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 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.

Mike Flanagan's latest Netflix series, The Midnight Club is an adaptation of not just one Christopher Pike novel, but many of the prolific 80s and 90s YA ...

The filmmaker is regarded for his ability to dig well below the surface of people and situations, yet he’s become the victim of half-truths for most of his career. And no one is more devoted to the veil of artifice than the star himself; Herzog tells Beristain there won’t be any need for a “lighting package” because this is, after all, a documentary. The dishonest producer (really the director) is in fact orchestrating this entire production, and it’s not long before he lets the audience in on the secret. In Pike’s novel, Rela is a College student who discovers that her expensive new VCR (ah 1993!) has the ability to record the future one day in advance. [outlets back then](https://variety.com/2003/film/markets-festivals/loch-lurks-for-helmer-1117888727/) reported Herzog was shooting a mere documentary called “The Enigma of Loch Ness”. It is a queered-up story told by Spence in episode 4 and coded as a film noir both in the screenplay by James Flanagan and Mike Flanagan, as well as Michael Fimognari’s direction. First and foremost, the series is an adaptation of Christopher Pike’s story about a group of teens in a hospice. In the Netflix series, Natsuki tells the story of Freedom Jack and Poppy Corn (Flanagan regulars Henry Thomas and Alex Essoe) in episode 7. It is a story told by Kevin across three separate episodes (3, 6 and 10), making it the most thorough adaptation to appear on the show. The book has a melancholic end, but it is ultimately hopeful and ties into Pike’s interest in reincarnation and past lives, which is a recurring narrative trope in both his books as well as Flanagan’s show. Sheila just so happens to be the best friend of the girl he just killed, and she refuses to let her missing friend go quietly into the night. In the past, there has been only one adaptation: a 1996 made-for-TV movie of Fall Into Darkness starring Tatyana Ali and Jonathan Brandis (available for free

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'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.

Everything we know about 'The Midnight Club' season 2 on Netflix, including cast, release date, spoilers and more.

[adapting](https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/midnight-mass-mike-flanagan-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-series-netflix-1235082162/amp/) The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. installation since it's set to star a lot of the same cast members, but according to what a source close to the project told [Variety](https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/midnight-mass-mike-flanagan-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-series-netflix-1235082162/amp/), the show "will be a standalone series and will not have any connection to previous [Flanagan] series," explained the outlet. The only way someone wouldn't come back is if The Midnight Club season 2 is a continuation of the first season and their character died. [The Haunting of Hill House](https://www.netflix.com/title/80189221) for Netflix in 2018. So, if you already binged Mike Flanagan's newest Netflix series [The Midnight Club](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a41503816/the-midnight-club-netflix-exclusive-clip/) (which, FYI, is based on the 1994 young adult novel by Christopher Pike), and are ready to start trick-or-treating for more—relax. [Netflix](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/netflix-tv-shows-movies/) series, like bags of free candy, are not meant to be consumed in a single sitting, and yet, the temptation is So!

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.

Based on the 1994 book of the same name by Christopher Pike, creators Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong's "The Midnight Club" primarily focuses on Ilonka (Iman.

In fact, Rel has been created by Christopher in the future, and he has arrived in the past for a purpose that he doesn’t remember. So, Christopher (the version from the future, of course) needs to kill Rel and ensure that his vision of fearless humanity stays intact. Through that, he learns that the only way to stop humanity from devolving into a race of emotionless robots is if Christopher never goes into robotics and stops seeing humans as machines that can be fixed. Natsuki says that she made it out of the car, and her mother found her in that horrifying state (which reminded her of how Natsuki’s father died by suicide). The rest of the Midnight Club also gets to bid goodbye to a dying Anya by crafting a story of how she marries Rhett and lives in a place in the suburbs where her neighbors are all members of the club. When Christopher goes away to his mother’s place, Rel uses the VCR and learns that Christopher and his mother are about to be murdered. This does lead Imani to the love of her life (Kevin), but it also shows her that she’s going to lose him during a robbery. When Imani’s mother dies while trying to save a girl, she goes searching for answers in the dark of the night (something that witches like her aren’t supposed to do). This practice of crafting a story around what one wants to do for a fellow Midnight Clubber is visible in Ilonka’s story about Imani (Ilonka) and her witch mother, who have healing powers and the ability to see the future. Because that’s a sign of your self-awareness, and you can work on that with the help of others. Hence, she makes a pact with the devil (Stanton) and gives birth to the mirror version of herself. However, his mood is lifted when he bumps into Vincent (Rahul Kohli), and he tells Luke to do a demo run of his new game and succeed in it.

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.

It's easy to forget that the Midnight Club members are terminally ill teenagers, what with all the ghostly goings on and all those cult secrets to explore. But ...

In the story a famous video game designer called Vincent (Rahul Kohli) offers Luke the opportunity to play a new, state-of-the-art video game. [Ilonka](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Ilonka) and [Kevin](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Kevin) returning to find [Anya](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Anya) passed out on her bedroom floor. Ilonka starts off proceedings, stating how she saw a ghostly woman looming above Anya and recounts the old music she heard in a drowsy state. His story involves a geeky student called Luke (played by Amesh), who is in love with a girl called Becky (played by Natsuki). [Spencer](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Spencer) delivers a heartfelt speech and Amesh takes off his funeral clothes, symbolically burying them in the sand. Ilonka believes that everything is linked, the cult, [Julia Jayne](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Julia) and the Midnight Club. [Cheri](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Cheri_Ian) gifts Ilonka with a brand-new wig and the gang gather for Amesh’s death day party. [Amesh](https://the-midnight-club.fandom.com/wiki/Amesh)’s party. It is a member of The Paragon’s diary, explaining the history of this unusual cult. In 1931, Regina Ballard formed the group, which was supposed to be a new age health philosophy. This is a series that will have a special place in a lot of fans’ hearts. An emotional party brings the brutal reality of the teens’ situation to the forefront once more.