As strange as it sounds, no one has actually finished the test. There have been many people that have tried and a lot of them were quite arrogant about feeling as though "of course they can finish it." All of them have failed.
It is called McKamey Manor and the owner, Russ McKamey, has spent a million dollars creating the world's scariest haunted house attraction. It is now mostly referred to as a "torture house" and some people question how it is legal.
This isn't your run-of-the-mill haunted house in that you can't just simply rock up, get in line, and have a go. It is far more complicated with that.
In order to even try you have to fulfill all of these requirements just to be considered
- you must be 21 or be 18-20 and have parent's permission
- You must pass a physical fitness test and mental-health examination
- you must pass a background test and multiple interviews with the haunted house's staff
- you must have proof of medical insurance
- you must pass a portable drug test the day of the experience
- you have to sign a 40-page waiver
- You must pay to try the haunted house. The cost? 1 bag of dog food
So what makes it so terrifying that no one has been able to complete it? Well that's part of the problem of solving this mystery - nobody is really sure and the "show" changes frequently and is personalized for each guest based on their worst fears.
There are some videos of the experience out there, but it is unlikely that the situations are going to end up being exactly the same. Russ McKamey requires that the entire experience is filmed for legal reasons as there have been multiple attempt to sue him after the experience proved too traumatizing.
The actors in the show are allowed to touch you but they are not trying to harm you. You, of course, are not allowed to "fight back" and doing so results in immediate dismissal and the show is over.
The entire experience is meant to last 8 hours but the longest anyone has ever made it was 6 hours. This woman is known only as Sarah P. and has held the record since 2015. The average time that anyone else lasts is around an hour.
Mr. McKamey has been very secretive about what makes the experience so impossibly terrifying but in a few interviews he has indicated that during the interview process that the guests are hypnotized and this multiplies their fears.
This isn't a haunted house, so to speak, since a lot of the stuff takes place in broad daylight outdoors. Some of it is extremely brutal and I can understand why people give up. They don't try to hurt you, but there is a great deal of really rough treatment that includes cutting your hair off and feeding it to you.
The police have been called multiple times during the performances by various members of the community who were unaware this was all part of the act. Russ now calls the police himself before each performance to save them the trouble.
Despite the gruesome nature of this experience, Russ is actually a bit of a puritan himself to the point where swearing is prohibited during the experience. Ever time a person lets a cuss word fly, a certain amount of money is deducted from the grand prize. Of course all of that is irrelevant when no one has ever claimed the prize anyway.
from the McKamey Manor official channel
There are now two locations: One in Tennessee and one in Alabama. Do you think you have what it takes to be the first person to ever complete the challenge? Go to their official website and sign up!.
Don't worry, the current waiting list is merely 24,000 people long.