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Extreme Haunted Houses: Blackout & McKamey Manor
47 Plays1 year ago
On this week's spooktacular special episode for October, Felicia & Lauren both take us through a couple of extreme haunted houses!
Felicia kicks it off with the grandfather of extreme haunts - Blackout. This notorious NYC/LA-based immersive horror experience, tailored to people’s individual fears, was created in 2009 to be the antithesis of the traditional haunted house and has been called “more performance art than haunted house" by its creators. Participants had to sign a liability waiver as Blackout’s performers are able to touch and physically interact with the participants.
And yet it still pales in comparison to Lauren's pick this week: the infamous McKamey Manor. McKamey Manor was created in San Diego by madman Russ McKamey, who describes it as a "survival horror boot camp experience.” If you beat McKamey and the manor, you receive a $20,000 grand prize. No one has ever won this prize, but participants do have to sign a 40 page waiver. The experience may involve guests being physically assaulted, waterboarded, forced to eat and drink unknown substances, or being bound and gagged, but the list goes on. And as you can imagine much controversy surrounds McKamey Manor and its creator.
Listen with caution this week for a very spooky and memorable episode.
PS: If you have requests for future episodes or just want to hang out, follow us on Instagram @sinistersisterspodcast
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Transcript
Introduction to Sinister Sisters Podcast
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to the Sinister Sisters podcast. I'm Felicia. I'm Lauren. We're best friends. And we like spooky stuff. And we're back with another spooky Halloween episode. I'm so excited to talk about our topics today. Yeah. Another time that I was like, Felicia, what do you think about doing some spooky haunted houses?
Experiences with Haunted Houses
00:00:35
Speaker
And Felicia said, I have no ideas. That sounds great.
00:00:39
Speaker
But yeah, we're talking about haunts today. And we've had some experience together with haunts. We went to Howling Horror Nights years ago. I don't even know what year that was now. It's time for us to go again. I've decided. I agree. I agree. We've also both been the scare actors in a haunted house that our friends sang a few years ago. Lauren played a zombie. Not a zombie. You were just like, oh, a dying person. A wounded woman.
00:01:09
Speaker
I played kind of like a little narrator character. And honestly, we had a great time. We had a great time. That was amazing. And then, yeah, and then Lauren went to this year's Halloween Horror Nights.
Review of Evil Dead Rise House
00:01:24
Speaker
I did. Tell us a little bit, especially like if you have favorite houses, that's what I always want to hear about.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yes, and now I can't remember if I shared my experience on the podcast, but for me, I just really always like the original concepts. I feel like it's disappointing when they do. I was so excited. They had an Evil Dead Rise house. You saw that, right? I just watched a new one.
00:01:52
Speaker
Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Yeah, I just watched it the other night. Yes, which we could talk about that. Yes, it's so good. Like I really liked it. I don't know if you like but I loved it. You loved it. I thought it was good. I thought it was a movie in which I would have enjoyed more watching with someone because it's so bananas.
00:02:13
Speaker
like the gore is like so it's like so over the top that like I enjoyed it and I was very entertained the entire time but I can imagine like if I had seen it in a theater or if I had seen it just with a friend like I think I probably would have like been even more into it just because it's that kind of like fun horror film you know I mean yes but yeah I really enjoyed it
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think the experience of seeing it with people was good. And we had a crazy experience where we went, and then I think a bunch of our friends happened to be there. It was very strange. Oh, yeah, that was fun. Yeah. But I really liked it. And so I think the house was disappointing to me because I liked the movie so much. They had one part where they had the conglomeration of people monster. Sorry, this is kind of spoilers. No, I really loved that part of the movie. So that's cool that they did that.
00:03:04
Speaker
And they did it, but it was like a static animatronic that just rode forward on a track and then rode back. And I was like, eh, not for me. And they didn't do a lot of the gore, which I understand it's hard. But then to me, I'm like, eh, I don't know. It's like having you do an Evil Dead without a lot of gore because that's like
00:03:26
Speaker
what it's for. That's what it's made for. Exactly. Exactly. Same with Last of Us. I loved the Last of Us TV show and it's so scary to me. I feel like it didn't quite do it. That's very interesting. What were the originals? No,
Original vs. Movie-Based Haunted Houses
00:03:42
Speaker
I didn't. My favorite was they had a holidays from hell one.
