Netflix viewers hail gripping miniseries the best horror show around as they fume over second season outcome
"Such a refreshing original story"
Horror can be a difficult genre to nail, though the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz may lead you to believe otherwise.
But there's one Netflix thriller that's considered among the best horror series fans have ever seen.
Maybe you've already blazed your way through this Stephen King-recommended nail-biter or this '10/10' sci-fi miniseries.
If you have, then add this 'mysterious, bizarre' eight-parter to your watch-list.
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It stars Kinds of Kindness' Mamoudou Athie as Dan Turner, an archivist and video restoration expert hired by an elusive company called LMG to restore a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994.
The tapes were recorded by a filmmaker named Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), who was documenting life in perculiar New York apartment complex, the Visser Building.
As Dan restores the footage, he becomes increasingly obsessed with Melody and begins uncovering disturbing connections between the building, a cult and, shockingly, his own past.
The TV series is called Archive 81, and is based on the 2016 hit podcast of the same name, created by Marc Sollinger and Daniel Powell.
Stranger Things' Rebecca Thomas called the shots on the majority of episodes, while The Housemaid's Rebecca Sonnenshine served as executive producer.
Archive 81 released to Netflix on January 14, 2022, garnering critical acclaim.
You can watch the trailer here:
In its first 16 days, it was viewed for a staggering 128.5 million hours globally. It even topped Netflix's TV charts briefly, only to be dethroned by Ozark.
Yet just two months later, the streamer delivered bad news; it had pulled the plug on the beloved series.
Deadline hypothesized that perhaps Archive 81's viewing figures didn't meet the threshold for Netflix to renew it based on its budget.
And it's something, understandably, passionate fans are still bitter about.
Over on Rotten Tomatoes - where viewers rated it 75 percent compared to critics' 87 percent - people are still in despair over its cancelation.
"One of the best series I've seen," one fan penned. "Great cast and story line. Definitely wish there was another season."
A second agreed: "I’ll never understand why this was canceled. The story and acting were top notch. Such a refreshing original story."
A third summed the series up as: "Mysterious, dark, engaging and bizarre," while a fourth wrote: "An extremely well crafted horror thriller.
"Great performances and a suspense laden story-line that keeps you tuning in for more."
Archive 81 is available to stream now on Netflix.
Topics: Netflix, Horror, Film and TV
Ellie Kemp