A Tennessee haunted house dubbed a 'fake torture chamber' remains open despite owners being investigated for traumatizing visitors and calls for the sadistic experience to be permanently abolished continues.
The McKamey House, a controversial house of horrors in Summertown, about 110 miles southwest of Nashville, has long been the subject of complaints of violence and inhumane treatment of participants, and at one time just entry was worth 40 pages. At one point, he was forced to sign a waiver.
Some participants described being waterboarded, taped, flogged, taunted with spiders and locked in boxes in a nightmare from which they could not escape.
The distorted attraction exemption meant they might also have to endure acts such as having teeth pulled, fingers broken, and heads shaved.
Owner Russ McKamey, who has been running the Haunted House in Summertown since 2017, said in a recent Hulu documentary about the house of horrors, “We never quit and never use safe words.'' “I'm known,” he boasted.
“Either you actually complete the tour, it's not going to happen, or I'm going to take you out because you've reached your breaking point mentally and physically and it's not safe to continue.” he said.
Even so, McKamey told DailyMail.com Last weekend, he revealed that his charm is back this year, saying: “If all those crazy, horrible things that were said about me were true, then I wouldn't be free and I'd be running around doing whatever I wanted. It will be,” he said.
After years of intermittent backlash, McKamey and his extreme haunts were once again thrust into the national spotlight last year when Hulu's “Monster Inside: America's Most Extreme Haunted Houses” began streaming. It started to attract attention.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scrumetti has ordered the brutal attraction to be shut down after some of the participants featured in the documentary complained on camera about the violence, claiming there was no way to escape the ordeal once it began. An investigation has been launched into how this was done. WKRN reported.
“A 2019 promotional video on McKamey Manor's YouTube page depicts some of the horrors experienced by visitors, including being dragged in heavy chains and being trapped in small spaces with rushing water. ”Scumetti said at the time.
Participants must present proof of a recent medical exam and undergo a background check. According to the Creepy House website.
An online petition has gathered tens of thousands of signatures calling for the site to be shut down.
“Although advertised as 'extreme haunting', it is actually not a haunted house. It is a disguised torture chamber,” Frankie Towery, an organizer of the 2019 appeal, wrote alongside the petition.
“They do screenings to find the weakest, most easily manipulated, people who do 'ghosting.' If Russ doesn't think you're easily manipulated, you're not allowed to go.” ” Towery added.
“It's literally just a kidnapping. [and] Torture house. ”
It wasn't immediately clear what plans McKamey had for this year's event or when it was expected to take place. Last year's tour, titled “DESCENT,” was billed as a “survival horror” show.
The results of the AG's investigation were also unclear.
Separately, this year's haunted house saga comes just months after McKamey was embroiled in another legal drama. McKamey was arrested in the summer on charges of attempted murder, rape and domestic violence related to an incident with his girlfriend.
Local newspapers said the charges were later dropped.
McKamey did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
