for the antics.

McKamey predicted that if participants persisted long enough in the experience, they would arrive in Huntsville, Alabama. But nobody has ever made it that far.

What I perform really is a magic act, he declared. There are many smoke and mirrors involved.