If you finished the eight episodes of Dan Turner and Melody Pendras and felt that hollow, "what now?" pit in your stomach, you aren't alone. Archive 81 was a freak occurrence. It managed to blend 90s analog nostalgia, found footage, and full-blown Lovecraftian cult horror without feeling like a cheap gimmick. Then, Netflix swung the axe. Canceling it after that cliffhanger felt like a personal insult to anyone who spent hours wondering what Kaelego actually wanted.
Finding shows like Archive 81 is actually harder than it looks. You aren't just looking for "scary." You're looking for that specific, brain-melting sensation where reality starts to peel at the corners. It's about liminal spaces, weird media, and mysteries that go back decades.
Why We’re Still Obsessed with the Visser Building Vibe
Most horror relies on jump scares. Archive 81 relied on a heavy, wet blanket of dread. It tapped into "analog horror," a subgenre that uses grainy VHS tapes and distorted audio to make you feel like you're seeing something you shouldn't.
Honestly, the cancellation boiled down to cold, hard math. Despite solid reviews, the "viewership vs. budget" ratio didn't hit Netflix's arbitrary internal benchmarks. Scripts for Season 2 were literally being written when the plug was pulled. It sucks. But since we aren't getting more of Dan in the 90s, we have to look elsewhere for our fix of cults and cosmic entities.
1. Brand New Cherry Flavor (Netflix)
This is the closest cousin to Archive 81 you’ll find on the same platform. Set in 1990s Los Angeles, it follows Lisa Nova, a young filmmaker who gets screwed over by a sleazy producer and turns to a literal witch for revenge.
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It’s got that same "period piece horror" energy.
The 90s setting isn't just window dressing; it's baked into the grainy cinematography and the way people interact with physical media. While Archive 81 feels like a cold, damp basement, Brand New Cherry Flavor feels like a neon-soaked fever dream. There are kittens. There are curses. It gets weird. Like, "vomiting up a cat" weird. If you liked the body horror elements and the sense of a hidden supernatural underworld in LA, this is your next binge.
2. Dark (Netflix)
If the time-traveling, "everything is connected" aspect of the Visser building mystery was your favorite part, you need to watch Dark. It’s a German series that starts with a missing child and ends with... well, the collapse of time and space.
Don't use the English dub. Seriously, don't. The original German acting is world-class, and the dubbing ruins the atmospheric tension. This show is a puzzle. You’ll probably need a notebook to keep track of who is whose grandmother (it gets complicated). It shares that sense of an ancient, inevitable conspiracy that Archive 81 hinted at with its blood rituals and celestial alignments.
3. The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Okay, this isn't a TV show. But hear me out. Archive 81 was originally a podcast, and The Magnus Archives is basically the gold standard of that format.
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It’s about an archivist (Jonathan Sims) who is tasked with digitizing a collection of supernatural statements. At first, it’s an "anthology of the week" style. You hear about a creepy guy in an alley or a weird book. But slowly—very slowly—the threads start to weave together. You realize the Archivist is part of something much bigger and much hungrier. If you loved the "audio/visual restoration" aspect of Dan’s job, this is the sonic equivalent.
4. Channel Zero (Shudder)
This is the most underrated horror show of the last decade. Each season adapts a different "Creepypasta" (internet urban legend).
- Season 1 (Candle Cove): About a creepy puppet show that only children can see.
- Season 2 (No-End House): A haunted house where each room gets progressively more psychological and deadly.
- Season 3 (Butcher’s Block): Weird cults and cosmic staircases in the middle of a park.
- Season 4 (The Dream Door): A literal door appears in a basement that shouldn't be there.
It captures that "liminal space" feeling perfectly. You know that feeling when you're in an empty mall or a quiet hotel hallway and it feels like the world ended? That’s Channel Zero. It’s surreal and deeply unsettling in a way that fans of the Visser building’s architecture will recognize immediately.
5. 1899 (Netflix)
From the creators of Dark, this show was also tragically canceled after one season, but it is a masterclass in "mystery box" storytelling. It takes place on a migrant steamship traveling from London to New York.
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Then, things go sideways.
The ship finds another vessel that's been missing for months. There are triangles everywhere (a symbol Archive 81 fans will find familiar), hidden hatches, and a heavy layer of "is this even real?" over everything. It’s a slow burn, but the production value is insane.
The "Analog Horror" Rabbit Hole
If you specifically liked the tapes, you should look into the V/H/S film franchise. It’s an anthology series where the framing device is always someone finding a collection of cursed tapes. Some segments are better than others, but they pioneered that "found footage" aesthetic that made the 1994 footage in Archive 81 so effective.
What about The Outsider?
HBO’s The Outsider (based on the Stephen King novel) is another solid pick. It’s more of a police procedural at the start, but it eventually morphs into a hunt for a shapeshifting ancient entity. It has that same "grounded reality meets impossible horror" vibe. Ben Mendelsohn plays a detective who simply cannot wrap his head around the supernatural, much like Dan trying to apply logic to the Visser tapes.
Essential Watchlist for Archive 81 Fans
| Show/Movie | Where to Watch | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Ares | Netflix | Secret societies and Dutch cult horror. |
| Midnight Mass | Netflix | Religious fanaticism and a "slow-drip" supernatural reveal. |
| The Empty Man | Disney+/Hulu | A movie about a cult that feels exactly like the Visser cult. |
| Beyond the Walls | Shudder | A woman inherits a house with infinite, shifting rooms. |
| Yellowjackets | Paramount+/Showtime | Two timelines, a mysterious symbol, and survival horror. |
Actionable Next Steps for the Disenchanted Fan
If you’re still grieving the loss of Season 2, here is how you can actually get closure:
- Listen to the Archive 81 Podcast: The show is based on a scripted fiction podcast. The plot diverges heavily after the first season, taking the story into much weirder, more high-concept sci-fi and fantasy territory. It provides the "more" that Netflix refused to give us.
- Explore the "Old Gods of Appalachia" Podcast: If the cult and ritual magic were your favorite parts, this narrated anthology is phenomenal.
- Check out "Cigarette Burns": This is an episode of the Masters of Horror series directed by John Carpenter. It’s about a man searching for a "lost" film that drives people insane. It is essentially a condensed version of the Archive 81 pilot.
The reality is that shows like Archive 81 don't come around often because they're expensive to make and hard to market. But the "weird fiction" genre is alive and well if you know where to look. Start with Brand New Cherry Flavor for the 90s vibes, then move to Channel Zero for the pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.