Mystery Signals – The story begins with a woman breathing hysterically, pleading for help. The woman can be heard yelling at someone to get off her.

A street vendor (Malachi Nimmons) is selling VHS tapes when Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) approaches. Dan reminds him, he sold a t-ball tournament tape. He recommends investing in a VCR, so he has a better idea of what content he is selling. Dan purchases a VHS label, with smeared writing that appears to begin with the letter “k”. He seems concerned with the vendor tells him Jill stopped by for some books. Dan enters the 23^rd Street station on the New York City subway, instead of heading in the same direction as Jill.

He visits a local shop, where the owner offers to sell him protectors and a 1940 “Flash Gordon.” He will relay the information to the museum.

He arrives at the Museum of the Moving Image. Evie Cress alerts Dan of a package scheduled to arrive at the museum today. The package contains an old film reel. Dan gently cleans the film before playing it. Agnes (Rosie Koster) asks about the film. He explains it is “The Circle,” a 1958 horror film, which was reported missing after the death of William Crest. Agnus says Crest was linked the Robin Crusoe and Brenda Joyce. Evie discovered the film along with some other tapes buried on Crest’s estate. She suggests the museum may be interested. He plans to give the film back to Evie.

Agnes gives him a confidential message, with a cassette tape from Karen (Anaya Farrell). She wants the tape restored but not copied by morning. The tape is in poor condition.

He pops the repaired tape in the cassette player. Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi) appears on the screen. Melody, a social anthropologist at NYU, is scheduled to research the Visser Apartment Building in New York City. The research is geared toward the cultural shifts in the 20^th century. Her best friend, Annabelle (Julia Chan) records Melody on a camcorder. The Visser building was destroyed by a fire, killing the tenants, with 13 still missing.

Dan attends a live session of Mystery Signals by Mark Higgins (Matt McGorry). Mark tells Dan a tale about a woman going crazy after she got engaged. He believes the engagement ring was haunted. Dan shrugs it off and leaves.

Karen tells him the donor appreciates his work on the damaged cassette tape. She gives him a business card for Virgil Davenport (Martin Donovan) and says he want to meet you today. Dan meets Virgil who offers to pay him $100K to restore tapes from the Visser Apartment fire. He would be required to stay at a remote location to work on the tapes. When Virgil mentions his family dying in a house fire, Dan rushes out. He calls Mark to tell him about Virgil’s comment about the house fire. It is not public information. Young Dan Young (Trayce Malachi) walks through the woods with his dog, Cleo. When he returns home, the house is on fire.

Dan wakes up to a police siren. He replays the tape from the Visser fire. This time, he sees an image of Melody and what looks like his dog. He compares the dog in the photo with a dog in his family photo. He tells Mark the dog in the photo is his because he remembers buying the collar. There is no evidence, Melody died in the Visser fire. There is no information about Melody on the Internet. A paid people search rendered two women with the same name, one is a 98-year-old Orlando lady and a librarian who died in 1923. Mark offers to hook him up with someone. He believes it is a sign to take the job, repairing the Visser fire tapes. There is no public information about LMG. Mark says Virgil may be building a “death star.”

Virgil and Dan drive up to the remote research facility. Dan is disturbed when Virgil mentions his family’s house fire. He claims to have retained the information through a background check. He shows him the main facility before escorting him to the rec room. The only access to the outside world is a landline. The archive is about 20 damaged cassette tapes and Melody’s camcorder. Before Virgil leaves, he gives Dan an emergency call button. Dan jokes, asking if they want stool, urine, or blood samples.

Dan inspects the damaged camcorder and grabs a tape from the archive. He tries to gain access to a room filled with tapes. He repairs the tape and pops it in the cassette player. Melody appears on the screen in front of the Visser building on March 11, 1994. The architect who is unknown built the building between 1932 and 1934 from a ruined mansion. She points the camcorder to a strange architectural design on the front of the building. She is startled when John Smith (Eden Marryshow) suddenly opens the door and calls her name. He escorts her through the building to her room and gives her keys to the building and front door. She asks if Julia Bennett is a tenant in the building. He refuses to answer and suggests staying away from the 6^th floor. She provides footage of her apartment and wishes herself good luck. A strange noise wakes her in the middle of the night. The faint chanting is coming from a radiator. Dan increases the volume to listen to the chanting. She says hello several times. He is started by a loud sound.

