The Midnight Club
Terminally ill teens share scary stories in a hospice.
The Midnight Club is a horror mystery-thriller series from Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong, with Flanagan handling showrunner, lead writing, and executive producer duties. The story takes place at a hospice and centers on eight young adults with terminal illnesses who form a group called the Midnight Club. They gather each night to share scary stories, and the series weaves an overarching narrative while also bringing those tales to life on screen. The show draws primarily from Christopher Pike’s 1994 novel *The Midnight Club*, but it also incorporates short stories from 27 other Pike books, which are told as part of the club’s storytelling sessions.
- Creator
- Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong
- Premiere
- October 7, 2022
- Network
- Netflix
- Genre
- Horror mystery-thriller
- Number of Seasons
- 1 (canceled after one season)
- Based on
- The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike and short stories from 27 other Pike books
- Main Cast
- Iman Benson, Adia, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Aya Furukawa, Annarah Shephard, William Chris Sumpter, Sauriyan Sapkota
Lore & Background
The series premiered on Netflix on October 7, 2022. Unlike all three of Flanagan's previous series, it is not a miniseries, and was intended as a limited-run series meant to run for two seasons. However, in December 2022, the series was canceled after one season. The story follows a group of eight close terminally ill young adults residing in the Brightcliffe Home hospice outside of Seattle run by an enigmatic doctor. They meet at midnight every night to tell each other scary stories, and have a pact that the first one to succumb to their disease is responsible for communicating with the others from beyond the grave.
Reader's Guide
The Midnight Club represents a unique entry in Mike Flanagan's horror television work, adapting not only Christopher Pike's 1994 novel but also short stories from 27 other Pike books. The series broke the Guinness World Record for the most scripted jump-scares in a single episode of television at 21 jump-scares. Despite positive critical reception—an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes—Netflix canceled the series after one season in December 2022. Following its cancellation, Flanagan revealed what was planned for later seasons on his Tumblr, including the ultimate fates of the various characters and answers to the show's lingering mysteries. The series recorded 90.31 million hours viewed in the Netflix top 10s between October 2 and October 23, 2022.
Did You Know?
- The series broke the Guinness World Record for the most scripted jump-scares in a single episode of television at 21 jump-scares.
- The club subplot was added at the request of Netflix executives, who wanted a supernatural element after Stranger Things.
- The series adapts short stories from 27 other Christopher Pike books in addition to the 1994 novel.
- The first two episodes were directed by Mike Flanagan.
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