The Midnight Club

Think of this as a gateway drug for potential new horror fans, young people thinking about death in a new way for maybe the first time.

It must have been daunting to consider adapting a book about kids telling stories without adding all kinds of other material, but the stuff about a former patient who may have lived and cult members in the woods is the least compelling here. It's also interesting to learn that most of Ilonka’s adventures at Brightcliffe are the creation of Flanagan and Fong and not from the source. [Igby Rigney](/cast-and-crew/igby-rigney)), a potential love interest who tells a multi-episode story about a serial killer that gives the show some of its most striking imagery and Anya ( [Ruth Codd](/cast-and-crew/ruth-codd)), Ilonka’s bitter but fierce roommate. They’re forced to come to terms with the impossible—that all of their dreams will end early. Foundationally, the show becomes about how and why we tell stories to process the real world. Think of this as a gateway drug for potential new horror fans, young people thinking about death in a new way for maybe the first time.

Mike Flanagan's fourth Netflix horror series, an adaptation of a Christopher Pike novel, introduces us to a group of terminally ill young adults in the ...

But on a deeper level, it works as a statement of purpose for The Midnight Club. And in her final days, she said she felt a shadow approaching her — perhaps the same shadow we see in the final moments of the episode, drifting down the hallway after Ilonka. She tells the mostly true tale of Julia Jayne, the girl whose tumors miraculously shrunk and disappeared after she vanished for a week while at Brightcliffe. On a meta level, The Midnight Club seems to be Flanagan’s way of commenting on horror tropes. (The second sentence on his Wikipedia page even identifies a “lack of reliance on jump scares.”) You get the sense that he’s articulating his own philosophy of horror through the characters, like when Spence interrupts Natsuki’s story to chide her, “Anyone can bang pots and pans behind someone’s head. After Ilonka and Tim arrive at Brightcliffe, “The Final Chapter” spends most of its time familiarizing us with the basic history of the place and introducing us to its current inhabitants. Anya’s memories of Rachel, her roommate before Ilonka, tease a deeper lore we’ll undoubtedly explore in future episodes; Rachel was fascinated by the occult toward the end of her life, even leaving a pentagram drawing on the floor beneath the bed that now belongs to Ilonka. Unwilling to accept that this could really be the last year of her life, Ilonka combs the web for stories of people who survived thyroid cancer. And there’s no sign of improvement: The tumors in her lungs didn’t respond to chemo and she’s officially terminal. She’s a bookworm and rule follower, but she’s excited to break out of her comfort zone upon graduation. The Midnight Club, adapted from a novel by Christopher Pike, looks to both maintain that sincerity and add an edge of self-awareness. And while it looks to be telling an ongoing serialized story about a particular set of characters, it comes with an anthology-series hook that will allow it to tell fun episodic side stories.

Mike Flanagan's latest Netflix series "The Midnight Club" takes place at a teen hospice.

But even this adult admired “The Midnight Club” as a relatively complete example of the best of Flanagan’s approach throughout his Netflix work — using horror as a way to probe the worst things that might happen to somebody, arriving at a place of curiosity and compassion about grief and loss. (And, more so than on “Stranger Things,” adults are a glancing and occasional presence, with Heather Langenkamp and Zach Gilford playing, respectively, the founding doctor and the nurse practitioner of the hospice.) Ilonka is both a star student and an idealist; she researches Brightcliffe, a facility to which her foster father can take her to be placed into hospice, and holds in reserve a secret hope that there will, there, be a miracle cure for her.

Mike Flanagan typically shies away from jump scares in his horror, but he's breaking all the rules with Netflix's "The Midnight Club." The premiere.

[Kuso](https://bloody-disgusting.com/tag/kuso/) and is in prep on the sci-fi horror film Ash. Also on the plate is the official trailer for V/H/S/99, which is coming exclusively to Shudder on October 20, 2022! Flanagan is adapting Pike’s tales alongside Fong (“Once Upon a Time”), and Flanagan directed some of the episodes. What he caught on tape will have you questioning the saying, “just let kids be kids.” [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2022/10/the-midnight-club-now-guiness-world-records-holder-1235137919/) in a statement, ““I thought, ‘We’re going to do all of them at once, and then if we do it right, a jump scare will be rendered meaningless for the rest of the series.’ It’ll just destroy it. Flanagan and his creative team were presented with a certificate by a Guinness representative for the accomplishment.

