Why everyone is talking about Archive 81

To be honest, I scrolled past this series for a while. It was always prominently at the top of my Netflix account, but I didn't find it particularly appealing. Until I accidentally read a bit more about it online and thought: wait a minute, this is right up my alley. And if you love horror and suspense, then it's definitely something for you.

Archive 81 is finally a series that fits into the ‘horror’ category. Quite strange actually, that there are so few horror series, let alone that they are actually good. Who knows, Archive 81 might just set a real trend: fingers crossed. The creators are big names: Rebecca Sonnenshine is the showrunner, known from The Boys and The Vampire Diaries. For Archive 81, she managed to get James Wan on board, who is the director of Saw and The Conjuring. Can't go wrong, right?

Okay, then the plot. We follow restoration expert Dan Turner, who receives a job offer from a wealthy man named Virgil Davenport. This new job involves restoring a series of damaged videotapes from the 90s. Because these tapes are so fragile, this can only be done in the isolated compound of this Virgil. What's on those tapes? An investigation by documentary maker Melody Pendras into a bizarre cult.

The more tapes Dan listens to, the more obsessed he becomes with this cult and the more convinced he is that he can save Melody. I find everything about creepy cults fascinating anyway, so I really don't understand why I didn't binge this right away.

Netflix recommends not watching it before bed, but they say that about so many series and movies. However, in this case, I seriously get it. At times, it's very grim.

Image: Netflix