00:03:47
Speaker
where it was like it started. Yeah, it started with New Year's Eve. And then it went to like Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, like it was very cool. That's really fun. It was really honestly very scary. Like there were I don't know, the monsters that they created were so cool and creative and
00:04:06
Speaker
I really liked that one. So I think that might have been my favorite. You want to watch, these are artists that make these things and so when someone gets to really put their creativity into it versus trying to replicate something that already exists, I'm sure they have just more fun making it and then it's a wilder experience for the audience too versus trying to live up to a really famous movie or a really famous TV show.
00:04:31
Speaker
Exactly. I think you're totally right there. And I will just give a really quick shout out because we did this past weekend. I wished you were there for this, but we went to the Plano haunted house. It's like 15 minutes away from us now. And it's so good. That's awesome. It's so scary. It's so creative. And I think because it's less people, it's much scarier than Universal.
00:04:54
Speaker
So it's like you can kind of go at your own pace and get scared. And it was really funny. Our friend that always like gets us into the haunted house very nicely and he normally like walks through with us was actually like in costume this time.
Local Haunted House Tales
00:05:10
Speaker
So he was like following my group around and like giving us extra scares and it was really good. And the funniest thing is that everybody really had a good time and nobody was like a haunted house person that we went with.
00:05:23
Speaker
But Emma's girlfriend Natalie is a haunted house fan now. She reminds me of my little brother when he went the first time where he was like, I don't know if I'm going to like this. And now he's obsessed. I feel like she was like that. She was like, I don't know how I'm going to do. And now she's like, how do I get that feeling again? I want to go on another haunted house. Adrenaline. You want the adrenaline. That's so great.
00:05:46
Speaker
You just also made me remember like, I have a car now. And I'm just thinking like, oh, like I should be looking up the haunted houses that are like, not just I always only had access to the ones in the city, which honestly are always pretty poorly done. But like, yeah.
00:06:01
Speaker
There's like Staten Island and Long Island and like a little upstate. Like, I bet there's some good stuff going on this month that I'm going to just do a little Googling after we're done here to see if I want to go check out something. You totally should. Yeah. And you should text Joe and Andrew because they were fans, too. So they might go with you. Oh, I will. That's a great idea. That's a really good idea. They would love a car trip, too. They love jerseys. You love New Jersey. Yeah. OK. You can go to the Cheesecake Factory. Oh, hells yeah. Hells yeah.
00:06:29
Speaker
Other than the Evil Dead that I just mentioned, is there any other movies you want to mention? I haven't seen The Exorcist yet, just so you know. I haven't seen The Exorcist. I haven't seen Saw. I'm behind on that either. Those movies, but I did see Totally Killer. Oh, the new Blumhouse one.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, it was fun. I didn't think it was anything crazy. It's kind of what I expected. It's fun and back to the future-y and good. Does 824 have any Halloween stuff coming out or not? I haven't heard of anything. Oh. I don't know, actually. We already had the talk today, but I haven't heard of any other 824 October releases, which I just thought was interesting, actually.
00:07:17
Speaker
I know. I don't know what's on the horizon. I also haven't seen murder in Venice yet. I haven't seen anything. Oh, yeah. No, I haven't seen anything either. Haunting of Venice, right? Haunting of Venice, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say we did start, we watched the very first episode of the House of Usher last night.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yes. And it was pretty good. Okay. Maybe I'll watch the first episode tonight. I just, yeah, I saw that just got released too. So much to watch. Yeah. I will say it's like starting to crack me up. Like how many Mike Flanagan regulars, like you watch it and you're like, Oh my God, everyone is now like someone that we've seen.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of like that. Oh, this is like super random. But to those of you that don't know that I'm a I'm a teach I teach high schoolers. And today, one of my kids, they were not on task, I will say in the computer lab, but they were watching dead meat videos.
00:08:11
Speaker
That's hilarious. Were you like, I approve? Yeah, I was kind of like, yeah, it's fine. Go for it. I was like, you can get back to work later. His videos are really good. They're so well done. They're so well done. All right. So yeah, we're talking about some haunts today, but not your regular haunted houses. We're talking extreme haunts today.
