Archive 81 (Season 1)

Archive 81 (2022) is a supernatural thriller on Netflix — watch it online on iFILM. Based on the podcast of the same name, the series follows Dan Turner, an archivist hired to restore a collection of water-damaged VHS tapes from a 1994 apartment fire. Good money, isolated location, simple job. Or so he thinks.

The tapes belong to Melody Pendras, a documentarian who was filming the residents of a Manhattan building called the Visiga — and who disappeared the night of the fire. Mamoudou Athie plays Dan, Dina Shihabi plays Melody, and the show cuts between their two timelines without ever letting you get comfortable in either one. The building, its tenants and the cult lurking underneath all connect in ways that start as eerie and end somewhere far darker. Directors on the season include horror specialists Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, which explains why the dread builds so methodically.

Eight episodes, one season, an ending that leaves the door wide open — and then Netflix cancelled it, which only added to the cult following. If slow-burn mystery with occult underpinnings is your genre, stream Archive 81 online on iFILM.