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The Fear Archive

The Fear Archive

Written by: Violet Hour Media
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The Fear Archive investigates the real stories behind horror films. Every episode, hosts Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip dig into the actual cases, killers, hauntings, and conspiracies that Hollywood turned into your favorite scary movies — and ask whether the film or the truth is more disturbing. From Ed Gein and Psycho to the Gainesville Ripper and Scream, from MK-Ultra and The Manchurian Candidate to Faces of Death and the internet gore ecosystem — if a horror film has a real story behind it, the Fear Archive will find it. New episodes every other Wednesday. A Violet Hour Media production. Art True Crime
Episodes
  • The Amityville Horror vs. The Lutz Family | Twenty-Eight Days, Ten Million Books, and a Demon in the Turkey

    The Amityville Horror vs. The Lutz Family | Twenty-Eight Days, Ten Million Books, and a Demon in the Turkey
    Jul 15 2026
    Twenty-eight days. That is how long George and Kathy Lutz lasted inside 112 Ocean Avenue before they ran out in the middle of the night, barefoot, with their children and their dog and almost nothing else. They left the furniture. They left the food on the table. They left everything. The story they told afterward would sell ten million books, spawn one of the most profitable haunted house franchises in cinema history, generate lawsuits, congressional scrutiny, and decades of debate about what is real, what is manufactured, and what happens when grief and trauma and a very good publicist collide. This is the Fear Archive Amityville mega episode — Part Two of the full story. If you have not listened to the DeFeo murders episode from Season Two, go back and start there. This episode picks up thirteen months after the murders, when the Lutz family moves into 112 Ocean Avenue and the mythology machine kicks into high gear. Amanda and Mike cover the full Lutz story — the twenty-eight days, the 1979 film, the book written by Jay Anson who never visited the location, the defense attorney who helped shape the story over a bottle of wine, and the question the episode keeps returning to: when does a story stop belonging to the people who lived it and start belonging to everyone else? They also watch every single Amityville sequel — every one — including Amityville II: The Possession, Amityville 3D, Amityville: The Evil Escapes (the demon lamp), Amityville Dollhouse, Amityville in Space, and the one with the haunted turkey. They also cover My Amityville Horror, the documentary in which Danny Lutz, grown up and deeply complicated, sits in front of a camera and tries to sort through what was real and what was imposed on him and finds after forty years that he genuinely cannot fully do it. The DeFeo family — Ronald Sr., Louise, Dawn, Allison, Mark, and nine-year-old John Matthew — are the actual story. They always were. Everything else is just the house settling. Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production. LISTENER WARNING: This episode contains discussion of family annihilation, childhood trauma, alleged psychological abuse, financial fraud, and a demon that apparently moved into a turkey. Popular Topics Include: Amityville Horror, Amityville Horror true story, Lutz family Amityville, 112 Ocean Avenue, George Lutz, Kathy Lutz, Danny Lutz My Amityville Horror documentary, Jay Anson Amityville book, Amityville sequels, Amityville demon lamp, Amityville in Space, Amityville Dollhouse, Amityville haunted turkey, DeFeo murders, Ronald DeFeo, haunted house horror, Long Island true crime, Conjuring Universe origin, Ryan Reynolds Amityville, based on true events horror, The Amityville Horror 1979 film, The Amityville Horror 2005 remake, Fear Archive podcast, true crime horror, horror podcast, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, Violet Hour Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Zodiac vs. Zodiac | The Most Famous Killer in American History Whose Name We Still Don't Know