00:08:38
Speaker
These are the ones that I won't do. To be clear, neither of us have ever done this before. And that's what I was actually going to ask you. So I would love if you could elaborate. And
Extreme Haunts Introduction
00:08:50
Speaker
just so you know, people, Extreme Haunt is a haunted house in which the actors are allowed to touch you. Typically, you have to sign a waiver. They typically use real world's fears.
00:09:03
Speaker
to scare people and people have kind of really intense experiences. It's much more aggressive than a normal haunted house. And we're gonna get into the horrifying details of that. But would you really, you would never ever do one?
00:09:19
Speaker
I don't think I would I was thinking about it because this last version like they did this haunted house that we go to near us they did like a slasher I don't know I think it's around Valentine's Day like more like can you escape the killer
00:09:35
Speaker
and they would put a sticker on your back if they like got you quote unquote so like they did touch you but it was like I mean truly there were a couple times I was like that was kind of nice like gentle touch yeah there's no gentle touches and the ones we're talking about today but um no so I think like I think touching to me really is my barrier
00:09:56
Speaker
We're like, I can see scary stuff. I've gotten much better at haunted houses. I used to be really bad. I mean, the first time I went in Felicia, I was talking the whole way through. Even in the killer clowns one, which is honestly still one of my favorite haunted houses I've ever been through. Me too.
00:10:16
Speaker
I do and I still like scream a lot. I'm very jumpy. That's what it's for. And I will say like I think I do like my experience of screaming a lot does I think make the people around me like have a better experience in some ways too.
00:10:32
Speaker
Cause I think everybody's like, you're really helping people. Exactly. People need me. No, that's right. Um, but I just, yeah, the touching to me really makes it scarier because I think there's so much like even a baby version of that, like where they can like, you know, push you or, you know, whatever. Like I'm like, even that just sounds like I don't want that because what if people abuse it? What if they like too far, which I'm sure we're going to talk about today, but what about you?
00:11:03
Speaker
So the one Lauren is going to talk about today, I would not do and we can go into that later. But some of the more professionally run ones, they have lawyers and stuff I would maybe be tempted to do. I definitely am a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. And I think I also have this thing where I like to see how far I can take myself.
00:11:29
Speaker
Sort of sometimes, which is, you know, good and bad. But I do have this thing where, and I think that's sort of the reason I got into horror movies like early on. It's like, can I handle it? Like this question in my hand? Am I strong enough to handle something like that?
00:11:44
Speaker
and wanting to know the answer, I guess. Which I think is very, you know, what a lot of these people experience and I really have never, never had the desire, which I understand. Can't run a mile, can't push myself. Oh, but you know what I will say, which I think is really interesting. I think also as I'm getting older, like I'm 30, but,
00:12:11
Speaker
as I'm getting older, I'm noticing that my body is respond response more to fear stuff than I ever did before like adrenaline stuff. Yeah, like, I've never had a fear of heights and I still don't really. But there's been a couple times last couple years where I've been like up on something high that like I would have never thought twice about. And now I'm kind of like, Oh, like my body is kind of like more aware of its own mortality. As I get older. And I think
00:12:38
Speaker
That is, so like, for example, like an extreme haunt, like I do wonder, like, age 22 or 23, I probably would have just been like, sign me up, give me that waiver. And now I'd probably be have a little more hesitation than I than I did. Yeah, but I totally get that. And I think there's Yeah, you're right that like, maybe it is just getting older. Yeah, that I'm more nervous about things. Yeah.
00:13:02
Speaker
All right, well, I'm going to get started here. So the first one we're going to talk about today is sort of known as the grandfather of extreme haunts.
Blackout: Immersive Horror Discussion
00:13:10
Speaker
The first one that that came out that got really popular at least is called blackout. So
00:13:17
Speaker
The blackout haunted house, most people just call it blackout, is an immersive horror experience that is much, much more than just a haunted house. It was created by Josh Randall and Christian Thor in 2009. And the first one was actually done in New York City, which I didn't realize because I had always heard of it as something that was in LA. Me too. Yeah, from random podcasts over the years and you know, YouTubers and whatever.
00:13:45
Speaker
But Randall and Thor have said in interviews that they started black out because they were having, I mean, this is kind of ridiculous, but they were expressing frustration that it was getting harder and harder for them to actually be scared of things. And they just felt like nothing was really pushing them in a way that was extreme enough for them in haunted houses and just fear experiences overall.
