A variety of them contain Easter eggs for Pike’s various works, though the The Midnight Club was the only one I ever read in full. Some are easy to guess how they will conclude, but I am not sure it matters when the characters are so rich in detail anyway. #Power of ten tv serialOver the course of ten episodes, our members of the Midnight Club spin tales covering everything from doppelgängers to witchcraft, serial killers to hitchhikers and everything in between. By the halfway point, I practically remembered the mantra by heart, “seen or unseen, here but not here.” Whereas the Midnight Society submitted their tales for “approval” and rarely had much to their wraparound segments, The Midnight Club have a memorable toast to the “lost loved ones” before each story, and in between tales Flanagan is sure to keep the ball rolling by having Ilonka and friends infiltrate the curiosities of Brightcliffe Hospice. They name each story they tell, often applying real-world scenarios mixed in with supernatural, sci-fi, or horror elements. Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark very much evoked a similar formula, at least in the way their kids spent shortened episodes waxing philosophical telling campfire stories. In each episode, one of the teen characters tells a story to the rest of the crew in what they call “The Midnight Club.” They meet in secret in the study, and take turns creating metaphorical ghosts to help take them out of their own progressively difficult situations. I also adored frequent Flanagan collaborator Zach Gilford’s Mark, a gay nurse practitioner at Brightcliffe who just happens to be an amazing listener. #Power of ten tv seriesA wandering woman named Shasta (Samantha Sloyan, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House) that Ilonka meets who bottles water in the woods and believes in the healing powers of Brightcliffe becomes important as the series progresses. There’s Doctor Georgina Stanton (Heather Langencamp, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare), the program’s warm but closed off figurehead Kevin (Igby Rigney, Midnight Mass, Joe Bell), a cute, friendly boy-next-door teen with leukemia Anya (Ruth Codd), Ilonka’s roommate and a cynical “negative Nancy” amputee Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota), the video game-obsessed previous “new kid” who still wants to be hazed Spence (Chris Sumpter), a queer black boy at odds with his mom over his sexual identity and AIDS diagnosis creative soul Natsuki (Aya Furukawa), who struggles with mental health a religious nut, Sandra (Annarah Cymone), far sweeter than she appears and finally Cheri (Adia), daughter of two Hollywood big-wigs. Brightcliffe Hospice is established as a grand manor surrounded by forest grounds and filled with a colorful cast of characters that (mostly) welcome Ilonka with opens arms. This caveat provides a new sense of drive and direction for Ilonka, hopeful that Brightcliffe could present a new lease on life for the dying young girl.įlanagan’s The Midnight Club immediately carries a strong sense of nostalgia and familiarity. Brightcliffe, a previous cult compound, allegedly once housed a girl who was curiously cured of her cancer when she left the facility. A hospice center seems locked in for her next destination-a mysterious healing place called Brightcliffe Hospice. Flashing forward nine months, Ilonka is now bald-headed, and blows out imaginary candles from her hospital bed. Worried about the possibility of chemo and trying to imagine what kind of life she may even have left, Ilonka wants to know worst case scenarios and actual options for herself. After coughing up blood and passing out at a party, Ilonka wakes up in a hospital bed, learning she has been sadly diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It is 1994 Sacramento, and Ilonka (Iman Benson) is gearing up for her big high school graduation speech. I left caring about virtually every single character and their journeys, longing for more time with them and their tragic but captivating stories. Like the majority of Flanagan’s work, this series injects heart and humor into the mature themes. The memory of that book exists under a sheen of fog in my mind, and yet, creators Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong do an incredible job of encapsulating its tone and style. I remember reading Pike’s signature 1994 novel The Midnight Club for the first time when I was much younger, and the darker themes about death probably went completely over my head. Stine for me personally, there is no denying his young adult brand of horror novels made an imprint on a generation of genre-loving teens. While author Christopher Pike never quite reached the level of Stephen King or R.L.
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