The Midnight Club Fulfils Another Horror Revival's Real Promise
The Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival chose against updating its original premise for more mature viewers, but Netflix’s upcoming The Midnight Clubcan make up for this decision. Director Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Netflix horror series The Midnight Club is the latest offering from the creator of The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass. Like those earlier critical hits, the series is set to mix angsty character drama and creepy supernatural horror in an adaptation of Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name.
The Midnight Club follows a group of terminally ill teens living together in a hospice who regularly meet at midnight to scare each other by sharing creepy stories. If that premise sounds familiar, that could be because the novel’s central conceit is similar to that of Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Are You Afraid of the Dark?’s framing device was almost identical, save for the fact that the children in that anthology series weren’t living in a hospice.
Related: Is The Midnight Club Connected To Flanagan's Other Netflix Shows?
In 2019, Are You Afraid of the Dark? was rebooted as a solid children’s horror TV series, now entering its third season. While there is nothing wrong with the reboot’s choice to stick with the original show’s PG-rated Tales From the Crypt-style horror anthology, the Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival could have been a darker, more mature revisiting of the series aimed at nostalgic older viewers who grew up on the original show. Since The Midnight Club was always aimed at older teen readers and has Mike Flanagan at the helm, the Netflix series can now be the more grown-up version of a classic '90s YA horror phenomenon thatAre You Afraid of the Dark?
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