The Fear Archive

It is a normal day. A manager is checking receipts. Teenagers are laughing in the back. Grease pops, ice melts, orders come in. Then the phone rings.

A man says he is a police officer. He sounds calm, professional, certain. He says an employee has stolen money. And over the next few hours, people will strip someone, search someone, and humiliate someone — not because they want to, but because they were told to.

Starting in the 1990s and continuing into the early 2000s, a man called fast food restaurants across the United States — McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell — claiming to be a law enforcement officer. Over 70 incidents were reported. The most infamous happened in 2004 in Mount Washington, Kentucky, where a teenage employee was detained, stripped, and assaulted over four hours by people following instructions from a voice on the phone. No badge. No proof. Just authority.

In this episode of The Fear Archive, Amanda and Mike pair Craig Zobel's 2012 film Compliance with the real strip search phone call scam — and connect both to Stanley Milgram's landmark obedience experiments, which proved in 1961 that 65% of ordinary people would administer what they believed to be a potentially lethal electric shock to a stranger if an authority figure told them to.

The question this episode asks is not why the perpetrator made the calls. The question is why nobody hung up.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production.

LISTENER WARNING: This program includes discussion of sexual coercion, psychological manipulation, and abuse. Please proceed with caution.

Popular Topics Include: Compliance 2012 film, strip search phone call scam, David Stewart strip search scam, Mount Washington Kentucky McDonald's, fast food strip search true story, Milgram obedience experiment, Stanley Milgram shock experiments, psychology of obedience, true crime horror podcast, Fear Archive, horror podcast, real stories behind horror movies, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, Violet Hour Media, why do people obey authority, Craig Zobel film, obedience to authority

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is a registered Omaha sex offender named Cookie Monster who allegedly walked into a stranger's home through an unlocked door, removed his clothes, got into a sleeping child's bed, and brought a bottle of water and a bottle of lotion. Mike read about it. Mike has thoughts. This is Dead Air — the Fear Archive companion show where nothing stays on topic and everything is somehow worse than you expect.

This episode: Amanda gets golden-showered by aphids in her backyard, which somehow becomes the natural setup for the Cookie Monster case — Terry Lee Scott, arrested in Omaha, compared by Mike to Richard Chase, the Vampire of Sacramento. From there it spirals into John Titor, the anonymous internet poster from 2000 who claimed to be a time traveler from 2036, named the IBM 5100 by hidden capability, and disappeared in March 2001. Then Tartaria — the Reddit theory that the US Capitol, Penn Station, and the pyramids were built by a lost civilization wiped out by a global mud flood. Amanda is teasing the deep dive for next episode. Plus 200,000 plays on the Black Christmas episode, a Mandela effect involving three identical hand towels, the Epstein note that may or may not exist, and a brand new closing segment called Shout Outs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fear Archive investigates the Hmong sleep deaths — a series of unexplained nocturnal deaths among Southeast Asian refugees in the early 1980s that Wes Craven has cited as direct source material for A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Between 1981 and 1983, healthy young Hmong men living in the United States began dying in their sleep. No warning. No medical explanation. The Los Angeles Times covered the cases. Wes Craven read the coverage and asked: what if the thing killing them was inside their dreams?

Tonight Amanda and Mike use the same source material Craven used — the actual 1981 and 1983 articles — to trace the line from real unexplained death to one of the most iconic horror films ever made.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production.

LISTENER WARNING: This program includes discussion of real-world violence and other subject matter that may be upsetting for some listeners. Please proceed with caution.

Popular Topics Include: A Nightmare on Elm Street true story, Hmong sleep deaths, SUNDS, sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome, Wes Craven, Freddy Krueger, Hmong refugees, sleep death horror, true crime horror podcast, Fear Archive, horror podcast, Violet Hour Media, real nightmare deaths

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda has a dead rat in her wall and has been marinating in the smell for weeks. Mike has a baby garter snake in his foundation and is convinced mama snake is behind him right now. This is Dead Air — the Fear Archive companion show where nothing stays on topic and everything connects back to true crime anyway.

