Archive 81 Review: Netflix’s Newest Horror Show Lacks in Scares and Originality
Netflix’s new horror show Archive 81 offers promising scares and intrigue across the board, but in its execution, it forgets the most important thing: the characters.
Based on the podcast of the same name, Archive 81 brings us along on a journey with Dan (Mamoudou Athie) as he recovers old cassette and VHS tapes that were lost in a building fire 25 years ago.
[Taps mic] Is This Thing On?
The subject of these tapes, Melody (Dina Shihabi), is doing her dissertation on the building she’s staying in, the Visser.
Along for the ride are Mark (Matt McGorry), Dan’s best friend, Anabelle (Julia Chan), Melody’s best friend, and Jess (Ariana Neal), a resident of the Visser who helps Melody with her project.
There are several other characters, but no matter how much time is spent lingering on their odd gazes, nothing in this story implies that we’re supposed to know anything about them other than surface-level details.
If we had been able to benefit from the background on the Visser characters by maybe learning more about Dan or even Mark, it would’ve fit.
Unfortunately, in the end, the background on these characters only seems to fit the cult placeholder role, instead of someone important to the audience, which is disappointing because the potential is there.
Build Up to Fall Down
Archive 81 Season 1 Episode 1, “Mystery Signals,” is a wonderful pilot episode. It’s confusing, which pulls you in, while also giving you enough of a glimpse into the show to find someone, or something, to care about.
Archive 81 consistently remains interesting in the vain of needing your questions to have answers, but once it’s discovered that a cult is the primary reason for the scares, it diminishes most of the fear instilled in you from “Mystery Signals.”
By the time you reach the end of Season 1 Episode 4, “Spirit Receivers” and Netflix queues up Archive 81 Season 1 Episode 5, “Through The Looking Glass,” you’re on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting what’s going to happen next.
Then, though, it’s a surprisingly fast downward spiral.
This isn’t to say that all media involving cults is bad, but there’s really only so much you can do with a demon sculpture and an ancient language.
Pacing is what Archive 81 struggles with most, next to not defining their characters. Either the episodes are passing by extremely quickly, or things move to a standstill, like when we reach Archive 81 Episode 7, “The Circle,” which takes us back in time to 1924.
While it was great to see Georgina Haig, almost this entire episode is dedicated to people we’ve only heard about in passing, who we’ll never hear from again. Frankly, it is a huge waste of time.
Then there’s so much is shoved into Archive 81 Season 1 Episode 8, “What Lies Beneath,” that it feels rushed.
We receive answers in the form of arguments, and as soon as we have an answer, another question arises.
I’ve always personally seen cult storylines as almost a cop-out for shows wanting to be unique, or new in their vision, and while Archive 81 is definitely not the worst I’ve ever seen, it’s no Hereditary.
An Empty Character Study
Archive 81 begins as if the story would surround Dan, and while it technically does, coming out of the show feels like we learned more about background characters at the Visser than we ever learned about Dan, which is saying something.
There are glimpses into his past, a previous ex-girlfriend, time spent in a mental facility, but it’s all chalked up to trauma from his family dying when he was young.
Which absolutely makes sense, but I want more.
Dan and Melody are relatively well-explored, but there are still holes in everyone else. The rest of the characters remain two-dimensional even if they’re present in every single episode.
Plus, if they’re going to spend so much time focusing on Melody, why don’t we talk about the fact that Melody was canonically a lesbian in the podcast, and they changed that in the show?
That’s All, Folks
The performances by the cast members are wonderful and not something to be overlooked, but I just wish they’d been given better material to work with.
Matt McGorry evokes the kind of emotion towards Dan you’d only see in a lifelong friend, and even when Athie can’t quite reciprocate, McGorry never falters. And, at only 17, Ariana Neal is a scene-stealer amongst anyone she shares the screen with.
Overall, where Archive 81 starts so well, so intriguing, it quickly slipped into an incoherent echo chamber of demons and “other worlds.”
It tells a story that, in the end, makes sense, but begs you to suspend your disbelief, and we can only suspend so much at this point.
Were Archive 81 branded as sci-fi or even fantasy, I would be less upset about it. But in branding itself a horror, I was promised to be treated to, you know, horror, and was only tricked as almost every jump scare and creepy moment lies in the trailer.
Stray Thoughts:
- What happened to Ratty? Should I update DoesTheDogDie dot com or not, Archive 81?
- As soon as I saw Samuel, I said he gave off the same vibes as Bo Burnham in Promising Young Woman, and it turns out, I was right.
- Give Mark Higgins his Mystery Signals spinoff.
- Virgil Davenport truly gaslight, gatekeep, girl-bossed his way through this series.
What did you think of Archive 81? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Archive 81 is available on Netflix.
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Laura Wanberg
Laura is a homebody who loves everything about TV. Some of her favorite shows include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Parks and Recreation, and The Morning Show. With her ever-growing list of new shows to watch and books to read, her favorite thing to do is to cuddle up with her cat and get lost in someone else's world.