00:14:15
Speaker
And so they said are blackout to be more of about performance, more of a performance art piece than a haunted house, which I think is really interesting. Because it's, it's, it's a little bit more about, and they've said this in some quotes, too, or it's like more about the fears that you bring in.
00:14:38
Speaker
than the fear they create for you, which I think is interesting. There's a lot of psychological fear stuff going on. Which also is something that they say, like the guy who does McKamey Manor does, says that too. And I'm like, I don't know about yours.
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my God. All right. So in terms of like how you do this, I mean, I don't actually know if it's running right now because I went onto their website and there's like nothing on there. That's what I was going to say. I think it's maybe closed down for now. Yeah. It doesn't seem to be running right now, which is honestly like kind of strange
00:15:18
Speaker
to me. Yeah, totally. Yeah, anyways. So but how it worked in the past. So you sign a liability waiver that you're signing about a couple things. One, that you agree that the blackout performers are allowed to touch you and physically interact with you. But you are not allowed to touch them. So
00:15:42
Speaker
They can grab you, but you can't grab them back. You can't like punch them in the face if you freak out. Like you have to have physical control over your own body, even though they're really taking the physical control into space, which I think is it's hard, but I understand why that's in there. Obviously, you want to have to protect your performers. Yeah.
00:16:01
Speaker
I can't even imagine that like that part to me too is so hard right like if they were touching me but I couldn't touch them that's scary yes you have no power and that's just yeah you're also not allowed to talk you're allowed to scream as much as you want but you're not allowed to talk to the performers unless they ask you a direct question.
00:16:20
Speaker
And at the start of each blackout event, a performer asks the participants about their worst fears. And this is what's so interesting to me is they're trying to tailor the event and the experience for each individual that comes through to make it even more frightening.
00:16:42
Speaker
which is wild. But once again, like I know this is something a lot of people would never want to do. But having that level of an immersive experience where the performance is tailored to me as an audience member as I go through is a pretty special spectacular thing. I know it's like this is like a scary thing, but like it's still like a cool concept.
00:17:03
Speaker
And people are scared of different things. Like I think I can't remember if I told you that girl in college, I won't say her name, but she was very sweet, but she had a horrible fear of like latex balloons, which I know sounds wild, but truly like she would have a panic attack if she saw one. And then just a regular balloon.
00:17:21
Speaker
Yeah, I know that's a wild thing to say but I saw her I saw it happened to her once and it was like really upsetting. I felt terrible for her. I thought it was kind of a joke and then I was like, Oh, spider guy. I was gonna say and last week I the arachnophobia. Some people are scared of the dark some people are scared of being touched.
00:17:42
Speaker
For my own safety, I won't say my greatest fears on this podcast, but... Yeah. You don't want people coming for you. I don't want it. But yeah. And so you sign this waiver and then you go through. And I'm going to talk you through just a couple of things that people have said happened in the houses. Throughout the years, they have tried to change things up quite a bit. So there's always like a mystery element.
00:18:06
Speaker
And because I think, you know, they have a lot of repeat customers. And so they don't want people to get the same show up year after year. So they change things up. But some things that are pretty much staples, it seems. One is the use of military coercion tactics. So, for example, people have their hands tied behind their back, bags over their head, sometimes plastic bags over their head, which creates
00:18:36
Speaker
difficulty to breathe which once again they never they don't I know this sounds like so crazy and it is crazy by the way it is crazy but they they keep it so it's like your body you know it thinks it's it has the potential for death or it has the you know potential to die or run out of air or whatever but they're not gonna let you get that for like no one's ever died at blackout so but that's something that I think
00:19:03
Speaker
If someone put a plastic bag over my head, I can see myself having a panic attack. So that would. Oh, totally. I'm sure that that's really hard. They also sometimes like take people's shoes, like leaving them like barefoot in the space, which is like very vulnerable and strange. There's been like people pouring water into your mouth, like a lot of waterboarding.
00:19:25
Speaker
And then something that I had never heard of with this with blackout once again I've never been and I've only heard people talk about it in a pretty positive light but something that came up in my research is that they also use simulated like sexual assault.
00:19:42
Speaker
as something that happens in the house. And I think sometimes it's that you're seeing it. And then I heard someone else talk about being in a pitch black room and someone touching you and you don't know where they're coming from.