This episode: the rat in the wall becomes a conversation about frogging and things hiding in domestic spaces, which leads to the CERN Large Hadron Collider, Mandela effects, and whether a particle collider in Switzerland is throwing us into new timelines. Then Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to strangling eight women at Gilgo Beach — a case both hosts grew up near on Long Island. Plus The Killing Season documentary, the West Mesa Bone Collector, and Amanda's report from the LA premiere of the new A24 Faces of Death remake. Also: Forbidden Fruits, They Will Kill You, and a very strong pitch for why you should watch Cropsy immediately.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the CIA didn't just experiment on human minds — what if they also shaped the movies inside them?

In this episode, Amanda and Mike break down the real history of Project MK-Ultra — the CIA's declassified program of forced LSD experiments, psychological torture, and memory erasure — and trace its fingerprints across some of Hollywood's most iconic films.

From The Manchurian Candidate to Stranger Things. From Operation Midnight Climax to The Parallax View. From declassified documents to your Netflix queue.

Did MK-Ultra end in 1973… or did it just go cinematic?

🔍 IN THIS EPISODE:

The real history of Project MK-Ultra

Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA's obsession with LSD

Frank Olson — the man who fell from a window

Operation Midnight Climax (yes, it was real)

Donald Ewen Cameron and psychic driving

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Parallax View (1974)

Altered States (1980)

Stranger Things and the Montauk mythology

The CIA's official Hollywood Entertainment Liaison office

Confirmed vs. unconfirmed: what MK-Ultra actually proved

Did MK-Ultra end — or did it just go cinematic?

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of graphic violence, sexual assault, suicide, child abuse, torture, non-consensual drugging, and psychological experimentation.

🎙️ The Fear Archive is part of the Violet Hour Media network — home of Long Night in Egypt, Hollow, The Gloom, and more.

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss an episode.

📲 Listen everywhere: https://linktr.ee/feararchivepod

If this episode made you think, subscribe, leave a comment, or share it with the friend who says everything is a conspiracy theory.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada & Michael Ryan Assip Produced by Cassie Jozefov A production of Violet Hour Media / Realm Media

Popular Topics Include: MK-Ultra, CIA mind control, Project ARTICHOKE, LSD experiments, human experimentation Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate 1962, The Parallax View 1974, Conspiracy Theory 1997, Altered States 1980, government conspiracy film, Sidney Gottlieb, Frank Olson death, Donald Ewen Cameron, Alan Memorial Institute Montreal, sleeper agents, hypnosis CIA, psy-ops, CIA Hollywood consulting, paranoia cinema, 70s political thrillers, declassified documents, Sirhan Sirhan mind control theory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dead Air is the show between the shows. No scripts. No research. Just Amanda Kagiwada and Mike Assip talking about whatever broke their brains this week — and somehow ending up in weirder places than the Fear Archive ever goes.

Episode 1: A potentially cursed Pakistani coin appears on Mike's dresser and nearly ends his marriage. Amanda joins the moon community and cannot explain what she saw. A doctor allegedly brought a syringe full of mystery drugs on a hike in Hawaii. Twenty camels were disqualified from a beauty pageant for filler injections. Mike was an extra in The Dark Knight Rises. And somehow it all connects back to simulation theory.

00:00 No Signal — the cursed necklace story

12:45 The Watch Log — Elizabeth Smart doc, Network, Project Hail Mary22:13 The Current — Hawaii hiking murder trial

39:48 The Spiral — Cheshire Cat moon, Mandela effect, Killing for Culture

1:04:45 Rent Free — camel beauty pageant fillers & King Tuff

Dead Air drops on the off weeks between Fear Archive episodes. New episodes of The Fear Archive every other Wednesday.

Subscribe to The Fear Archive: https://linktr.ee/feararchivepod

Dead Air is part of The Fear Archive universe — a Violet Hour Media production

Popular Topics Include: Fear Archive podcast, horror podcast, true crime podcast, podcast discussion, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, horror film recommendations, true crime recommendations, horror community, podcast behind the scenes, horror culture, true crime culture

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fear Archive investigates the Bell Witch — the oldest and most entrenched paranormal legend in American history — and the 2005 film that claimed this was the only haunting in the United States ever documented to result in a death.

Between 1817 and 1821, the Bell family of Robertson County, Tennessee, reported escalating paranormal disturbances. The entity pulled hair from sleeping family members, spoke in full sentences, named the sins of neighbors, and announced it would kill John Bell. John Bell died in 1820. His son later described finding a vial of unusual liquid near the body.

