Archive 81 (podcast)

Last updated

Archive 81
Archive 81 podcast.png
Presentation
Genre
LanguageEnglish
Length15–30 Minutes
Production
Audio format
  • Radio drama
  • Scripted fiction podcast
  • Found-footage podcast
No. of seasons3 [1]
No. of episodes35
Publication
Original releaseApril 16, 2016-June 5, 2019
ProviderDead Signals
Related
Related shows
Adaptations Archive 81 (2022)
Website www.archive81.com

Archive 81 is a horror podcast created by Daniel Powell and Marc Sollinger. Presented as found footage, it follows Dan (voiced by Powell), an archivist tasked with restoring the audio recordings of a young woman named Melody Pendras (Amelia Kidd) during her stay in an ancient building. [5]

Contents

The series premiered April 16, 2016, with its third and final season concluding on October 5, 2018. Each season consisted of ten episodes, although the series also consists of two miniseries, the two-episode The Golden Age released in 2017 between seasons 2 and 3, and the three-episode Left of the Dial released in 2019 after the conclusion of the main show. A television adaptation of the same name premiered on Netflix in January 2022.

Synopsis

The show follows the story of an audio archivist named Dan, who has recently been hired for a job that involves reviewing and cataloguing a set of old audio tapes. [4] The contract is for a group called the Housing Historical Committee of New York State and involves working at a remote and isolated bunker in the middle of the woods. [6] [7] Throughout his time on the job, Dan is contacted by his boss who insists that Dan must continuously record himself for archival and legal purposes. [7] The audio tapes that Dan is listening to are over two decades old and contain interviews conducted by someone named Melody Pendras. [3]

In the 1990s, Melody Pendras was doing interviews with residents of an old and mysterious Manhattan apartment building called the Eldritch Visser building. [8] [4] The interviews are with strange and eccentric residents of the building and often include references to a terrible and unnerving song that has affected the people living in the building. [3] Throughout the first season, Dan attempts to make sense of the tapes and becomes increasingly rattled by the unsettling interviews carried out by Pendras. [7] [1] Pendras has a female partner named Alexa who is briefly introduced, but otherwise the tapes consist only of her interviews with other residents. [8]

At the end of the first tape, Dan's best friend Mark reveals that he received these recordings from Dan in the mail and that Dan has been missing since January 2016. [3] Mark is trying to figure out what happened to Dan by slowly releasing the audio to the public as a series of podcast episodes. [9] [1]

The second season follows Dan as he explores a different world. [7]

The show contains a three-part miniseries called Left of the Dial, which began with an episode entitled "The Passenger". The miniseries follows the story of two characters named Nicholas and Static Man as they go on a road trip to a place called "the Blacktop". [10]

Background and production

Daniel Powell began recording radio shows at a young age using the family computer and Windows 95. [11] Powell graduated from Darlington School and began his career in sound engineering. [12] Powell was working from home in isolation, reviewing and archiving sound effects from an audio library for a company called Sound snap, when he and his friend Marc Sollinger came up with the idea for Archive 81. [3] Sollinger worked as an associate producer on a radio program called Innovation Hub , which had support and funding from WGBH and Public Radio Exchange. [3] Archive 81 did not have the same support and funding as Innovation Hub because it was produced independently, which meant that the first season was written, performed, recorded, and edited by themselves in a friend's bedroom. [3] [13]

The second season was released in January 2017. [8] A month later, a mini-series titled The Golden Age was released, which uses the old school radio drama style production. [14]

Characters

Main

Recurring

List of episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1 10April 5, 2016 (2016-04-05)August 9, 2016 (2016-08-09)
2 10January 18, 2017 (2017-01-18)May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24)
The Golden Age 2June 7, 2017 (2017-06-07)June 21, 2017 (2017-06-21)
3 10May 16, 2018 (2018-05-16)October 5, 2018 (2018-10-05)
Left of the Dial 3May 1, 2019 (2019-05-01)June 5, 2019 (2019-06-05)

Season 1

The first season chronicles Dan's time in the bunker, which was recorded for legal purposes and due to the insistence of Mr. Davenport, the man who hired him to catalog and restore audio tapes from archive 81 of the Housing Historical Committee of New York State's tape library. Each episode ends with a note from Mark, Dan's friend, who has released the tapes to the public in an effort to find Dan, who has mysteriously disappeared.