00:19:59
Speaker
And so they've gotten definitely some, um, you know, negative feedback about the sexual assault elements of it. And once again, like it's like, I, I agree. It's like so hard to talk about because like, I agree that's insane. But at the same time, if we're talking about the fears, which the blackout in particular is not interested in vampires and ghosts, and they're looking at real world fears that people experience.
00:20:29
Speaker
And so when I think about big fears, sexual assault, I mean, I said I wasn't going to name my fears, but like for women, that is pretty freaking high on most women's list of great singers. And if we're talking about, you know, a hot, a haunt that is like genuinely trying to look at what those fears do to people and what it means to be scared of those things,
00:21:00
Speaker
And I'm speaking in this way, I think because they're calling it performance art. And so I'm talking about it in a way like a performance already way, which since I haven't been maybe I'm giving it too much credit. I don't know. But there is something interesting about confronting
00:21:19
Speaker
all types of fears that exist in the real world and for women sexual assault is pretty high. So
Ethics of Real-World Fears in Haunts
00:21:25
Speaker
I think it's interesting to be explored though I think it's one that is probably really hard to do and also that people could have a really traumatic experience or reaction to.
00:21:44
Speaker
Um, but I guess if you're signing the waiver, you know, I mean, you, you know, that that's a possibility when you go in there. So, I mean, I ideally hope somebody that had experienced that
00:21:57
Speaker
you know, wouldn't go into relive it. But right now it's not kind of a weird thing to talk about really. It's such a line. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a line that feels like should never be crossed. But then we're talking about like the performance art of a horror theater. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's not a horror theater, but like a horror, immersive experience. It's like, how could you not include
00:22:20
Speaker
something that is one of the biggest fears to 50% of the population. Right, and seeing it, it's so different to me than it occurring to your body, which I'm not sure which way they're doing it. In some ways, I'm like, if you watch a horror movie with sexual assault, it could be very triggering and awful, but that happens so frequently. Yeah. Just interesting.
00:22:44
Speaker
I'm gonna move on for that for now. So the other thing about blackout, it's kind of an endurance test as well. So you're made to run and crawl through these tubes of plastic trash bags and thrown into walls and crawling through the darkness. And fighting people off sometimes, like if someone's grabbing at you,
00:23:08
Speaker
I think it's a pretty intense physical experience, not just adrenaline, but endurance test as well, which is wild. And the last sort of section is, and this is I got off of Rinker, but
00:23:29
Speaker
At one point in the 2016 version of the show, at the end of the experience, participants, they had a plastic bag over their head typically, and they were forced to just start screaming the words, it's never over, over and over again. And then they were pushed out onto the street and the door closed behind them. And that's the end of the experience. Like, so there's no resolution. So it's just this idea of like,
00:23:57
Speaker
the experience will follow you into the real world. And also that once again, if we're talking performance art land, the real horror is actually happening outside. And what's inside is sort of is the simulated version. And then you're forced out into the true scary thing, which is the real world at the end, which I think is once again kind of fascinating. It's crazy. It's crazy.
00:24:28
Speaker
There is a safe word, and I know we're going to talk about that with yours, I'm sure. I haven't seen your research, but I know in advance. Yes. At Blackout, there is a safe word. I think it's literally safety. I think you yell safety, and you're just supposed to stay exactly where you are, and an actor or somebody, a staff member, will come and remove you from the experience. So there is a safe word if it's too much for you. Did you get a refund? I don't know. Probably not. I kind of doubt it, honestly.
00:24:58
Speaker
And yeah, so that's basically Blackout. I don't really have too much to say about it, but too much more to say about it, I think.
00:25:13
Speaker
But the last thing I'll say is that, as I said at the beginning, this is sort of a grandfather of these extreme haunts. And so after it came out in the 2010s, we started to get a lot more, including the one Lauren's going to talk about. There's another one called The 17th Door, Heretic, and there's plenty more. I don't know the names of all of them.
00:25:36
Speaker
it kind of became a trend.
McKamey Manor: The Controversy
00:25:39
Speaker
So yeah, extreme haunts, pretty wild, blackout. Yeah, I mean, that is so crazy. And that's so interesting that it is kind of this like grandfather, as you said, of all these different extreme haunts. So the one I'm going to talk about is McKamey Manor.
