Netflix has pulled the plug on another TV series. Archive 81, a slow-cooked horror drama series, has been cancelled after only one season by the streaming service.
The news was broken by Deadline, who speculate that although Archive 81 scored well on Netflix‘s public ratings in January, the audience wasn’t enough compared to the overall cost of the project. Based on a podcast of the same name, Archive 81 follows Daniel Turner, an archivist who takes a gig retrieving footage from a set of damaged camcorder tapes.
Watching it all back, he discovers it’s the dissertation of Melody, a college student in 1994 who investigates bizarre happenings around a particular apartment building. As her studies get deeper, weirder and weirder things start to happen around her, and Daniel’s infatuation grows stronger and stronger. Eventually it becomes apparent he’s becoming embroiled in something very strange indeed, leading to a massive late-season twist that puts everything on its head. No spoilers, but there’s clearly plenty of ground left for the creative team to cover.
Now, unfortunately, it seems we won’t get to know what happens. Creator Rebecca Sonnenshine responded to the unfortunate news on Twitter.
“Thank you so much to everyone who watched Archive 81. Thank you to the reviewers who were so kind and thoughtful,” she wrote. “We’re surprised and disappointed that we won’t be doing another season (we had cool new stories/found footage/Kaelego-lore planned). I hope you’ll remember us well!”
You can watch Archive 81 on Netflix – check out the best Netflix horror movies for more spooky recommendations.