No.TitleRunning timeOriginal release date
01"A Body In A New Place"16:46April 5, 2016 (2016-04-05)
02"A Night At An Opera"14:47April 19, 2016 (2016-04-19)
03"A Story In Cycles"16:52May 3, 2016 (2016-05-03)
04"A Collection of Disparate Strangeness"17:58May 17, 2016 (2016-05-17)
05"A Spider in a Web"16:28May 31, 2016 (2016-05-31)
06"A Conversation Without Record"14:17June 14, 2016 (2016-06-14)
07"A Face in a Crowd"15:44June 28, 2016 (2016-06-28)
08"A Chemical Experiment"18:35July 12, 2016 (2016-07-12)
09"An Implosion of an Idea"15:34July 26, 2016 (2016-07-26)
10"The Ending, Perhaps"15:07August 9, 2016 (2016-08-09)

Season 2

The story focuses on Dan as he is transported to another world called The City. Each episode begins and ends with a note from a creature named Dromen.

No.TitleRunning timeOriginal release date
11"Body, Recorder"38:38January 18, 2017 (2017-01-18)
12"Fly, Honeypot"41:51February 1, 2017 (2017-02-01)
13"Song, Doorway"33:39February 15, 2017 (2017-02-15)
14"Water, Leviathan"36:46March 1, 2017 (2017-03-01)
15"Aurora, Cello"43:15March 15, 2017 (2017-03-15)
16"Vines, Contest"43:31April 2, 2017 (2017-04-02)
17"Reflection, Retaliation"30:10April 12, 2017 (2017-04-12)
18"Collection, Composition"34:09April 26, 2017 (2017-04-26)
19"Escape, Birth"29:22May 10, 2017 (2017-05-10)
20"Portal, Ending"35:55May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24)

The Golden Age

No.TitleRunning timeOriginal release date
21"The Golden Age, Part 1"27:44June 7, 2017 (2017-06-07)
22"The Golden Age, Part 2"31:52June 21, 2017 (2017-06-21)

Season 3

No.TitleRunning timeOriginal release date
23"Anoint his forehead with rabbit's blood"38:38May 16, 2018 (2018-05-16)
24"Sleep on a pillow of swanfeathers"29:35May 30, 2018 (2018-05-30)
25"Sacrifice three bunnies on the stump of an oak tree to stop moderate to severe throat irritation"29:51June 13, 2018 (2018-06-13)
26"And a knife both of you have used to cut meat"37:13June 27, 2018 (2018-06-27)
27"Mix the crushed lead with three drops of your own blood"36:16July 11, 2018 (2018-07-11)
28"Exist in the place you are currently occupying"1:02:19August 1, 2018 (2018-08-01)
29"A secret that will make the other think less of you"41:01August 8, 2018 (2018-08-08)
30"Lay a tarp upon the ground"38:53August 22, 2018 (2018-08-22)
31"Whatever is in the pond...kill it"36:07September 5, 2018 (2018-09-05)
32"Are we going to have a problem here?"36:17September 19, 2018 (2018-09-19)

Left of the Dial

No.TitleRunning timeOriginal release date
33"The Passenger"43:24May 1, 2019 (2019-05-01)
34"Trucker's Atlas"1:01:14May 15, 2019 (2019-05-15)
35"When The Open Road Is Closing In"1:10:37June 5, 2019 (2019-06-05)

Influences

Powell and Sollinger view Orson Welles' radio drama The War of the Worlds as an inspiration and influence for their work on Archive 81. [3] The show has influences from the soft horror and paranormal horror popularized by 90s television series such as Twin Peaks and The X Files. [4] The show also has similarities to a Roberto Bolaño novel and contains references to David Cronenberg's film Videodrome . [15] [13] The show also has similarities to the urban horror themes present in series such as Candyman . [7]

The show has been described as a radio drama, [6] found-footage podcast, [1] and a fictional scripted investigative journalism podcast. [16] The show uses themes of conspiracy theories. [17] The show is a mix of horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. [14]

While not playing in the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, there are clear connections to some of Lovecraft's works, such as The Call of Cthulhu or Beyond the Mountains of Madness. For example, there is a reference to a woman with gills, which would be a Deep One in Lovecraft's world or to "Non-Euclidean geometry".

Reception

The show was recommended by Cassandra Baim at The Guardian , saying that "the show will suck you in from the very first episode and leave you with new questions and theories after each listen." [6]

The first season was ten episodes long and reached #25 on the iTunes Chart. [3]

TV adaptation

The podcast was adapted into television for Netflix by Rebecca Sonnenshine and Paul Harris Boardman. [18] The show debuted on January 14, 2022, and stars Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi, and Matt McGorry. [19] The television series was loosely based on the same story. [20] [21] In the podcast Dan is only archiving audiotapes, but in the television series he is restoring videotapes. [22]

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