Entertainment Blog #106 | The Midnight Club [2022 -] - It's not What You Think

Mike Flanagan is one of the best horror series producers right now. The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass are some of them. And his last project is kinda different from the others. It's "The Midnight Club".

"The Midnight Club" is a Netflix Original Series. Its first season was released back in October 2022. And it consists of 10 Episodes. All the other creations of Mike Flanagan consist of the same team of actors and actresses. But that pattern was broken from this show. Actually, it's because this series is about a group of young people.

Talking about the Story..

The actions of this story take place in the 1990s. The Story mainly goes around this girl, Ilonka. At first, she was this bright student and suddenly her whole life fell apart. She was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer. She didn't want to have chemotherapy and let her parents see her body falls apart from side effects.

Since she was diagnosed with cancer, she had vivid hallucinations about a place. She later finds out that it's a Hospice. Hospice is not a hospital. It's a place where terminally ill people are taken care of until their death.

The hospice Ilonka saw in her visions is an actual one. It's Brightcliffe Hospice Care for Teenagers. It's a place with a history. She did some background checks and it seems good. So she decided to attend there. When she got there, there were 7 more teenagers.

Since there's nothing much to do for them at the Hospice, they get together to the Library at night and tell horror stories to the others. And always when they start the discussion, they start it saying...

To those before...
To those after....
To us now....
And to those beyond....
Seen or unseen....
Here but not here....

Ilonka's visions of this hospice didn't end even after she admits to the hospital. She sees this Female figure and some demonic figures. Also, these dreams give hints about the secret hidden place in this hospice. There were rumors about a girl who went cured of this hospice. Ilonka also tries to search for it. But it seems like the officers don't like her actions..

So what's the secret behind Brightcliffe Hospice? Will Ilonka find the truth about the cured girl? Will Ilonka be cured? You'll get answers to these questions and many more by watching "The Midnight Club".

My Experience..

By watching this series, I wanted to have the experience that I had from the earlier creations of Mike Flanagan. And it wasn't there. It wasn't like any other TV Series by him. It has a different approach. It has a different message. And he uses the same way of storytelling.. but with less horror.. fewer ghosts..

Ratings..

IMDB ratings have dropped since the release of the series. The reason is what I mentioned before. The problem is not in the story. It's in what people expected from this story. Most of them didn't get the Wow Effect by the horror elements which they were looking for..

But the fun fact is.. The first episode of this series won the Guineas Record for Most Jump Scares in a Series Episode. I think there were more than 100 Jump Scares. There's a part around 10 minutes long.. You don't wanna miss it.