Tinsel Town has delivered plenty of haunted houses over the years, whether it be The Shining's Overlook Hotel, A Nightmare on Elm Street's 1428 Elm Street, or the titular Haunted Mansion from Disney's ride and movie franchise of the same name. Others can be found in real life, like the Dutch Colonial house at 112 Ocean Avenue, San Jose's Winchester Mystery House, and New Orleans' LaLaurie Mansion.
The idea that ghosts from the other side are haunting us is a controversial idea, but even for those who don't think they need to call the Ghostbusters, there's a real-life haunted house that promises to scare the pants off you. After appearing in Netflix's Dark Tourist, the profile of McKamey Manor has only continued to grow.
While not a house of horrors in the traditional sense, McKamey Manor has been branded the 'scariest horror house in the world'. Originally founded by Russ McKamey in 1989, the original San Diego attraction closed its doors in 2015 before finding a new lease of life in both Tennessee and Alabama in 2017. Still, McKamey has continued to face backlash.
Considered a pioneer of the extreme haunted attraction industry, your McKamey Manor experience is supposed to last 10 hours. We say supposed because it's said that no one has ever reached the end.
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As well as fascinating viewers by visiting the likes of Turkmenistan's Ashgabat, Farrier lifted the lid on the secret of McKamey Manor in a truly harrowing segment.
After showing the horrors of McKamey Manor in Dark Tourist and taking to Reddit in an AMA, he let the questions flow.
The documentary showed Farrier undergoing a brutal introduction to McKamey Manor, with his AMA reiterating that he bowed out at that point and left the crew to follow others through the attraction. They weren't allowed to film, but McKamey remained on the mic to record audio of those poor participants.
He claims that McKamey picks applicants based on his own preference, although the idea that thousands of people still apply is somewhat exaggerated.
When one person asked what was cut compared to what was shown in the finished product, Farrier admitted: "We had to cut a lot of stuff. There are some edits we have lying around somewhere with... a lot more in them."
There were also questions about the waiver people have to sign before taking part, as Farrier confessed: "There was basically a line in there about death, and McKamey Manor not being responsible. But I mean you get that when you skydive, don't you?
"Teeth being extracted was in there. I mean the whole thing is part of the haunt. It's to freak you out. Part of the act. So when you're blindfolded and pushed around, that 3 hours worth of waiver you just read out is circling in your brain!"
As for the 'worst' part of it, Farrier nodded to the skills of McKamey himself: "McKamey Manor has nothing to do with the place or the props of the size of it all... it's all Russ. As long as Russ has you bound and gagged, that's the Manor. Does that make sense?"
There's been further controversy since Dark Tourist aired, with questions over the fact that anyone who completes the house will be given $20,000, due to the fact that it's never happened, while thousands signed a 2019 petition to shut McKamey Manor down 2019.
Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter Jonathan Skrmetti celebrated Halloween 2023 by informing McKamey that his attraction was under investigation for potentially violating the state's consumer protection laws. McKamey responded with his own lawsuit claiming it violated his First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, then filed another against Hulu and a participant who was interviewed for the 2023 documentary, Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House.
To top it off, Russ McKamey was arrested on charges of attempted second-degree murder, rape, and domestic assault in July 2024, which were later dropped.