The Rise (and Fall?) of the Extreme Haunt Phenomenon

Haunted houses—also known as haunts, to differentiate walk-through mazes full of macabre decor and plenty of jump scares from sites of purported paranormal activity—began as humble community events, largely by and for adolescents too old for trick-or-treating but too young for adult parties. 

Their popularity has been steadily growing at least since the 1970s when theme parks got in on the game, beginning with Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween Haunt in 1973; it proved such a success that today, nearly every major American theme park offers some variation on their mazes-and-monsters formula.

Add to that non-theme park professional haunts and the thousands of home or yard haunts scattered all over the country, and it’s clear that haunts are as sacred an October tradition as carving pumpkins or collecting candy. 

Haunts aren’t plays, exactly, but they’ve always had an element of the theatrical: They take place on sets populated by actors, but instead of a passive, seated audience, haunt fans move through winding mazes, becoming active participants in the terror.

This quality parallels the rise of immersive theater that arguably reached its pinnacle with the long-running NYC show Sleep No More, a take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth in which the audience is provided with eerie, face-concealing masks and given free rein to wander the elaborate sets.

Couple this with a little horror subgenre known—mostly to its detractors—as “torture porn,” and the stage has been handily set for extreme haunts to take hold. Unlike the somewhat fun-lovin’ slashers of the ‘70s and ‘80s, American horror post-9/11 was dark, ugly, and relentless in its depiction of pain and brutality. 

These films—like 2004’s franchise-spawning Saw or Eli Roth’s 2005 gorefest Hostel —had a bleak worldview, challenging viewers to see just how much human misery they could stomach. It was only a matter of time before this mentality wormed its way off the screen and into the halls of the Halloween haunt.

And worm it did: By 2009, one of the most talked-about haunts in the world was New York City’s Blackout.

Guests had to sign liability waivers and go through the haunt alone, with the understanding that they would be touched, tormented, and asked to perform tasks that were unpleasant at best, and traumatic at worst.

Blackout famously featured full nudity and simulated sexual assault, and was the subject of a 2016 documentary called The Blackout Experiments, which followed several extreme haunt fans as they tried to face their fears and achieve emotional catharsis. 

But while haunts like Blackout may be considered in poor taste by some, there are still crucial guardrails in place to protect patrons from serious harm, such as the use of safe words that can be spoken to end the experience prematurely.

After all, no one actually wants to hurt their guests; it’s all in the name of good Halloween fun.

And then there’s McKamey Manor.

One of the most notorious haunts in the entire world, McKamey Manor, is the brainchild of owner Russ McKamey. McKamey Manor relocated from California to Tennessee, in no small part because of complaints from neighbors and friction with law enforcement.

McKamey made a name for himself in the extreme haunt world by having seemingly no limits to how far he would go to psychologically break those brave and/or foolish enough to tempt fate by visiting his “manor.” 

A visit to McKAmey can last as long as ten hours, and may include  according to the 40-page waiver provided to prospective guests—“having teeth extracted, being tattooed, and having fingernails removed,” in addition to being drugged, being forced to eat or drink various substances, and more.

McKamey has been featured in several documentaries, including 2017’s Haunters: The Art of the Scare, an episode of the series Dark Tourist, and the 2023 exposé Monster Inside: America's Most Extreme Haunted House.

Pushback has been considerable, with even extreme haunt enthusiasts calling the haunt out for its perceived recklessness, while McKamey maintains that he’s simply a good showman, giving the people what they want.

In July 2024, McKamey was arrested for second-degree attempted murder, rape, and domestic violence—notably not in connection with his haunt.

However, the charges against him have since been dropped. 

Judging by this year’s Halloween event listings, extreme haunts seem to be on the decline, supplanted by immersive experiences that maintain audience interactivity without the threat of real harm, such as House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée.

Taking place in several different U.S. cities in 2024, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas, House Of Spirits is part cocktail party, part haunt, part escape room, and all spooky fun—no waterboarding or simulated assault required. 

It’s a good reminder that, for most Halloween fans, the fun lies in simply flirting with danger, not going all the way. 

And for those who want to truly test their mettle?

Well, surely you can find someone to push you to the very limits of what you can tolerate. Now that extreme haunts have emerged, they’re unlikely to disappear completely. At least not anytime soon.

Just make sure you have a safe word. And get a copy of that waiver.

Featured photo: Madd Terror / Flickr