00:25:56
Speaker
So the first time I kind of saw this, and this is like why I'm back on it, is because it's in the Netflix documentary, Haunters, The Art of the Scare, which I highly recommend. It's super interesting. It kind of compares different haunted houses across the country. Different scare actors are in it.
00:26:15
Speaker
designers, everything. So it's really interesting if you want to learn more about haunted houses, which is what happened to us when Natalie got obsessed. We put on this documentary because she wanted to learn more. So the other thing is there is a new documentary called just Monster Inside and it's on Hulu and it's about McKamey Manor.
00:26:39
Speaker
It's kind of like a three people that went through the haunt that are talking about their experience and how terrible it was and sort of what they think is like going on there. And I will say that just at the beginning, there's a lot of controversy around this particular, and I don't even know that I would call it like a haunted house. I mean, it's more like a survival kind of immersive experience.
00:27:08
Speaker
I think Russ McAimey, who's the man that started it and owns it, describes it as a game and a survival horror boot camp experience. But obviously, yeah, there's been a lot of pushback that he's just a guy that gets off on torturing people and he films the whole thing.
00:27:29
Speaker
He's like, you know, walking around the whole time with like a, you know, GoPro on his head and like right in people's faces going through this like very traumatic experience. And so it was founded by Russ in San Diego in his backyard in 2001. So a very long time ago, but it definitely started as a milder version of all these things. And it seems like it just kept getting more intense and more intense over the years.
00:27:58
Speaker
In 2017, I saw different information, 2017, 2018, it shut down in California and then it permanently moved to its new home, which is outside Nashville, Tennessee, also close to Alabama where it's located. They basically take a handful of patrons each weekend. It's still seemingly operating and it operates year-round.
00:28:24
Speaker
The interesting part of this whole thing for me is that there's no entrance fee so it's not really about him making money I think seemingly like he could be losing money on all of this except for You know the YouTube videos the the content that he gets but he does like the the way that you
Participation Requirements at McKamey Manor
00:28:42
Speaker
Hey quote-unquote for this experience is by bringing dog food for his greyhounds So I'll just so wild and weird But you must be 21 years of age or you could be 18 to 20 years old with parental consent Which I'm like, what kind of parent? I forgot to say that for blackout. Yes, it's the 18 plus you can't be under 18 Oh, but 18 plus not 21. Yeah. Yeah
00:29:10
Speaker
Anyways, go ahead. Again, what Felicia was describing, it is definitely an endurance test. You have to have a complete physical and a doctor's letter saying that you're physically and mentally cleared. You have to have a background check.
00:29:25
Speaker
He also does do a Facebook or FaceTime or phone call kind of screening process. You have to have proof of medical insurance. You have to take a trip and test and blah, blah, blah. That's so involved.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yes, a 40 page waiver is also what you have to sign now. Yeah, not for me. I will say I'm going to read like a quote from the waiver because obviously there's a lot of things in that 41 pages. But the most disturbing section to me was participant fully understands that injuries may occur during their tour of McKinney Manor, which may include but not limited to head
00:30:10
Speaker
neck and back injuries, death, stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain aneurysms, cerebral or retinal hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, loss of consciousness, whiplash,
00:30:30
Speaker
Harmful heart reactions, nausea, headache, dizziness, lacerations, broken or sprained bones, torn ligaments, bleeding wounds, scrapes and or cuts, heat stroke or drowning and does not hold McCamey Manor responsible.
00:30:46
Speaker
I hold that man responsible. That is too much. That is too far. That's why. And no one has died. But a lot of these things have happened. People have left with broken bones. People like very frequently leave with wounds. Someone had a heart attack not too long ago. And so the craziest thing to me, I don't I couldn't find anything on someone actually dying. But it stands up in court.
00:31:12
Speaker
Because that waiver includes all of it, there's really nothing that people can do. The tour normally lasts somewhere from eight to 10 hours, sometimes supposedly up to multiple days, which also I'm like, why would you want this?
00:31:30
Speaker
No guest has made it all the way through whatever the quote unquote experience is. And this is kind of a new change that has happened. I'm not sure exactly when it switched, but now there is a grand prize that's $20,000 for getting through the experience. Yes, which honestly is not very much money to me.