    Zodiac vs. Zodiac | The Most Famous Killer in American History Whose Name We Still Don't Know
    Jul 8 2026
    A note arrives at the San Francisco Chronicle in August 1969. It begins: This is the Zodiac speaking. He did not wait for the press to invent a nickname. He named himself. He branded himself. He was doing personal marketing before personal marketing was a concept — and he did it while murdering people and daring the public to catch him. The Zodiac killed five confirmed victims, possibly seven. He claimed 37. He was never identified, never arrested, never charged. He encoded his communications in ciphers that took the public 51 years to fully crack. He threatened to shoot children off school buses. He taunted detectives by name. He called radio stations. He wrote to celebrities. He turned the city of San Francisco into a stage and the San Francisco Chronicle into his personal broadcast network. In this episode of The Fear Archive, Amanda and Mike go deep into the full Zodiac case — the confirmed murders from Lake Herman Road in December 1968 through the killing of cab driver Paul Stine in October 1969, the 408-symbol cipher solved in a week by a high school teacher in Salinas, the 340-character cipher that remained unsolved for 51 years, the suspects, the letters, the phone calls, and the detective whose entire career was consumed by a case that never closed. They also cover the Zebra murders — a parallel series of killings happening on the same San Francisco streets at almost the same time, solved, largely forgotten, and in certain ways more disturbing precisely because there are answers. And they go deep on David Fincher's Zodiac, one of the greatest films of the 21st century and one of the most meticulous portraits of obsession ever committed to film. Also: the man who made an exploitation film to catch the Zodiac using a motorcycle raffle and an ice cream truck full of cops. Robert Graysmith, who started as a political cartoonist and ended as the most famous amateur investigator in American true crime history without ever being able to close the case. The New York Zodiac copycat who terrorized the city 20 years later from a room in his mother's apartment in Brooklyn using homemade zip guns. And the question this case refuses to let go of — what does uncaught evil do to a culture? What does the refusal of resolution produce? The names of the confirmed dead: David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, Cecilia Sheppard, Paul Stine. They were not ciphers. They were not mythology. They were people on ordinary nights in ordinary places. Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production. LISTENER WARNING: This episode contains graphic violence, descriptions of murder, discussion of threats against children, and a significant quantity of what Amanda calls epistemological horror — the specific terror of not knowing and never knowing. Popular Topics Include: Zodiac Killer, Zodiac Killer unsolved, David Fincher Zodiac film, Zodiac 2007 film, Robert Graysmith Zodiac, Zodiac ciphers, 408 cipher solved, 340 cipher solved, Lake Herman Road murders, Blue Rock Springs murders, Lake Berryessa attack, Paul Stine murder, Darlene Ferrin, Betty Lou Jensen, David Faraday, Zebra murders San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle Zodiac letters, Zodiac suspects, Arthur Leigh Allen suspect, New York Zodiac copycat, Heriberto Seda, Sleep My Little Dead, unsolved serial killers, San Francisco 1960s, counterculture San Francisco, Fear Archive podcast, true crime horror, horror podcast, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, Violet Hour Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Dead Air | Ep. 07 | Amanda Got Scammed and Mike Is Watching a Prison Chef on YouTube

    Dead Air | Ep. 07 | Amanda Got Scammed and Mike Is Watching a Prison Chef on YouTube
    Jul 1 2026
    Dead Air is what happens between Fear Archive episodes — no research, no structure, no plan. Just Amanda and Mike talking until something disturbing comes up. It always does. This week opens with Amanda getting an extremely convincing bank scam call while driving — a caller who knew her address, told her a fraudulent Wells Fargo account had been opened in her name in Colorado and was being used to buy guns, and gave her two hours to withdraw all her money before Homeland Security froze every account she had. She caught on. But not before fully spiraling. She also connected the whole experience directly back to the Compliance episode — Stanley Milgram proved in 1963 that ordinary people would follow a voice of authority to extraordinary ends. Scammers are just using the same playbook. Also this week: Amanda and Mike officially launch No Return Flight — a new Dead Air segment dedicated to international horror films outside the American canon. First entry is A Swang, the 1992 Filipino horror film directed by Peque Galaga and Lori Reyes, featuring a creature that shifts between a beautiful young woman, a withered hag, and a giant snake, and who eats everything but the bones. Released by Mondo Macabro. Mike watched Twenty Eight Years Later: The Bone Temple and The Bride — Maggie Gyllenhaal's Bride of Frankenstein retelling — and has thoughts. Amanda watched Disclosure Day, the new Spielberg alien film, and loved it. Mike finally watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind for the first time at age 41 with his kids. Stanley Kubrick's complete Criterion collection just dropped for $500 including the international cut of The Shining — half an hour shorter, more disorienting, apparently the version Kubrick actually wanted. In the news: the serial squirter of Allentown, Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty. The FLDS leader currently serving 50 years is representing himself in a new Arizona child abuse trial and opened by telling the jury he is a kind and loving father who does not spank his children. Fifteen children got stuck on a new ride at Adventureland in Farmingdale, Long Island. Candace Cameron Bure announced on her podcast that horror movies are demonic portals and Liquid Death is cursed. Also: carny language, the Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble, John Waters' Desperate Living getting a 4K remaster, a prison chef on YouTube who electrified a bench to make a skillet, Jersey Mike's dentures, the Tylenol murders, and Mike choking on a burger flag at TGI Fridays fifteen years ago. Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production. LISTENER WARNING: This program contains strong language, discussion of true crime, and a detailed account of a very bad day at Splish Splash. Popular Topics Include: Fear Archive podcast, Dead Air podcast, horror podcast bonus episode, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, bank scam call Homeland Security, Stanley Milgram compliance, No Return Flight segment, A Swang 1992 Filipino horror, Peque Galaga, Mondo Macabro, Hellraiser Revival video game, Doug Bradley Pinhead return, The Bride 2025 Maggie Gyllenhaal, Disclosure Day Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stanley Kubrick Criterion collection, The Shining international cut, carny language Caesarian, serial squirter Allentown Pennsylvania, FLDS trial Arizona, Adventureland Long Island ride breakdown, Candace Cameron Bure horror portal, Liquid Death demon portal, prison chef YouTube Program Time, Jersey Mike's dentures, Tylenol murders, John Waters Desperate Living 4K, Violet Hour Media, horror podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 9 mins
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