How To Watch Mike Flanagan’s The Midnight Club
As a subscription service, Netflix often produces the greatest amount of content around certain holidays. During the holiday season, for example, Netflix has become somewhat famous in recent years for its original film releases celebrating the Christmas chapter. However, it’s Halloween that arguably takes the award for Netflix’s friendliest season, with plenty of original releases landing in October. This year, Netflix has pulled out all the stops to become the go-to place for spooky content, and one such release that’s garnered a lot of attention is The Midnight Club.
If you’re looking for inspiration, some of the best work on novels can be found and that’s exactly what the team behind is The Midnight Club did. release in 1994, Christopher Pike‘s The Midnight Club was a hit with many young adult horror fans and has enjoyed something of a renaissance with a new generation of fans of the genre following the announcement of the upcoming series. Pike is a veteran of supernatural mystery and horror novels, particularly those aimed at younger audiences. Therefore, adapting one of his works is a surefire way to make Netflix a success this Halloween. With the show just around the corner and promising to be one of the standout additions to our screens this October, here’s a comprehensive guide on how to watch it The Midnight Club in time for its release this Halloween.
What is The Midnight Club about?
Of course, as with many shows, the fine details of the plot of this 10-episode horror series are not known to the general public. However, since the show is based on the novel of the same name, we can expect many details from the novel to be rendered on our screens. What we do know is that the writers stayed true to the original premise, with the show revolving around the patients at Brightcliffe Hospice who gather at midnight to tell spooky tales. After a sinister pact is made and an early death, strange events begin to unfold, wreaking chilling havoc on the group of friends. With such a simple yet effective premise, the original novel was a huge hit with readers, and for that reason it’s fair to assume that many of the same narrative themes and threads will be translated into the screen version. Despite preoccupation with themes of the supernatural, The Midnight Club has its roots in something much more serious and moving. The original novel, despite its fantasy, touches on themes of death and one’s own mortality, with the main characters being terminally ill. This means that the show may have to deal with a difficult subject and find a way to bring it to younger audiences with the same success as the novel.
Much like many other shows, a lot can be understood by watching the trailer, which can be viewed below:
In addition to plot details, the trailer gives us a sense of the show’s style and mood. It begins with an insight into the backstory of Ilonka (Iman Benson), whose life changes when she is diagnosed with thyroid cancer and leaves Brightcliffe Hospice. This is where the main story takes place, and the trailer then introduces us to the cast of the ensemble and gives us a taste of some of the hilarious dialogue we can expect to see between them. The style of horror is clearly consistent with showrunner Mike Flanagan‘s previous work with people like The Haunting of Hill Housethis is great news for those who are fans of his headline The Midnight Club. Throughout the trailer, there’s a sense that this is going to be one bone-dry roller coaster ride of a series, with the intensity and horrors continually giving us reason to watch between our fingers while trying to hide our eyes.
Where and when can I watch The Midnight Club?
As mentioned, this is a Netflix production and will therefore only be streamed on the platform. Given its obvious ties to the Halloween season, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that it launches worldwide on October 7th. Unfortunately there is no other way to see The Midnight Club except on Netflix, which can be subscribed to for $9.99 per month for a basic subscription. Additional subscriptions can be purchased, with a standard subscription costing $15.49 per month and a premium subscription costing $19.99 per month.
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Who’s in the Midnight Club?
For a show that will rely so heavily on its ensemble cast, a talented young cast list was expected to be announced. That’s exactly what we got at the end of Season 1’s airing with a group of names that are sure to be fan favorites. The original novel has five main characters: Ilonka, Kevin, Spencer, Sandra and Anya. As previously mentioned, Iman Benson (#BlackAF) stars Ilonka, but other notable names in the cast list are also included Heide Langenkamp (A nightmare on Elm Street) as Dr. stanton, Samantha Slojan (silence) as Shasta, Zach Gilford (The purge: anarchy) as Mark, Matt Biedel (midnight fair) as Tim, Igby Rigney (Fast & Furious 9) as Kevin, Aya Furukawa (The hut in the forest) as Natsuki, Annara Cymone (midnight fair) as Sandra, Chris Sumpter (perfomance) as Spencer and Newcomer Sauryan Sapkota, Adiaand Ruth Codd as Amesh, Cheri and Anya. Fans of showrunner Mike Flanagan will note that many of the names on the cast list have previously worked on his projects, with artists like Biedel, Cymone and Rigney already having acting experience for him. So with the combination of Flanagan u Leah Fong (There was once) behind the making of the show and many of Flanagan’s most trusted actors as part of the cast, all wrapped up in the failsafe narrative from Christopher Pike’s brilliantly spooky 1994 horror novel, The Midnight Club Series looks like it can’t be missed this Halloween season.