The Midnight Club - Season 1

After The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club (based on the story of the same name by Christopher Pike) is Mike Flanagan's latest addition to appear on Netflix. Ilonka (Iman Benson, #blackAF) seems to have everything well organized until it turns out that she is terminally ill. In her search for what can still be done about her illness, she finds a story online about a hospice led by Dr. Stanton (Heather Langenkamp, ​​The Bay) for terminally ill teens. In the past, someone has been miraculously cured in this hospice. Determined to seize every opportunity with both hands, she also leaves for this hospice.



Here she is soon accepted into the group and discovers that the patients meet in the library (The Midnight Club) in the evenings. These gatherings have become something of a tradition that dates back to long before today's hospice group. Every night one of the members of this group tells a story and they repeat the pact they made with each other. They promise each other that if there is an afterlife, they will do their utmost to let the others know after they die.

However, the stories also cause the focus to shift more to the story than to the actual plot during a substantial portion of the episode.

It is immediately noticeable that despite the fact that the group consists of the necessary cliché characters, you immediately sympathize with them. This is due to the joint and fierce battle they fight against their illness, how they deal with it and how the characters are portrayed. It is also fun and interesting to see who comes up with what story. In those stories we see the different actors crawl into a different role to portray the story. However, the stories also cause the focus to shift more to the story than to the actual plot during a substantial portion of the episode.

The atmosphere in and around the hospice is excellently depicted and you can taste that the hospice is surrounded by mystery. The photos on the walls of former patients, the ever-emerging symbol, the strange neighbor (Samantha Sloyan, Midnight Mass) who prowls the grounds, the references to a cult that would have resided in the house and the fact that Dr. Stanton continues to be evasive about the healing that has taken place in the past, making you want to know more and more as a viewer what exactly goes on in the hospice.

In addition, Ilonka sees more and more ghosts and at times she suddenly seems to end up in the past. And other patients also occasionally see a shadow coming towards them or suddenly hear voices. The question is whether it is actually haunted in the hospice, whether it is fear of imminent death or whether all medication has to do with this, but it gives us the necessary frightening moments.



I have now seen a number of series and films by Mike Flanagan and what I have seen has always been horror, but horror with a good story in it. That is also the case here, only the balance here is more towards the story than the horror. On the one hand, as I have indicated before, this is because the focus is more on the story than on the plot and scares. But the structure of the episodes also plays a role in this.

Almost every episode is built according to a fixed pattern. For a large part of the day you see the residents struggling with their problems and the mystery that surrounds the hospice is fed by the fact that Ilonka learns a little more each time. In addition, The Midnight Club's stories take up part of the episode. Fun and interesting, but at the same time not very relevant to the plot. And in the small part that remains at the end of the episode, there is often the part that scares us. So not too much horror.

All this was no problem for me. I found the background story interesting enough, the dialogues between the main characters beautiful and the 'stories in the story' not disturbing. In addition, I had enough of the few frightening moments to almost jump off the couch every now and then. I personally hope that we'll see a continuation at some point. But at the same time, I can well imagine that the 'real' horror enthusiast will be disappointed if he ventures into this series.