Can San Diego really have one of the scariest haunted houses?

Forget about those fake-cobwebby fairgrounds-and-city-park-type haunted houses where actors in zombie costumes jump out from shadows and threaten guests with chain saws.

For a Halloween haunt that might give you actual nightmares, you might want to check into San Diego’s McKamey Manor, which has been getting international news coverage leading up to Oct. 31.

Located in otherwise bucolic Lakeside, it's billed as living your own horror movie. And how.

Just take a look the McKamey Manor website photos page to get a gist of what goes on. (And you thought the Wacso clown was scary.)

E! entertainment called the McKamey Manor one of the seven "craziest, scariest, most extreme haunted attractions in America."

A KPBS reporter who went through the scare fest said she exited "covered in blood and axle grease, and smelling like a combination of mildew, raw sewage and slaughterhouse."

And an LA Times writer who also braved the horror house, said that when he and his companions exited, one was shaking and sputtering, another collapsed in exhaustion and a third got into a fetal position and screamed and cried with relief.

“I thought I was dying,” one person said in an exit interview. “You broke me,” another said. “I don’t ever want to come back.” “I am not going to be able to sleep again ever.” “I’m traumatized forever.” “I had a horrible time." “The worst thing I ever experienced."

Sounds like horrible reviews but McKamey told KPBS that he has a waiting list of 17,000 people who are at least 21 years old, in good health and ready to sign a waiver.

The cost? Designer Russ McKamey charges an entrance fee of four cans or one bag of dog food that will be donated to Operation Greyhound. And what do you get for that?

This: The experience lasts four to seven hours and starts with participants being “kidnapped” before they are bound, gagged with duct tape, drenched with blood, forced into inhabited coffins and stuffed into bloody ice chests. Oh, and their heads are padlocked into a cage. All the while, inhuman humans are in their faces, yelling, threatening and taunting.

Earlier this month two guys named Ryan and Steve, who McKamey described as “tough dudes” and "manly men," lasted about 20 minutes before they were sick to their stomachs and begging and I mean, begging to be let go.

In an interview afterward, Ryan said he went in thinking he was tough but in two minutes he realized he was a wimp. He said he would never do it again and would not recommend it to anyone. “Maybe terrorists,” he said, “but that’s about it. “

The men were so frightened McKamey said he was actually going to tone things down. "We want people to get through the silly thing," he said.

On Twitter, for the most part, people reacted with revulsion at the macabre entertainment.