Movie Review: ‘Monster Inside’

One of the best indicators that Halloween is upon us every year is the various haunted attractions which swing their doors open inviting anyone brave enough in. There is no doubt anyone reading this can think of a house, corn maze, hayride etc. in their community that springs up when the spookiest time of the years comes around. Some of them like Netherworld in Atlanta or Field of Screams in Maryland have achieved nationwide acclaim for terrifying guests with their combination of props, costumes, sets and fx at the highest level. Then there is McKamey Manor run by Russ McKamey in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. Within the circles of haunts and horror fans this attraction has achieved a level of infamy as its founder Russ McKamey is little more than a sadist parading as a haunter. McKamey has prospective guests sign a waiver and proceeds to not so much scare them as torment them with the promise of a theoretical $20,000 should they make it to an undetermined end without giving up. Sparking no shortage of controversy during its existence McKamey Manor is the subject of a new Hulu documentary Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House.

Given that this is a rather niche level of haunted attraction known as the “extreme” haunt the documentary gives a brief rundown of what they entail early on in the film. These more intimate experiences scare you through far more brutal means than a traditional attraction, however they make clear the rules and regulations in place to keep people safe. This is how they make the clear point that McKamey Manor is little more than a torture chamber with a voyeuristic sociopath behind it all. From the point-of-view from both legit haunters and former guests at the manor, we see how Russell McKamey lures customers into the nightmare he created.

While there is a blip about the evolution of McKamey Manor it does provide insight into the mentality of this man and how what started as a fun standard event became something horrifying. But the story of McKamey Manor’s coming to be is not the focus of this movie, rather it is about the terror both physically and mentally he puts people through. As one survivor of the manor put it, Russ seems to have a sense of glee about the fact that for a certain amount of time he has these people at his absolute mercy. It is clear from the survivor accounts that he has a penchant for inflicting his torture on either pretty young women or military veterans. This gives him a sense of power from breaking those who survived legitimate battlefields or uses the trauma endured to manipulate the women. Both a psychiatrist specializing in PTSD and a human rights attorney give fascinating insight into why people willingly go through this and how Russell has developed a certain cult of personality around himself.

There is a catharsis of seeing a pseudo-downfall when one guest who saw through the fraud of Russ, promising a fake $20,000 in order to inflict torture exposed him. But as we know in reality the bad guy is rarely ever gone for good and while he is no longer at the height of his prominence McKamey Manor is still around, according to their web site operating out of both the central Tennessee and northern Alabama areas.

Surprisingly Monster Inside ends with those we have just spent an hour and a half with discussing the horrors of McKamey Manor still seeking out haunts of the extreme variety. This opens the ponderance as why these attractions exist and whether we should make them available for those who do seek them out. However the documentary is clear to draw a line of contrast between these haunted houses and the events that occur at McKamey Manor. If you want to learn more about the origins of the Manor, or even Russ’ side of the story, there are countless other documentaries and even YouTube videos about it, but what Monster Inside does is give a voice to those who have survived the horrors concocted by a sociopath.