At 9:04 am the next morning, Melody prepares to knock on the tenants’ door. No one answers. Jessica “Jess” Lewis (Ariana Neal) delivers something to one of the tenants. Melody convinces her to introduce her to the tenants for $25 a week. Her first tenant is Tamara Stefano (Kate Eastman), a composer from Rome. She denies being home last night when Melody was awakened by the faint chanting. She provides her with a demo of her work called “Purgatory.” Melody finds the music disturbing. Tamara points to a strange mask that the performers wear during the human suffering performance. When Tamara answers the room, Melody panics, clutching her stomach, and falls to the floor. Jess asks if she is okay. The tape ends.

Dan calls Mark to asks if he would research Tamara Stefano, but he isn’t home. He hears static interference on the phone. He takes his cellphone out for a run to look for a cellular signal with no luck. He returns to the research building and tries several doors that are locked. He talks to Virgil as he puts his belongings away. He recommends getting adequate sleep. Dan watches a video and returns his dish to the kitchen when he encounters a rat on the countertop. He sets rattraps throughout the building. He has a flashback of walking through the woods and playing the piano with his sister, Emily Turner (Jaxon Rose Moore). His father, Steven Turner (Charlie Hudson III) demands to know what he is playing, and he wakes up to squeaking noise. He searches the building and finds a rat trapped in one of the mousetraps. He places the rat in a box and agrees to let him stay until his tail heals.

Melody interviews Jess who is a 9^th grader. She was born in the Visser and asks Melody if it is bad luck. She says no. Jess turns the camcorder on Melody and asks why she wants to research the Visser. She tells her about the mansion that burned down in the 20s. Visser was built on top of the remains. Jess is disturbed to think people died in the mansion. She just wants to know why people come to the building. Jess says they are drawn to it. Melody seems disturbed when Jess asks her if Samuel told her about the Visser. She denies knowing Samuel. Something seems to be controlling Jess’s body. She pushes her chair backward while staring into space. She jumps out of her chair, starts gasping for air, and falls to the floor. Melody’s yells for help are muddled on the video. A strange creature can be seen in the video, startling Dan.

Dan finds a cellular signal and calls Mark. He changes his mind about disclosing the creature in Melody’s recording. There is no information about Tamara Stefano. Dans tells him to look up information on LMG and Melody. He marks the area with a piece of twine or rope when he hears a cracking noise. Someone in a red jacket can be seen hiding behind a tree. He turns around but doesn’t see anything.

He has a flashback of playing the piano and his dad asking about the song. He doesn’t know. He orders him to stop playing it and take Cleo for a walk. Emily smiles at him. He walks Cleo in the woods. The house is on fire when he returns home. He screams for his mother and father.

Dan removes the tape to find the film unraveled. He repairs the tape and tells the rat they are friends now. If he saw something, he would tell him. He puts the tape back into the cassette player. Jess is having a seizure on the floor. She drinks water and asks for some Mt. Dew. She refuses Melody’s offer to contact her mother. A doctor at a local clinic says there is nothing physically wrong with her. She goes for spiritual guidance therapy at St. Albert’s. She never remembers anything from the seizures. Melody questions who’s Samuel. Jess asks if she thinks there is another world like the one, we live in, but different. Her classmates call her a freak. Melody says her classmates called her a freak as well. Jess questions if she is strong enough to hold a world inside of her. She grabs Melody’s hand and asks if she can confide in her about something when the tape goes static.

Frightened Melody appears on the screen, saying someone took Jess. John reminds her the 6^th floor is off-limits. She demands to know what happened to Jess. She runs away from John and into Samuel (Evan Jonigkeit). He says Jess is gone. Two men in uniforms order her to go with them. She pleads for someone to find her when Dan’s dad, Steven appears on the screen. She says what are you doing here. Dan trips out and asks what is happening as Melody continues to yell for help. Virgil watches the footage from several cameras as Dan panics when the episode comes to an end.

 

Archive 81 Review

The pilot episode is intriguing enough to entice viewers to stay tuned to the next episode. The majority of the show was filmed in Allegany County, Pennsylvania and New York City. It is questionable why the Visser building needed to be littered with trash. NYC has a trash problem, but why integrate this issue into the film? To give the show more realism? It didn’t work, the trash was the focal point right up till the satanic architecture. Does NYC sanitation clean up before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? You do no see any trash in the background of the news footage.

Is Mamoudou Athie the ideal fit for the role of Dan Turner? Dina Shihabi’s acting is spot-on. You can see the fear in her face, makes you want to run and hide under your bed from the boogeyman.

The episode deserves 7. Get more Archive 81 recaps here. If you like what the ReelMockery team does, click here to support our work.