The Midnight Club

Netflix's latest Mike Flanagan horror effort The Midnight Club has a charming YA sensibility but not enough scares.

While The Midnight Club has some solid one-off tales within, there’s too much bloat and not enough story to recommend it to anyone beyond fans of the book series or Flanagan faithfuls. It almost feels like the show forgets that it was pitched as a horror series and remembers mid-episode, throwing out the same jump scare over and over to appease critics like myself looking for something spooky. Flanagan is still a compelling storyteller but I’m not sure I’ll be attending more meetings of The Midnight Club. The mystery does have one big reveal, but viewers will see it coming from a mile away. Young viewers likely won’t care, but anyone who was around during the ‘90s will bristle at the inaccuracies and on-the-nose needle drops. The adult members of the cast are more uniformly impressive, including Inside Brightcliffe, the young residents meet nightly to tell scary stories as a means of processing the grim realities of their situations. Obviously a cast full of dying kids feels like a shortcut for emotional resonance, but Flanagan isn’t a surface-level storyteller. After [The Haunting of Hill House](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-haunting-of-hill-house/), [The Haunting of Bly Manor](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-haunting-of-bly-manor/), and [Midnight Mass](https://www.denofgeek.com/midnight-mass/), Flanagan’s house style has crystalized. For instance, a noir story is given extra oomph by being shot in black and white and given a 4:3 aspect ratio. That said, there are some impressive performances within the teenage cast, especially Codd, who transforms the bitchy Anya from an annoying grouch to the heart of the show. Several of the stories told are adapted from Pike’s other novels.

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 new Netflix show is a full-on love letter to Christopher Pike's unflinching horror sensibilities.

Each of these kids is waiting to die, some with humor, some with disaffection, others with defensiveness, and many with a sense of anger. Instead of death being the worst thing that can happen to these character, what’s instead made important is the loss of their stories. We’ll allow the name-dropping in this instance, as it’s a pretty fantastic way to look at the body of Flanagan’s work up to this point, and gives remarkable insight into Flanagan’s own state of mind as he finishes up The Midnight Club. Set in the ‘90s and built from Flanagan’s memories of purchasing brightly-colored Pike novels (the colors, he mentioned, were the reason he chose his shirt for NYCC–a vibrant teal bowling shirt with neon-pink pockets) at Scholastic book fairs, Flanagan recalled reading them and passing them around to all his friends, feeling like they were getting away with something. “I hate jump scares,” he said after accepting the award, “now, whenever anyone asks me to put in more of them, I can tell them, ‘You know, as the current world record holder for most jump scares in an episode of television… “I want to leave something for my kids,” Flanagan said at the breakfast. “Having witnessed the following episode of The Midnight Club,” the judge said, holding the plaque in his hands, “I have determined that the first episode of The Midnight Club has beaten the previous world record of 14 scripted jump scares in a single episode of television.” The new world record is now 21 scripted jump scares. Midnight Club is a series that is not as prone to monologues as his previous work, but it is just as weighty, full of gravitas, and working with subject matter that in a way that in unflinching, honest, and darkly funny. During a breakfast meet and greet with io9, Flanagan said that he often reflects on a piece of advice he received from Guillermo del Toro, “Filmography,” del Toro apparently said to Flanagan, “is biography.” But when she arrives, she begins to see visions of ghostly presences in the home, and her nightmares start to haunt her waking moments. As terminally ill children meet up nightly to tell each other stories as part of their bonding ritual while staying at hospice, something begins to stalk them in the night, pulling stories out of the shadows. By contrast, The Midnight Club has been written as open-ended and is aimed at a younger audience.

Horror genius Mike Flanagan's latest Netflix series The Midnight Club has finally landed on the streamer, but who's in the cast of the creepy show?

Who is Spencer? Who is Amesh? The cast is rounded out by a host of Midnight Mass favourites. Dr Stanton is the mysterious doctor who runs the hospice. Who is Sandra? Who is Dr Georgina Stanton? Kevin is another member of the Midnight Club as well as a former high school athlete. Patient Cheri is the eccentric daughter of Hollywood actors (or so she reckons). The Midnight Club is Codd’s acting debut. Who is Ilonka? She’s a lower-leg amputee wheelchair user from Ireland, and is one of the more rebellious patients. She’s also set to star in Netflix’s upcoming The Fall of the House of Usher.

Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong's new series might be grim and even depressing sometimes. Still, by the end of the season, it becomes clear this is another horror ...

Georgia to have a long talk with Ilonka about accepting death and living the most out of the time she still has. It’s a tender moment that underlines how life goes on at Brightcliffe, with all the members of the Midnight Club getting support from their found family while they try to do the most they can with the bit of time they have left. By night, she takes the statue to the Midnight Club, shares the news with her friends, and confesses to her crimes. In the middle of the ritual, Shasta tells everyone to drink a cup of tea. For a moment, Ilonka believes the ritual saved Sandra and that the Midnight Club only needs to get all the procedures right next time. In the basement, Shasta sits in the middle of a circle, surrounded by the three women and Ilonka. So, she’s not ready to face the harsh truth that the magic of Brightcliffe might not be real. Julia indeed was healing and is the only patient ever to get out of the hospice alive. Ilonka’s research leads her to believe Julia’s miraculous recovery was the fruit of a ritual inspired by the Paragon. And since so much happens in so little time, it might be easy to feel a little lost about the fate of every main character. While every patient of Brightcliffe is there to have a death that’s as peaceful and painless as possible, Ilonka chose the hospice after learning of a terminal patient who survives, Julia Jayne. Editor's note: The below contains major spoilers for the ending of The Midnight Club.The Midnight Club has a depressing background, as it tells the story of a group of terminal young people who meet at a hospice, a place they go to wait for death.

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.

Netflix's The Midnight Club, from the creator of The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, is based on the popular teen book by Christopher Pike.

As for whether or not Brightcliffe is a real place, unfortunately the answer is no. However, the story's origins in real-life make the spooky series even more fascinating. Her bylines include Harper's BAZAAR, Nicki Swift, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, ELLE, The Independent, Bustle, Healthline, and HelloGiggles. However, that doesn't mean that the idea for The Midnight Club isn't based on something real. The setting also lends itself to the sinister, with hints of the occult and ghosts roaming the halls at nights. Amy Mackelden is a freelance writer, editor, and disability activist. Sadly, Pike's inspiration didn't live to see the finished product, but the book remains a tribute to the young patient that inspired him. Pike began writing letters and speaking to her on the phone, which is how he learned about the tradition that took place at her hospital every night. However, Ilonka arrives at Brightcliffe believing that the building can help cure her cancer. Whether or not the ghosts are really there or figments of the imagination conjured by strong painkillers is always unclear. The teens make a pact with one another: that whoever dies first will attempt to send a message from the afterlife, in order to keep hope alive for all of those left behind. [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/08/the-midnight-club-netflix), the main character Ilonka (portrayed by [Iman Benson](https://www.instagram.com/imanbenson/?hl=en)) is, in fact, based on a real person, who was responsible for giving Pike the idea for The Midnight Club.

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.