McKamey Manor has been called the most extreme horror house in America.

Six Flags apologized and revamped its horrifying Halloween attraction to be one involving zombies, not people struggling with mental illness. As they made their way through the supposedly abandoned asylum's maze of corridors, 'maniacal inmates' and 'deranged guards' taunted, raved and grabbed at them at every turn.Īs with FearVR: 5150, shortly after the asylums' opening, mental health advocacy groups unleashed a torrent of protests against the stigmatization of those with mental illness.

For its annual Fright Fest 2016, Six Flags debuted a new haunted house experience that involved thrill-seekers bumbling through the haunted hallways of places such as Dark Oaks Asylum (Six Flags in Vallejo) and PSYCHO-PATH Haunted Asylum (Six Flags New England). Blake Bolinger/Used Under Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0 LicenseĬedar Fair Entertainment Company wasn't the only theme park chain that tried to turn mental illness into a Halloween nightmare. Six Flags was another theme park that had to abandon its 'crazy inmate' shtick (and replace it with zombies) after mental health advocates protested. Ī zombie clown walks around Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey during Fright Night. Kay Warren, a mental health advocate and wife of Rick Warren, author of 'The Purpose Driven Life' posted on her Facebook page to her 149,000 followers that the ride needed to come down. The attraction 'adds to the hurtful, dehumanizing, discriminatory, prejudicial, insensitive, offensive and stigmatizing of mental illness,' wrote John Leyerle, president of the Orange County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in his letter to the president of Cedar Fair Entertainment, the company behind the attractions. FearVR was offensive to those who struggled with mental illness, people said. Soon after its unveiling at two California theme parks - Knott's Berry Farm and Great America - there was a public outcry. Those who found the experience too intense could push a panic button to end it. Once they arrived, they were terrorized and threatened by a patient who had escaped from her room. The goggles made it appear as though they were taken to Meadowbrook, a hospital for the mentally ill. Participants in FearVR: 5150 donned a pair of virtual reality goggles and earphones and were strapped into a wheelchair. It seemed like a great virtual reality attraction for the 2016 Halloween season. 'Deranged patients' were part of the scene at the 2014 Knotts Berry Farm Halloween festival but activists made the theme park shut down their 'FearVR' experience in 2016 because it was insensitive to the mentally ill. Further, the hotel's website warns patrons not to run (which might be easier said than done) and also notes no one will be grabbing or pushing them. There's actually a name for this - the 'Carrie' effect, after the horror movie of the same name. For its part, Haunted Hotel said the marked exit is not real - it's part of the experience, so they can throw in another thrill just when you think you're safe. Here's where it gets interesting: Griffin filed a lawsuit against the Haunted Hotel saying that the attraction shouldn't be scaring people beyond the marked exit because the visitors may perceive the fake antics as real danger. While he was approaching the exit, a chainsaw-wielding character jumped out in front of him and Griffin took off running. In 2011, Scott Griffin bought a ticket to the Haunted Hotel in San Diego, which includes an attraction called the Haunted Trail. Some haunted houses have been sued - and not always for the reasons you'd think. A scare actress struts her stuff at the 42nd Annual Knott's Scary Farm at Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park, California.

Erebus pontiac walls closing in