Mike Flanagan's YA horror series grapples with how a life, or a story, comes to an end.

Such a setup alone would make for an enthralling YA horror anthology, what with many a tale riffing on everything from Black Swan to The Terminator and wrestling with what it means to let go of those you love and those you wish would in the trappings of self-contained vignettes. On the one hand, this is a serialized story about a group of teenagers grappling with death. (To some of us ’90s kids, the setup will evoke Are You Afraid Of The Dark, even as the themes and gore of some of these late-night larks are decidedly more R-rated—and plenty scarier!—than that classic Nickelodeon series.) This is a series that revolves around a hospice for terminally ill teenagers, so the very idea of how a life (and a story) ends is very much at the forefront of Fong and Flanagan’s adaptation. Every midnight, the teens at the hospice gather at the library to distract themselves from their everyday life and tell each other stories: “To those before, to those after,” they intone, “To us now, and to those beyond. [The Haunting Of Hill House](https://www.avclub.com/tv/reviews/the-haunting-of-hill-house) and [The Haunting Of Bly Manor](https://www.avclub.com/tv/reviews/the-haunting-of-bly-manor), he proved himself adept at exploring every nook and cranny of this centuries-old storytelling device for those who, like him, are interested in the afterlife—both from a narrative as well as a spiritual perspective.

The Midnight Club proves that giving meaning to each chapter makes the whole story more interesting, raising the emotional stakes of an anthology.

Since each individual story connects to the overall drama of The Midnight Club, the anthology format actually serves a greater purpose. Giving meaning to each chapter makes the whole story more interesting, and when the emotional stakes are higher, every wacky horror story hits harder than if it was presented as a self-contained tale. Stories don’t come from the void but our everyday experiences, and at each meeting of the Midnight Club, we can witness how different people process real-life events in their own way. And since everyone has their own idea of what makes a story good, the result is frequently unbalanced. While there’s a lot to unpack in The Midnight Club, the series deviates from Flanagan’s previous works by mixing the expected horror drama with an anthology format, in which each episode presents a brand new story to the audience. Contrary to most anthologies, though, every story of The Midnight Club is excellent.

"The Midnight Club" is one giant tribute to Christopher Pike; here are all the Easter eggs you may have missed and how they compare to the YA novels.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for The Midnight Club season 1 on Netflix. If you binged The Midnight Club — created by the showrunner who brought us The ...

The ending of season 1, however, was left open, with a clear hint that more could be explored at Brightcliffe. But that also means you're probably eagerly awaiting a season 2 announcement, given how much the first season leaves unanswered even as it tells a complete, moving narrative. But this was very much designed to continue.

It's Amesh's Deathday, so everyone is celebrating by taking edibles on the beach. Amesh tells a time-travel sci-fi story. A recap of season one, ...

I’m guessing that’s just a fun, ultimately meaningless little connection, because I doubt Amesh is going to be the Big Bad. The biggest problem is that it’s too much like a real simulation, and it’s impossible to beat. Aceso (named after the Greek goddess of the healing process), had started the group as a naturopathic alternative to the medical establishment. It’s a tantalizing note to end on — a suggestion that we’ll finally get to see some spooky rituals. Anya confesses that she “killed her parents”; they went looking for her one night when she’d snuck out to party, and they hit black ice while driving, leading to a fatal accident. Ilonka later realizes Anya has a DNR, leading to a crisis of conscience, but Dr. Despite Athena’s efforts to get through to her mother, Aceso went through with the large-scale blood sacrifice she was planning, poisoning all the adults to let her live longer. Amesh says that all he ever wanted was to get the girl and save the world. Unfortunately, Becky is dating Ray, the son of a politician, but Luke makes an unexpected connection with his game-genius hero, Vincent Beggs (Rahul Kohli: good as always even with the spotty American accent). Luke, who has a bad heart like Amesh has a bad brain, is a high schooler who designs strategy games and has a crush on a video-game-store clerk named Becky (played by Natsuki, obviously). “See You Later” is generally a strong episode for The Midnight Club’s supporting characters — showcasing Cheri’s generosity and diving deeper into Amesh and Natsuki’s flirtation. In fact, it’s a standout episode for Cheri, who also gives a present to Ilonka: a wig made by a famous wigmaker working with her mom.