Freaky Friday Files: The Dark Side of Haunted House Attractions

1 hour ago

4 min read

Disclaimer: Topics discussed in this blog post may be distressing to some readers. Reader discretion advised.

Hi friends. Seeing as it's Halloween this weekend, I thought we could do a little bit of a Halloween special and take a look at the dark side of some haunted house attractions.

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The Dark Side of Haunted House Attractions

7 Floors of Hell, Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, Ohio

On the 18th of September, 2021, around 8:15 PM, a 22-year-old actor "allegedly" used a real knife (Bowie knife) instead of a fake prop knife to scare visitors at the attraction. An 11-year-old boy at the attraction saw the knife and assumed it was fake, telling the actor. The actor then scraped the blade of the knife on the ground, near the boy's foot, which in turn pierced the boy's Crocs and cut his big toe on his left foot. Staff provided immediate first aid, and the family apparently declined transport to the hospital so they could finish the attraction (WTF?). Police took the real knife away, and the victim's mum pursued negligent a$$ault charges.

Creepyworld, Fenton, Missouri

In 2011, teenager Jessica Rue had a part-time job working at Creepyworld. However, it turned into a total nightmare for her. One night, as Jessica accidentally fell into a noose, nearly getting strangled to d*ath while working a gory bathroom scene, visitors of Creepyworld just assumed it was part of the act. Jessica was there between 2 and 10 minutes and stopped breathing until a coworker found her and cut her down, and I believe she spent 3 days in a coma. Jessica didn't die but has suffered neurological damage from the incident, including random blackouts, increased irritability, and migraines. She does not remember the incident at all. It is not clear how Jessica was able to fall into the noose so easily.

Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park

On the 17th of October, 2014, a 16-year-old girl, Christian Faith Benge, passed away at the Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park. She was at the park to watch her dad's band perform at the festival. However, she collapsed halfway through walking around the haunted park. Her mum performed CPR, but was unsuccessful. She was pronounced d*ad at the hospital. It was found that she had a severe heart abnormality and was literally scared to death.

McKamey Manor

I don't know if this "attraction" exists any more, but I remember learning about it on David Farrier's Dark Tourist Netflix show, and it was intense. McKamey Manor is/was run by Russ McKamey and based in Summertown, Tennessee, USA. I feel like talking about this place could be a deep dive on its own, but people who have done this "attraction" have said it's basically a torture chamber disguised as a haunted house. You even have to sign a really, really long waiver before going in. Allegedly, if you complete the mission, you are given $20,000, but I don't think anyone has ever finished, or if they have, they've never been paid.

There are a lot of controversies surrounding this place:

Laura Hertz Brotherton visited the manor in 2016, used her safeword a lot and was still made to keep going & was then treated at the hospital. They didn't stop until some time had passed.
Participant Amy Milligan left the house with injuries and thought she was going to die while enduring the experience in 2015. Amy was blindfolded and trapped in a freezer.
The authorities of Summertown have received many complaints, and one was when a neighbour saw a woman being dragged screaming from a van.
In 2023, the manor was under investigation, but all lawsuits and charges ended up being dropped.

I feel like going into a place like this would give people PTSD. It's literal nightmare fuel and probably torture p*rn. Like people get waterboarded and all sorts of things here. I found a Reddit post of someone who actually went through if you'd like to read it, you can "here".

Massacre Haunted House, Chicago

In 2014, a woman called Regina Janito, her 17-year-old daughter and three of the daughter's friends planned to walk through the Massacre Haunted House in Chicago. However, this was cut short after Regina and her daughter were both a$$aulted and verbally harassed in the car park by two men dressed as clowns with s*x toys. Regina claims that they used the s*x toy to poke her daughter and simulate a s*x act. They all left before going inside the haunted house. They were understandably traumatised by the situation, and they filed a lawsuit. One of the clowns pleaded guilty and was fined $500 and placed on probation for one year, as well as ordered to perform 30 hours of community service. They have since reached a settlement, but Massacre Haunted House did not admit any wrongdoing.

Nashville Nightmare Haunted House

In October 2018, a group of friends from Nashville went to the Nashville Nightmare Haunted House. A person who is believed to be a staff member at the house gave a knife to one of the women in the group. The woman believed that the knife was a prop and playfully st*bbed her friend with it.

At the time, the staff member asked the woman whether one of her friends was "messing around with her", and the woman said "yes". The staff member then gave the knife to the woman (which looked like a prop), and the staff member told the woman, "Well, here, stab him". To the woman's horror, the man started bleeding. The staff member then disappeared, and they rushed the guy to the hospital.

There isn't much more information about this incident, but the haunted house placed the staff member on leave.

Thanks for reading; stay safe out there, folks.

Ash x

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