The latest Netflix horror series : The Midnight Club
Mike Flanagan’s name alone can induce shivers among listeners. In a recent interview, Flanagan disclosed that his new programme, The Midnight Club, nearly never premiered. In a Variety interview, Flanagan revealed that he had long intended to adapt the same-titled book by author Christopher Pike. For those who are unaware. The Midnight Club centres on a group of teens who are all terminally sick and who live together in a hospice. They get together every evening at the stroke of midnight to swap spooky tales.
Flanagan’s ambitions
The adolescents also agree that one of them will come back as a spirit after passing away to demonstrate that there is life beyond death. Pike’s book was released in 1994, and Flanagan’s ambitions to adapt the story for the big screen date back nearly as long. When Flanagan first read the book, he was still a teenager, but after going to college a few years later. The director was certain that The Midnight Club would be his debut film in Hollywood. Flanagan wrote a screenplay for the undertaking and even enlisted the financial assistance of his friends and relatives by submitting a business plan to them.
However, Flanagan claimed that when he finally forwarded the plan to Pike’s publisher. They “issued me a cease and desist letter.” After a two-decade gap, Flanagan contacted Pike on Facebook. But it wasn’t until 2019—when Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House swept Netflix—that the two finally got in touch.
The Midnight Club
The young adult works by Christopher Pike that Flanagan read as an adolescent in the 1990s served as the inspiration for The Midnight Club. Leah Fong, who previously wrote about The Haunting of Bly Manor, co-created it. The Midnight Club borrows from a number of Pike’s works, much like Bly Manor.Which also used several ghost stories by Henry James in addition to The Turn of the Screw as its principal basis. Other novels are turned into the stories the members tell each other. While the original work serves as the frame story and plot.
Every episode essentially contains a 20-minute short film. The stories give the main narrative more depth and enable the show to explore several genres, such as the tongue-in-cheek noir mystery and psychological slasher thriller (“The Wicked Heart”) and “Gimme a Kiss”). The framework of the presentation is creative and original, adding to its sense of unpredictability.
There are many well-known faces on the screen and familiar names in the credits since Flanagan enjoys working on diverse projects with the same team of collaborators. Elan Gale, a former executive producer of The Bachelor and the creator of FBoy Island, who also contributed to the writing for Midnight Mass, as well as his brother Jamie Flanagan, a contributor to Bly Manor, are on the writing team. Two of the episodes are directed by his longtime cinematographer, Michael Fimognari. And several of his go-to actors are in the major cast, including Samantha Sloyan, with whom he has collaborated since the film Hush, and Annarah Cymone, star of Midnight Mass, Zach Gilford, and. Additionally, I won’t reveal any more appearances by Flanagan regulars.
standout performances
However, The Midnight Club’s two standout performances come from newcomers to its wider world.
Iman Benson excels in a demanding role as Ilonka. Ilonka could be a conceited Sabrina Spellman-style know-it-all with main character syndrome in less competent hands. But Benson is so endearing and sympathetic that Ilonka is still likeable even when she is acting selflessly. Ruth Codd, who plays Anya, is set to become The Midnight Club’s breakout star. After becoming well-known for her comedic performances on her since-deleted TikTok account, Codd is making her acting debut on the show.
She is acting professionally for the first time, but you wouldn’t know it. She is both hilarious and incredibly vulnerable as Anya faces her dread of dying. Only an Irish person can offer such biting insults. While not all of the ensemble’s actors are as talented as Benson and Codd, they do not have to shoulder as much of the load. They can be pardoned.
Less excuseable is The Midnight Club’s disregard for its environment. It takes place in 1994, yet it could just as easily be staged today. The show is set in a particular era, but only because that is when the novel The Midnight Club was published, not because that era is essential to the plot.
Story Set
Additionally, the conversation aggressively undermines the scene. It contains a number of distinctly modern idioms that pull the audience out of the present. Such as “don’t yuck my yum” and “what the actual. For a story set in 1994, too many search engines and other computer-based plot devices are utilised. Additionally, the alternative rock soundtrack is disjointed and disproportionately favours tracks that were released after 1994. There is a verbal allusion to Radiohead’s 1996 album “Exit Music”, which is mentioned. I realise I’m being picky, and perhaps the makers made a deliberate choice, expecting that the majority of viewers wouldn’t notice or care, but the lack of detail comes across as careless.
In 1994, Google didn’t exist, but it does today. By watching an episode of My So-Called Life. Anyone can hear how TV teenagers truly spoke back then.Writers shouldn’t make a work a period piece if they aren’t going to bother completing the research for it. Especially if it isn’t necessary. They could have set it in the present and kept the same outfits because teenagers in 2022 dress almost exclusively in ’90s styles.
Last note
However, that may be overlooked in a show that gets the important things right. Once again, Flanagan and his team have produced a terrifyingly compelling thriller. This time with a YA component to keep things interesting. Though it hasn’t happened yet, Flanagan could ultimately produce a terrible Netflix series. He has a pretty amazing winning run right now. And The Midnight Club establishes a second season, unlike his earlier shows, which have been limited to anthology series. Let’s hope that comes to pass.