Archive 81 Spins a Compelling Tale in First Trailer

Archive 81 looks set to thrill viewers this January.

Netflix on Wednesday unveiled the full-length trailer for the series that follows an archivist restoring a collection of damaged tapes from 1994.

There are thriller elements peppered throughout the trailer as the man tries to find out the truth about what really happened.

Here is the official description from Netflix:

Archive 81 follows archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), who takes a job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994.

Reconstructing the work of a documentary filmmaker named Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), he is drawn into her investigation of a dangerous cult at the Visser apartment building.

As the season unfolds across these two timelines, Dan slowly finds himself obsessed with uncovering what happened to Melody.

When the two characters form a mysterious connection, Dan becomes convinced he can save her from the terrifying end she met 25 years ago.

An original story loosely inspired by the popular podcast of the same name, Archive 81 is a supernatural thriller series executive produced by showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys, The Vampire Diaries), James Wan and Michael Clear of Atomic Monster (The Conjuring Universe film franchise and Malignant), Rebecca Thomas (Stranger Things, Limetown), Antoine Douaihy (Panic, The Good Cop), and Paul Harris Boardman (Deliver Us from Evil).

Netflix describes the show as supernatural, and they shared a quote from showrunner, EP, and writer Rebecca Sonnenshine.

“I'm obsessed with mystery box shows, the kind that lead us down a rabbit hole into a strange, dark world. Archive 81 is a character-driven, deeply emotional story about the nature of art, faith, and the search for identity -- all wrapped up in a frayed blanket of existential dread," Rebecca shared of the show. 

"The show also gave this film geek the chance to unearth all sorts of forgotten media formats as found footage, which results in a unique, visually-textured story that is both beautiful and terrifying.”

The cast includes Mamoudou Athie (Dan Turner), Dina Shihabi (Melody Pendras), Martin Donovan (Virgil Davenport), Matt McGorry (Mark Higgins), Julia Chan (Annabelle Cho), Evan Jonigkeit (Samuel), and Ariana Neal (Jess).

Check out the full-length trailer below.

Do you think it looks like a lot of fun?

Hit the comments.

Archive 81 premieres on January 14 on Netflix.

Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.