Don't normally cover many documentaries on here , but I think this one is worthy. It tells the story of haunted attractions and the people who make them. The history of haunted houses is briefly touched on the main focus are the more DIY haunts with emphasis on the more extreme. Since I work in this industry I found it particularly interesting It had people I have worked with like John Murdy in it, so that was cool to see, but you do not have to be involved in the industry to enjoy this film. It made some interesting points about the rise of torture porn and how that is now reflected in the current state of haunts which are getting more intense as culture changes.
I have seen the parallels between bdsm and haunts before , in fact have purposefully worked them into the act. But with the craziness that is Mckamey Manor the concept of having a safe word for patrons had never really entered my mind. McKamey Manor was not the first haunt to have more immersive physical interaction with it's guests, but it does take things as far over the line as it can for the sake of filming patrons reactions. After seeing this movie I want to go work for Black Out, but McKamey Manor seems more like a smut film. Here they are in control with no safe words. In BDSM this would be called RACK or risk aware consensual kink. Given the present climate of the world today when the definition of what is consent is called into question by the #metoo generation, what goes down at the Manor could be called into question, in fact I am as open minded as one gets and adhere to the mantra...whatever works for you and there is no right or wrong only effective or ineffective. Is what happens there effective? I think the fact this made me feel anything about it or think on this after the movie is over says a lot about this film.
It did make we want to further explore bdsm in the context of a haunt. It does touch on horror movies and has the big Blum from Blumhouse Films who is dominating horror as we know it for better or for worse these days in it. It looks at this from many different angles and doesn't really try to prove a point in how it is edited. After all it's the editor of a documentary who is really telling the story here. I highly recommend this movie it's on Netflix and came out last year, but release dates on movies have pretty much become arbitrary at this point.
