The Circle is a fictional film inside of Netflix's Archive 81 — but just what was its purpose, and why was it so important? The found-footage horror series — based on the eponymous podcast — follows video archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), as he unravels the secrets of a century-old cult through the videotapes of Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi). The Circle is just one component of the mystery Dan uncovers. Here's a breakdown of why one scary movie is so important to the Vos Society.
Archive 81 makes many references to major movies, but The Circle is easily the most important of them all. The Circle is introduced in the first episode of Archive 81 when Dan gets his hands on one of the few surviving copies. The movie — made back in 1958 by director William Crest — never made it to air, fading into obscurity and legend. Even a video archivist like Dan Turner struggled to get his hands on it — but no one was as desperate to get their hands on it as the mysterious Vos Society. At first glance, The Circle seems like nothing more than an old scary movie about a cult— and really, it is — but there is much, much more behind it.
Archive 81's Vos Society has no interest in The Circle itself, but the snuff film that inspired it. In Archive 81 season 1 episode 4, "Spirit Receivers," Crest's daughter and Melody's fellow tenant at the Visser, Evie Crest, explains that her father made the film after witnessing a genuine snuff film while at a bachelor party. More importantly, the snuff film that Crest had seen was a real recording of a human sacrifice made by the Vos Society in their first attempt to bring the half-god half-demon, Kaelego, into our world. The film shows Iris Vos, the once-matriarch of the Vos Society, as she slit the throat of her maid, Rose, during the ceremony that was meant to unite the worlds. Though that ceremony failed, the footage would become very important when the cult made its next attempt in 1994.
Because of the nature of the source material, The Vos Society in Archive 81 are clearly desperate to get their hands on it — they even perform a séance in order to talk to William Crest and ascertain its location. That's because the snuff film helps their cause in two ways: the film provides instructions to a ritual that hasn't happened since 1924, but it also thins the veil between the real world and the Otherworld. Bobbi, Melody's mother and fellow Baldung, reveals that playing the film undoes the spell that keeps the door between the two worlds closed. By playing the footage, there is a chance that they would be able to open the door without the magic of a Baldung. Desperate to complete the ceremony during their window of opportunity, the footage would have been a key component. Yet, because they lacked the Baldung key, the ceremony still failed.
The footage did eventually serve its purpose, however, as it allowed Archive 81's Dan to enter the Otherworld and bring Melody home. There are many small pieces of lore in Archive 81 that are eventually tied together, and The Circle initially appears to be nothing more than a small piece of the Archive 81 universe. Yet, an unassuming scrap of footage from 100 years ago becomes a vital part of saving Melody's life — and, possibly, preventing Kaelego from entering the real world.