00:31:50
Speaker
If it's just coming out of his pocket, does he have $20,000? That's what people are saying, is that he's just never going to let someone get through it because he doesn't have that money. When they started out, they did not have safe words as part of the tour. Now there is a safe word that people can say to end the tour immediately. The other big claim that he throws around is that supposedly there's a wait list of 24,000 people who want to go through the tour, which
00:32:20
Speaker
I feel sort of conflicted on. I'm like, you see, there's a bunch of YouTube videos that they show in the documentary of people being like, I'm dying to go in. I just want to do it. Let me in, Russ. So I'm like, maybe that is a real number. But I just- That's wild.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah, I just don't know exactly why you would want this. But it does seem like and obviously there are three people on the documentary who have been through the haunt who wanted that experience. And it seems like it's mostly this is very sad, but people who have been through trauma themselves. Wow. One of the girls on it is a foster child. One of them is like a a guy who was
00:33:05
Speaker
in Iraq or Afghanistan in the military. And he says, I think I have PTSD. And so, yeah. And instead of therapy, he's like, I'm going to rest.
00:33:17
Speaker
Yes. All three of them talk about how horrible their experience was, how they all three feel like they were never the same after the haunt. I will say one of the girls on it, after she experiences it, wants to get involved and I think ends up running social media for a while or helping with video stuff. I'm like, that to me is super interesting too that she had that experience and now she's like, it's too far.
00:33:46
Speaker
I think he's gone off the deep end and needs to be stopped, but they all approach it with that similar mentality of what you described, which is if I can handle this experience, I can handle anything in my real life. I'm like, that's such an interesting way of looking at things. Yeah, but it's not simulated. That's the thing. Blackout is simulated experiences. Yes, you are post and whatever.
00:34:09
Speaker
I mean, I've seen the documentary and the fact that they might break your bones.
00:34:18
Speaker
It makes me very uncomfortable and very agreed. I don't understand why it's just so crazy to me that it is legal. He does do the same thing that Blackout, I guess, does. I would be so curious to know if he was inspired by Blackout and that's what this is all. I don't know if he's trying to be more intense. Would you just told me he started in 2001? Yeah. Yeah, Blackout started in 2009.
00:34:42
Speaker
which I'm not sure like when he transitioned into like actually hurting people. He started with like haunted house. That's right. I forgot you said that. Yeah. But he does, you know, play into people's fears that they tell him about and actually like, you know, tries to get after people's real fears and make sure they experience that.
00:35:01
Speaker
One of the people in the documentary talks about his experience and he says, they tied him up. They put him in a van, put headphones on him with the sound of babies crying loudly, which I'm like, I'm not. I'd say the safe word. You're like, I've had enough. I've had enough. They duct tape their hands and mouths, but they all talk about this
00:35:25
Speaker
just like Russ filming them felt like a scary experience like he was egging them on talking about how many people are watching them like what the comments are saying and just like how excited he was to be like watching them go through it.
00:35:41
Speaker
And there aren't any EMTs or medics on site. It's like lots of, I don't know, the footage is really horrifying. There's like lots of head dunking. Someone's thrown into a freezer or they have like tarantulas crawling on you, snakes crawling on you. The man talks about like he was like in a cage and there was like freezing water that was like slowly filling up the cage and he says the safe word and gets out of it.
00:36:08
Speaker
Russ does have all this footage from each of these experiences. People really feel like that's kind of what's driving him. And it is. The footage is so scary, some of it. There's a part where they're talking about, I can't remember if it's the guy that they interview or someone else who has a military background and they just have him tied up with his eyes blindfolded and they're just firing a gun next to him. Oh my God.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah. I won't go into too much more detail about the different things. You know what's hilarious? I've seen this documentary and everything you're saying feels like new information. Well, some of it's from this new one. Oh, okay. Someone's with the new one. Yeah. Okay. I feel like in the old one, I don't know, because remember his wife is in it and they seem very like, oh no, he's messed up, but we do this. In the new one, his wife has left him. He's like, yeah.