Two hundred years later, the legend is still unresolved. Tonight Amanda and Mike examine what it takes to invent something that lasts that long — and whether invention is even the right word.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production.

LISTENER WARNING: This program includes discussion of real-world violence and other subject matter that may be upsetting for some listeners. Please proceed with caution.

Popular Topics Include: Bell Witch haunting, Bell Witch legend, John Bell, Robertson County Tennessee, An American Haunting 2005, American ghost story, paranormal history, Southern gothic horror, true crime horror podcast, Fear Archive, horror podcast, Violet Hour Media, haunting that killed

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fear Archive investigates the Travis Walton abduction — one of the most famous and most contested UFO encounters in American history — and the 1993 film that tried to put the experience on screen.

On November 5, 1975, Travis Walton disappeared into the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona, in front of six witnesses. He was gone for five days. When he returned — confused, dehydrated, and claiming he had been taken aboard a spacecraft — the investigation that followed subjected every witness to polygraph examination. They passed. Walton passed. The case was never conclusively resolved.

Fire in the Sky is the film version. Tonight Amanda and Mike examine what the film gets right, what it invents, and why the question at the center of this case — was he abducted or was he not — is more uncomfortable than either answer.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production.

LISTENER WARNING: This program includes discussion of real-world violence and other subject matter that may be upsetting for some listeners. Please proceed with caution.

Popular Topics Include: Travis Walton abduction, Fire in the Sky 1993, Snowflake Arizona UFO, alien abduction true story, UFO encounters 1975, polygraph alien abduction, alien abduction film, true crime horror podcast, Fear Archive, horror podcast, Violet Hour Media, UFO history

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black Christmas vs. Danny LaPlante is the episode that asks the question horror fans have never dared to ask out loud: did the film create the killer?

In 1974, Black Christmas changed horror forever — not with gore or monsters, but with a single chilling idea: the killer is already inside the house. Watching. Listening. Waiting.

In this episode of The Fear Archive, Amanda and Mike examine the real-life crimes of Danny LaPlante, a teenager who hid inside family homes for days at a time — rearranging objects, watching people sleep, and conducting what can only be described as psychological warfare. They break down LaPlante's crimes, the investigation that stopped him, and the deeply unsettling question of whether a 17-year-old boy ever watched Black Christmas and took notes.

There is no proof. But the parallels are impossible to ignore.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production.

LISTENER WARNING: This program includes discussion of real-world violence and other subject matter that may be upsetting for some listeners. Please proceed with caution.

Popular Topics Include: Black Christmas 1974, Black Christmas true story, Danny LaPlante, killer in the walls, home invasion horror, frogging true crime, horror film true story, Bob Clark, slasher film history, true crime horror podcast, Fear Archive, horror podcast, real stories behind horror movies, Amanda Kagiwada, Michael Ryan Assip, Violet Hour Media, was Danny LaPlante inspired by Black Christmas

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fear Archive investigates the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter — the most detailed and extensively documented alien creature sighting in American history — and the unlikely film it helped inspire.

On the night of August 21, 1955, the Sutton family and their friends at a farmhouse outside Hopkinsville, Kentucky, reported a siege by small, silver, glowing beings that appeared from the tree line and would not leave. They fired guns. The beings kept coming. By morning, eleven witnesses were shaken and consistent in their accounts. Police investigators found physical evidence. No one involved ever recanted.

Gremlins took the idea of small, malevolent creatures and made it funny. The Hopkinsville Goblins were not funny. Tonight Amanda and Mike examine what actually happened.

Hosted by Amanda Kagiwada and Michael Ryan Assip. Executive produced by Cassie Jozefov. A Violet Hour Media production.

LISTENER WARNING: This program includes discussion of real-world violence and other subject matter that may be upsetting for some listeners. Please proceed with caution.

Popular Topics Include: Hopkinsville Goblins, Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, 1955 UFO encounter, Kentucky alien sighting, Sutton family siege, Gremlins 1984, Joe Dante, alien creature encounter, true crime horror podcast, Fear Archive, horror podcast, Violet Hour Media, documented alien encounter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices