The Midnight Club – Netflix Series Review

THE MIDNIGHT CLUB on Netflix is the new Mike Flanagan horror series. This one is based on the work of Christopher Pike. As always, you’ll see many familiar faces and quite a few new ones. Read our spoiler-free The Midnight Club series review here!

THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is a new Netflix horror series from Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures (The Haunting of Hill House). The series is co-created by Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong, based on the work of the bestselling author Christopher Pike.

As per usual, you can expect to see many familiar faces. However, since the core cast consists of dying teenagers, there are also many new faces. Don’t let the fact that they are teenagers discourage you. Getting a terminal diagnosis and being in a hospice make you mature real fast in many ways. No teen drama here!

Continue reading our The Midnight Club review below. All ten episodes are on Netflix from October 7, 2022.

Full of both life and pain

It’s become quite the tradition for Netflix to release a new horror series created by Mike Flanagan. First, we got the amazing The Haunting of Hill House. The next year it was time for heartbreaking, yet love and life-affirming, The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Last year, in 2021, we moved from a haunted house to an island with a vampire challenge in Midnight Mass.

This time, we’re in a hospice for teenagers. It’s definitely a sad premise that offers a lot of pain and sadness. However, even more than this, it’s a celebration of love and life. So, yes, it is very much like the previous horror series from Mike Flanagan.

And yes, we also get quite a mystery to deal with. The hospice has a mysterious and intriguing history. One that I don’t want to reveal here, but you can expect a kind of haunting in this Netflix horror series as well.

Seen or unseen, here but not here…

Each night, the eight teenagers living at the Brightcliffe hospice, meet up at midnight to tell each other sinister stories. Hence the name “The Midnight Club”. The nightly meeting begins with a toast that includes a tribute to both those who where there before them and those who will come after them.

“Seen or unseen, here but not here” is part of the toast and it carries different weight depending on what else is going on at the hospice. Also, the stories usually have a supernatural ghost aspect. Another part of The Midnight Club is that you vow to do your very best to make contact from the other side.

Just to let everyone know that death is not the end.

And no, we’re not just getting ten episodes of teenagers running around in a hospice. We’re getting several stories – all clearly connected to the actual life of the one telling the story – each time The Midnight Club meets up.

That means you’re getting so many stories that cover all kinds of genres. Sure, there tends to be a ghost element to most of them, but not always. They do tend to get very dark and sinister though. And supernatural.

Amazing new talent

Quite a few of the actors in the young core cast are getting their breakthroughs here. The eight hospice teenagers are portrayed by Iman Benson (llonka), Igby Rigney (Kevin), Ruth Codd (Anya), Annarah Cymone (Sandra), William Chris Sumpter (Spencer), Adia (Cheri), Aya Furukawa (Natsuki), and Sauriyan Sapkota (Amesh).

Every single one of these young actors delivers amazing and nuanced portrayals. If you twist my arm, I could highlight Ruth Codd as Anya (absolutely brilliant) and Sauriyan Sapkota as Amesh (simply mesmerizing). This is not to say they do a better job necessarily, but their characters did make a huge impact on me.

Also, we have one of the most iconic final girls, Heather Langenkamp from A Nightmare on Elm Street, as Dr. Georgina Stanton, who is in charge of Brightcliffe. Once again, Samantha Sloyan (Bev Keane in Midnight Mass) and Zach Gilford (Riley Flynn in Midnight Mass) play key characters that you’ll see throughout the 10 episodes.

Be aware, that most actors play several characters as they are also used for the stories told in The Midnight Club. This is actually really cool, because we see them play both good and bad (hero and villain) through this simple storytelling method.

As for all the other Mike Flanagan alumni actors, you’ve come to know and love?! Well, I really don’t want to get into who shows up in The Midnight Club. Just know that quite a few of them will show up in bit parts – usually in the stories told by the teenagers.

Don’t ruin the element of surprise or discovery by getting this spoiled before discovering them for yourself.

Watch The Midnight Club on Netflix!

As already mentioned in the beginning, this was created by Mike Flanagan. He is joined by Leah Fong as the co-creator while Trevor Macy is still producing with him. Leah Fong also wrote on The Haunting of Bly Manor which she produced as well. And again, The Midnight Club is based on the work of Christopher Pike, who is also a producer of this adaption.

The directors on this Netflix horror series are Mike Flanagan himself, Axelle Carolyn, Michael Fimognari (cinematographer on Doctor Sleep), and Viet Nguyen who all direct two episodes each, while Morgan Beggs (assistant director on The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour directed one episode each.

The series has 10 episodes and for me, the episodes each deliver something special. Episode 8 was a bit weak for me, but it was also very important, so I’m torn there. Episode 7, on the other hand, is perhaps one of my absolute favorites.

Now, all we have to do is sit tight and wait for the official release date of Mike Flanagan’s next series The Fall of the House of Usher. That series is based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story and has a cast chock-full of Mike Flanagan alumni actors and a few new ones (like Mark Hamill and Willa Fitzgerald).

The Midnight Club is on Netflix worldwide from October 7, 2022.

Details

Creators: Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong
Cast: Iman Benson, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Annarah Cymone, Chris Sumpter, Adia, AyaFurukawa, Sauriyan Sapkota, Matt Biedel, Samantha Sloyan, with Zach Gilford and Heather Langenkamp