New York Comic Con treated fans tonight with a world premiere of the first episode of The Midnight Club. But the new horror show also treated fans to witness a new world record. Created by Mike Flanagan, who previously helmed Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, The Midnight Club focuses on a group of young adults with various illnesses who meet to tell each other stories and ponder what comes after death. For the first episode, the story told within the story provided the source for the broken record.
Slight spoilers to follow for The Midnight Club. Read ahead at your own peril.
In the premiere, Natsuki, played by Aya Furukawa, tells a story to the other club members about a boy walking home at night who finds all the residents of the surrounding houses staring at him through their windows. Suddenly, a girl, played by Furukawa as well, disappears from her window to pop up behind the young man. Back in the framing device, the club members lament the use of a cheap jump scare. So in the story, the girl then pops up again. And again. And again. And again. Then she’s gone. No, wait, there she is again. And again…
If you haven’t guessed by now, The Midnight Club breaks the Guinness World Record for the most scripted jump scares in a show. Watching this unfold as part of the audience, I felt everyone get scared, start to laugh, then get scared again, and then laugh. Truly, it was one of those experiences that benefitted from a crowd. As such, I recommend that viewers watch the premier with others for the effect.
When the episode ended, official Guinness adjudicator Andrew Glass presented Flanagan and the cast and crew in attendance with the award. “So funny story,” Flanagan replied, “I hate jump scares.” He explained that with his shows, people always kept telling him to add more jump scares. So he decided to “empty the missile silos” in the hopes that nobody would ever ask him to add more. The episode contained 21 jump scares, beating the previous record of 12. The segment required stunt training and body doubles, with Furukawa adding, “there were about three other ‘me’s’ on set.”
But the cavalcade of jump scares is hardly the only reason to watch The Midnight Club. Adapting the novel by Christopher Pike of the same name, the stories the club members tell will also adapt Pike’s other books. “We married each story to each character,” explained producing partner Trevor Macy.
Moderated by notable horror critic Perri Nemiroff, the panel introduced many of the talents involved with the show. Co-creator Leah Fong stated that Nastuki was actually the first female Asian role she had ever written. She also wrote a lot of herself into main character Ilonka, played by Iman Benson.
At the start of the show, Ilonka learns that she has terminal thyroid cancer, prompting her to seek out the Brightcliffe Hospice. For Benson, the scene where Ilonka receives her diagnosis proved the toughest to film, since the actor wanted to do it justice. Once Ilonka goes to Brighcliffe, she meets her fellow residents as well as the caretaker of the hospice, Dr. Georgina Stanton, played by Heather Langenkamp. Horror fans will recognize Langenkamp as Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the NYCC crowd oohed when Langenkamp said that the new part was “maybe better than Nancy,” her benchmark for taking on roles.
As for the rest of the cast present, Igby Rigney plays Kevin, the first resident Ilonka meets, and Annarah Cymone plays Sandra, a young religious woman. Both actors previously appeared in Flanagan’s Midnight Mass, returning to “The Flanagan Club” as Nemiroff puts it. Chris Sumpter plays Spencer, who dislikes the nurse Mark, played by Zach Gilford. However, the sentiment doesn’t extend to real life, as Gilford opened his home to Spencer when the young actor couldn’t find an apartment for filming.
Next up there’s Cheri, a compulsive liar played by Adia. “She wants to protect her vulnerability,” offers Adia as the reason for the false tales, as Cheri wonders if people would know if she ever told the truth. Then there’s Amesh, a surprisingly chipper resident played by Sauriyan Sapkota. And how does Amesh stay so happy in such a bleak place? “Video games,” Sauriyan exclaimed, to the cheers of the Comic Con crowd.
Last but not least, Ruth Codd plays Anya, a jaded member of the Midnight Club with an acerbic wit. And it may surprise some to know that Anya is Codd’s first onscreen acting role. The hardest part of filming for Codd was learning her lines, since she has, as she put it, “the memory of a goldfish.” But thankfully she managed to memorize them—with a little help from the Jellybean Method. What’s the Jellybean Method? “If you say [the lines] right three times you get to eat a jellybean,” Codd explained.
And of course, The Midnight Club wouldn’t be a Mike Flanagan show without some cameos and Easter Eggs. Flanagan promised that the mirror from his film Oculus would make an appearance. He mentioned that various familiar faces would appear, especially in the stories within the story. But he challenged viewers to find three cleverly hidden cameos in particular, whether visual or auditory, of frequent collaborators Hamish Linklater, Carla Gugino, and Kate Siegel.
Since the clock has now reached midnight on the east coast, viewers can watch the entirety of The Midnight Club tonight on Netflix. Any more surprises? While viewers often think of the fifth episode of each of Flanagan’s shows as a standout, this time Flanagan warns viewers that the seventh episode “is kind of a doozy.”
Hopefully it won’t re-break his own record of the most scripted jump scares.
