Nightmares take physical form in McKamey Manor, a sadistic torture facility posing as a haunted house in San Diego. From fecal matter shooting from a toilet to actors locking you in rooms and pushing you up against walls, the inauspicious building houses a horror movie.

Upon exiting the haunted house, visibly shaken visitors are covered in scrapes, cuts and bruises. This forces us to ask the question, do extreme haunted houses cross the line into torture?

My answer is yes. No matter how many waivers someone signs, it is not acceptable to beat people in an effort to elicit fear from unsuspecting them, especially when they could be arrested for fighting back. The waiver specifies that actors can touch and hit you all they want, but if you harm them, an arrest may be in your future.

Not the average haunted house, the McKamey Manor website describes the tour through the house as mentally and physically exhausting. An accurate description says the tour lasts four to seven hours. If you are hoping to bring along a group of friends to keep your energy up, you are out of luck. Due to the extremely personal experience McKamey Manor provides, guests are allowed only one other person, and there is no promise made that you two will not be split up.

The purpose of a haunted house is to scare someone, not scar them. McKamey Manor is intentionally vague on the antics they use to break down those who enter. Yet, they expect people to be sufficiently prepared to sign a complicated waiver that leaves them devoid of basic human rights. The result is legal torture, both mentally and physically.

Extreme haunted houses, such as McKamey Manor, have crossed the line from fun into barbaric.