Mike Flanagan combines horror and heart in ‘The Midnight Club’

Hawa Sow
Fri, 21 Oct 2022 00:57:19 +0000
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As some viewers pointed out on social media, Netflix used an “LGBTQ” tag to categorize its new true crime series, “Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story.” Credit: Olivier Douliery via TNS

Mike Flanagan, the creator of hit series “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor” has returned with a new chilling Netflix original.

“The Midnight Club” made its global debut Oct. 7, based on a 1994 novel by Christopher Pike. The world highly anticipated Flanagan’s new creation, excited to experience another eerie story coupled with a heartfelt central message.

The series follows Ilonka (Iman Benson), a high school senior diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer. She takes up residency at Brightcliffe Hospice, an old mansion repurposed as a hospice center for teenagers. There, she meets and connects with a diverse group of adolescents, each suffering from a distinct terminal illness. They join The Midnight Club, a group that gathers in the library at the stroke of midnight to tell horror stories. The secret organization has existed for generations and serves to connect current patients to past ones. It requires a promise that when the angel of death comes for them, they will send a sign to the patients to let them know they are at peace.

The central plot commences when Ilonka uncovers evidence that a former Brightcliffe patient underwent a ritual that healed her of her illness. The patients’ desperation to save themselves and, more importantly, each other, results in an attempt to recreate the ritual, yielding catastrophic effects.

The series poses as a melting pot of various storytelling methods. The roughly 10-hour-long series is broken up into 10 episodes, alternating from individual patient horror stories to the healing ritual in real-time. The stories provide a look into the minds of each patient as they cope with their illnesses, while the ritual reveals their desperation to live.

In true Flanagan fashion, the series adequately provides an onslaught of frights. Its range offers both traditional ghastly scares and gruesome ceremonial practices. Just when it seemed Flanagan used every scare tactic in the book, he exceeded expectations, proven with a Guinness World Record for most scripted jump scares in a single episode; its premiere episode contains 21 throughout the episode.

“The Midnight Club” does a praise-worthy job highlighting the internal battles each teenager internally battles. For instance, Spencer (William Chris Sumpter), is a young man living with HIV/AIDS. Throughout the series, he wrestles with his sexuality in the eyes of the Church while hoping to gain the respect of his disapproving mother. Another character, Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota), fears his parents’ immigration papers will not be authorized in time to see him before he dies of glioblastoma — an aggressive, fast-growing brain tumor, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. The series demonstrates authenticity with the struggles teenagers with terminal illnesses experience as it dives into topics of depression, anxiety and spirituality.

While Flanagan excels at providing teenagers with these illnesses the dignity and representation they need, this emphasis leaves less space for the foundational timeline to be strengthened. The jumps between the short horror stories provide room for confusion, as the focus of the series seems to awkwardly shift as some timelines are broken up across several episodes. The lack of attention to the ritualistic investigation causes the finale to feel unsatisfying and leaves stones left unturned. While Flanagan’s motive for these segments is clear, their practicality presents chronological flaws.

Despite its achronological structure, the uniqueness of the series lies in its ability to strike the audience’s heart. The varying stories reveal the aspirations and fears of the patients. “The Midnight Club” operates through teenage rationality, emphasizing the intention to display the patients living and dying on their own terms. The script allows each character to be completely vulnerable on screen and share their innermost thoughts with the audience, which provides viewers an inkling of the impact of a terminal illness on a teenager’s spirit as well as their determination to push their bodies to stay alive.

Flanagan has proven time and time again that he is an expert on human fears and grief. However, this series seemed to over-prioritize the individual stories of the club members and paid little attention to the overarching plotlines. Nevertheless, it is a series that will touch a person’s heart while bringing awareness to a courageous group of individuals.