Snow Day Binge: Archive 81

The perfect way to spend a snow day is to binge watch something good on Netflix. That’s exactly how I spent mine- watching Netflix’s new release Archive 81. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about this show until the week of its release. I absolutely love podcasts and this show is based on the hit podcast of the same name. It follows Dan, an archivist that takes a very strange job with a large payout restoring old video tapes that were destroyed in a fire. As he restores tape after tape, he realizes he was chosen to do this job for a reason and that his history is connected to Melody, the woman that recorded the tapes.

I absolutely love Mamoudou Athie and he stuns in this leading role. He is the perfect mix of awkward Black guy and endearing hero. We watch 8 episodes of Mamoudou as Dan, piecing together this mystery and also trying to figure out how his life is intertwined with this mystery that he is unraveling. The tapes center around Melody, a woman using an oral history project about the Visser apartment building as a front to find her long lost mother whose last known address was in this building. As Melody gets more involved in life at the building, she quickly learns that these residents are not who they appear to be and they are really in a cult that is trying to summon a demon. Chile, she had so many chances to escape. But she could not put aside her hunt to figure out her truth. We eventually learn that this was a trap to get her to the building and her mother was never there. In present time, Dan is now determined to save this woman. His own best friend let’s him know this is a foolish mission but Dan can’t stop. In the finale, we discover that saving Melody actually is an option and Dan has to now see it through. I am sure we all gasped when Dan finds Melody and she makes it back to present time and Dan gets sucked back to 1994. This is what happens when you can’t mind your own business honestly. Because now how will Dan make it back to 2022?! It is clear that Dan is truly in 1994, not the Otherworld, as he looks out of the window and sees the Twin Towers. Also, the fuzzy things of the Otherworld are gone.

I adore a good cliffhanger and Archive 81 did not disappoint. We absolutely have to have a season 2 because I refuse to accept Dan is forever stuck in 1994 after he was just trying to do a good deed! I plan to begin binge listening (is that a thing?) to the Archive 81 podcast and hope that Netflix delivers us a season 2 asap!

What are your thoughts about Archive 81? Drop your thoughts below!

Hulu's "The Body" Does Not Disappoint

I was so excited when I learned that Blumhouse and Hulu were teaming up to create Into the Dark. Into the Dark is a monthly anthology film series that will feature a new scary movie every month, for 12 months, based on a holiday that falls in that month. First up- “The Body.”

“The Body” tells the story of a hitman who has to transport a body in a short amount of time on Halloween night. Of course he blends in with the crowd and everyone thinks he has the coolest costume... until it gets real and they realize this is far from a Party City prop. 

I really enjoyed this film. It kept me intrigued with lots of action. Typically I do not care for a lot of gore in my horror movies but this one did not overdo it. Even though you are basically thrust into this story after the murder has taken place, you never feel lost or confused about what is going on. The story has comedic relief throughout provided by the random group of friends who are running from the killer all while trying to save the body and take it to the police for reward money they just imagine they’ll get (because SURPRISE- the dead body is a celebrity)

The ending was a very interesting plot twist that I kinda didn’t see coming. 

Watch on Hulu and give me your feedback below!