Haunted, not horrific

With Halloween just around the corner, the annual festivities have begun. However, instead of classic traditions like creepy horror movies and bobbing for apples, a dark, new trend is bringing more tricks than treats: inappropriate haunted houses.

McKamey Manor is a haunted house in San Diego, California. For four to seven hours, participants can be covered in blood, attacked with power tools, given a haircut, submersed in water and stuffed in a clothing dryer. And they are not allowed to quit the tour early.

McKamey Manor is part of a growing epidemic of haunted houses that cross moral lines. People should not enter a haunted house with 12 inches of hair, and leave bald and terrified.

Blackout, located in Long Island, New York, provides these experiences year-round. The trip starts by being kidnapped and shoved into a large van, but that’s not even the worst of it. Participants are required to enter and complete the haunted house naked.

Halloween is supposed to feature spooky festivities, but they should be kept light and cheerful. This holiday is supposed to be fun, not frightening to the point of breaking certain moral codes. A haunted house’s purpose is to provide playful scares to ticket-buyers, not bring tears to their eyes.

Sexual abuse and holding attendees against their will shouldn’t only be against the rules set by the haunted house owners, it should be illegal. It is unacceptable that these two haunted houses, and many others of the same inappropriate nature, have not had courts take action against them.

McKamey forces participants to complete the expedition even when they clearly don’t want to, which goes against their civil liberties as a form of false imprisonment. Many attendees shared their stories of being tortured online, which could easily be the building blocks of a court case. Blackout’s tactics border on prostitution, an illegal practice in America.

As a ticket buyer, my safety and happiness should come first. If I’m uncomfortable in a situation, I should be allowed to leave. If I ask not to be touched by the actors, they need to respect my wishes. Halloween is a festive time full of activities that don’t push the limit to the extreme. Hayrides, pumpkin picking and trick-or-treating don’t involve sexual exploitation or holding participants captive, so why should haunted houses?

What happens inside of McKamey, Blackout and similar haunted houses is inexcusable. Morally questionable attractions need to be stopped from bringing business into their hostile environments. This epidemic has a cure, and that’s for establishment owners to change the scope of their haunted houses or for the government to question some haunted houses’ legality.