Earlier this morning, our friends at Bloody Disgusting unveiled the trailer for the upcoming documentary Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House, which is set to start streaming on the Hulu service on October 12th. Now you can watch the trailer in the embed above!
The “haunted house” in question is McKamey Manor, which is set up in Tennessee and operates year-round, offering guests an experience that can last up to eight hours. As Wikipedia explains, “Guests must sign a liability waiver to participate. Items on the waiver include the inability to leave the experience without the staff’s permission and being subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture, including having bones broken, teeth removed without anesthesia, and being drugged.” So this is neither my idea of a “haunted house”, nor a place I would ever step foot in.
Here’s how Hulu describes the Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House documentary: What would it be like to be trapped in a real-life horror movie? Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House follows the story of Russ McKamey. The Navy Veteran who lures horror enthusiasts into his web. They find themselves pulled into the no-holds-barred world of McKamey Manor – a haunt that doesn’t end until Russ says so. Originally starting McKamey Manor to satiate his love of Halloween, as the haunt grew in popularity, both on the ground and on social media, so did the severity of Russ’ scare tactics – realizing that he was attracting more and more followers as he did so. By cultivating an online persona and a cult-like following, Russ was allowed to display his basest instincts and rewarded with online fame and notoriety. Driven by his personal fixations, he turned his backyard haunt into a bona fide torture chamber: videotaping “contestants,” particularly vulnerable young women, as he sees how far he can push them – both inside and outside of the haunt.
Merging documentary storytelling with the visual and cinematic language of a horror film, Monster Inside follows three participants as they dive deep into Russ’s world and then find the will to fight back. By showcasing the reasons why our subjects were pulled into McKamey Manor the film will explore why people make themselves vulnerable to harm. The world of immersive horror is a world of misfits, outsiders and those trying to overcome their trauma. Through the stories of our main characters, and expert commentary, the film hopes to show how a person’s past could draw them into extreme activity, some forms of which might actually be beneficial, and thus more broadly answer the question: why do we do anything extreme?
What did you think of the Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House trailer? Will you be watching this documentary? Have you been to McKamey Manor? Let us know by leaving a comment below.