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McKamey Manor is regarded as the scariest escape room in the world, where visitors can partake in a blood-curdling experience. The venue in Tennessee is owned by Russ McKamey, who defines the manor as a mindgame – a game of his sick mind, perhaps, if we wanted to describe the place more accurately.
It is common practice to have visitors older than 21 sign a waiver - in McKamey Manor this waiver is a whopping 40-page long text. And that’s not all: medical consent is also required to enter. In addition, visitors must provide a safe word and a health insurance certificate must be presented prior to the scarefest.
Before the game begins, visitors are seated and shown a two-hour long video of players who embarked on the brutal adventure full of courage but were unable to finish it. "You really don’t want to do this" is repeated countless times in the video.
If someone decides to continue anyway, they expose themselves to 10 hours of concentrated physical and mental ordeal. The photos give you the impression that it’s a cleverly put together attraction, but based on the videos taken on site, it turns out that visitors have to solve tasks in inhumane conditions.
A few points have been leaked from the 40-page waiver mentioned earlier, which gives a glimpse into what awaits the visitors:
- Participant fully understands and agrees that they may come in contact with carbon monoxide poisoning with regard to use of artificial fog.
- Participant fully understands that once participant enters MM there is no quitting unless serious physical or psychological injury is present.
- Participant fully understands that injuries may occur during their Tour of MM, which may include, but not limited to, head, neck, and back injuries, death, stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain aneurysms, cerebral or retinal hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, loss of consciousness, whiplash, harmful heart reactions, nausea, headache, dizziness, lacerations, broken or sprained bones, torn ligaments, bleeding wounds, scrapes and/or cuts, heatstroke, or drowning and does not hold MM responsible.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that being scared, having a panic attack, etc. does not count as serious injury.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that their Tour may include the use of hypodermic needles, zappers, Tasers, or dog shock collars.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that various fluids, such as food coloring, grease, theatrical blood, or other liquids may be placed in Participant’s mouth. It is Participant’s responsibility not to swallow these fluids.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that they may be fish hooked, which may inadvertently cause rippage to the mouth area.
- Participant fully understands and agrees a nail may pierce their hand.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that their hand may be smashed with tools.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that their nails may be removed from their nail beds.
- Participant fully understands and agrees that it is possible that joints, i.e. jaw, shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, hip, etc., may be accidentally dislocated and that Participant will not hold MM responsible.
While it’s highly likely that some of the points are for the sake of scaring players rather than drawing attention to real danger, it’s still kind of thought-provoking. Mainly so that the waiver excludes all liability of McKamey Manor in the event of mental or physical injury to the players or permanent damage to health. In addition, the venue supposedly employs ex-felons to make sure visitors are treated ruthlessly. And this might be true, as no one has received the twenty thousand-dollar reward for completing the challenge yet.
Many people think the McKamey Manor went too far, so a petition was launched and almost 160,000 have signed it to have the place shut down. The biggest problem according to the writers of the petition is that the place, although advertised as a ghost house and/or escape room, is actually a torture chamber.
