Mike Flanagan's next collaboration with Netflix is creeping up quickly. On October 7, the creator of some of Netflix's most original horror miniseries is bringing fans an all-new fright fest to binge, The Midnight Club. Based on the work of author Christopher Pike, Flanagan assures Empire that this series won't hold back the scares. Though The Midnight Club is focused on a group of teens, the showrunner promises this only means less of his eloquent monologues and more frights!
The Midnight Club seems like it will run in the same crowd as Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? and R.L. Stine's Fear Street trilogy, which is also on Netflix. Based on the novel of the same name, the series will focus on a group of teens in a hospice who meet up in the dead of night to tell ghost stories. Each of them have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, which leads to a pact made amongst them: the first to die must promise to attempt contact after death. Soon after one of them passes, frightening things begin to happen, and in the teaser we see a dark specter stalking the teens in the shadows.
Because the series is geared toward a younger crowd, Flanagan's signature lengthy soliloquies will be scaled back in favor of a darker tone and spooky frights. As with Pike's original work, The Midnight Club won't be coddling their target audience, but rather, Flanagan said they worked under the notion that "the younger viewers could handle scares." It's a beloved genre all its own, gateway horror, and the director is excited to bring his passions to a new generation. He even teases that no one in The Midnight Club is safe, saying:
"His work was hugely formative for me. He wrote some pretty advanced stuff for his younger readers, and it was not at all uncommon for his teenage characters to die, pretty shockingly. His books were full of things I found really exciting and thrilling and dark. So I became a bit of an addict."
In a nod to the creator's older crowd, Flanagan got horror icon Heather Langenkamp to portray the children's doctor and hospice overseer. Langenkamp is best-known for her portrayal of final girl Nancy Thompson in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. Previous Flanagan collaborator Matt Biedel (Midnight Mass) will also be making an appearance. Joining them, The Midnight Club members are Ruth Codd (The Fall of the House of Usher), Iman Benson (#BlackAF), Igby Rigney (F9: The Fast Saga), Adia, Annarah Cymone (Midnight Mass), Aya Furukawa (Brand New Cherry Flavor), William Chris Sumpter (NYC Dreams) and Sauriyan Sapkota (The Fall of the House of Usher).
Flanagan, who directs two of the show's episodes, has boarded a talented group of directors to helm the series, including Morgan Beggs who worked on his sophomore miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor and also serves as a co-producer, Axelle Carolyn (American Horror Story: Double Feature), Michael Fimognari (The Fall of the House of Usher) and Viet Nguyen (The Flash). Co-writer Leah Fong (Once Upon a Time) will executive produce with Flanagan and Trevor Macy (The Strangers).
The Midnight Club meets on October 7 only on Netflix. You can read the official synopsis and watch the teaser trailer below:
"A group of terminally ill teenage patients resides at Brightcliffe Hospice, and together they create the Midnight Club. They meet in secret at midnight to tell horror stories. Together the group forms a pact, that whoever dies first would make the effort to contact the rest of the Midnight Club members from beyond the grave."