00:37:02
Speaker
there's like new girlfriends that are like also like somehow part of the experience where like they talk about at some point that like his two types for people to go through the haunt are like vulnerable hot women and then like military like ex-military guys and they think he likes bully these like tough guys yes but then like loves to like see these girls be like please Russ like let me out yeah and also it's like the degrading element like he like degrades these people and
00:37:31
Speaker
And that is also like extremely different than the other haunts where it's like it's not just about scaring you. It's about like breaking you down. I don't know. It does
Impact of McKamey Manor on Community
00:37:41
Speaker
like it seems like like a sexual fetish to me. Yes, I agree. I think somehow it has to be because I just don't like I don't know. It's very scary and very disturbing. And they like the fact that it's like all filmed and it's like about the footage also. Yeah.
00:37:58
Speaker
And that's also like what they kind of describe in the documentary is like they watched footage but sort of thought it was like he's a great showman or like getting at people's fears and it's not like actually they're hurting people. Right. So it's very interesting and
00:38:16
Speaker
Obviously or maybe not obviously but it has definitely been like the subject of many you know complaints in the neighborhood too. They talk about like you know there's there was an incident where like the police was called after a neighbor saw like a woman dragged screaming from a van and they said you know staged or not like this is just.
00:38:35
Speaker
not something that we want in our neighborhood or like nearby. Because it's dramatic for the people that see it even if they're not involved in it. Like that could still be a trauma like a kid saw that like that would just mess you up like that. Exactly and so I think they need to do something.
00:38:51
Speaker
I know. I think they're at the point that it's like he can't do things outside the house, but because it's these waivers that they're basically signing their life away. They're able to do whatever they want according to Tennessee law. That's another thing that I'm not sure if because the laws are different in Tennessee, if that's why he made the move from California to Tennessee, maybe it's more
00:39:12
Speaker
loose there. There is a petition online to get the Mahamie manner shut down. People feel like, as I just said, that it's like he's not showing the worst footage online. He's not showing all the awful things that happen. I think I'm curious to see what happens with this Hulu documentary. If it gets
00:39:34
Speaker
more press or any more attention. Do you know what the documentary is called? The new one? Yes, it's called Monster Inside and I think it truly just came to Hulu. Okay, so yeah, I haven't
00:39:47
Speaker
heard of this new one. So I, America's most extreme haunted house. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It just released yesterday. That's hilarious. Oh, that's wild. Okay, great. Yeah. I'll definitely check it out. I mean, this is, I'm fascinated by it. I'm horrified, but I also would like to see a documentary about it. Exactly. And I will say I, I thought it was so interesting and like, I was excited to do the research and whatever.
00:40:10
Speaker
But I had to fast forward through parts of the Hulu documentary because you're watching people actually be hurt. It's not a vulnerability. Oh my God. That is so insane. Yeah, and they show it on the documentary. So again, trigger warning times 10. Yeah.
00:40:29
Speaker
because it's not simulated seemingly. And that's the other thing, like when Travis is not home, Travis could literally never watch anything like this. He would, he could not. No. And like them talking about their experience spliced with like actual footage of them going through it. I was like, I gotta fast forward. I can't do it.
00:40:48
Speaker
So it's super messed up. I, you know, I don't know how I feel that there's 24,000 people that are like clawing to get to go through it. I'm like that to me means like probably we have like a mental health issue in our country. Well, that's definitely true. It's an interesting thing and very, you know, as we're kind of like transitioning to wrap up, like I do think
Ethical Implications of Extreme Haunts
00:41:12
Speaker
the, like we're obviously people that are interested in boundaries being pushed. Um, but I just think blackout too, especially I didn't really know too much about blackout, but had always heard it like kind of described in the same way as haunted houses or, you know, talked about in like a sleep no more blackout, you know, like it's different. Um, and it's very different than what I think McKinney Manor is. Yeah.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. I would not do it myself. And I think it's about the intentions. And I think that's what we're talking about. It's like, what are the intentions of the person running this thing? Mm-hmm. Like, what is it for? And there are so many. Yeah. And there are so many, like, I feel like backwoods haunted houses that make me nervous. But this is just, this one takes the cake. For sure. Wow. Good job. Spooky episode this week. Yeah, I'm scared. Me too.
00:42:09
Speaker
But thank you all for listening. I hope everyone's having an enjoyable October. We're actually recording this on Friday the 13th in October. Look at us go. But you won't get it till Monday, I guess. But we appreciate you all and we hope you have some sweet, sweet nightmares. Bye.