The Midnight Club, Netflix's latest offering from Mike Flanagan, has set a Guinness World Record for following a classic horror trope. According to reports, the show received the record for the most jump scares in just one episode.
Netflix's The Midnight Club, based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Pike, is being adapted to the screen by Flanagan and Leah Fong, with Flanagan serving as showrunner. It follows a group of teens with terminal illnesses - Ilonka (Iman Benson), Cheri (Adia), Kevin (Igby Rigney), Sandra (Annarah Cymone), Natsuki (Aya Furukawa), Anya (Ruth Codd), Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota), and Spencer (Chris Sumpter) - at Brightcliffe Hospice. The eight teenagers meet every midnight to tell scary stories to one another and begin to discover that Brightcliffe might not be what it appears.
According to Deadline, prior to the launch of the series, co-creator Flanagan and the creative team were presented with the record for the most jump scares in a single episode at Netflix's New York Headquarters. According to the report, Flanagan is not a fan of jump scares and instead decided to include so many to get them out of the way. Flanagan says, “I thought, ‘We’re going to do all of them at once, and then if we do it right, a jump scare will be rendered meaningless for the rest of the series.’ It’ll just destroy it. Kill it finally until it’s dead, But that didn’t happen. They were like, ‘Great! More [scares]!'”
Flanagan now presents himself as an expert on the subject. He further goes on to say, “My whole career I completely s*** on jump scares as a concept, and I wanted to make sure it was pinned to me, too, as much as it is to the show, to Netflix, and all of us who have inflicted this on everyone. Now, I have my name in the Guinness Book of World Records for jump scares, which means next time I get the note, I can say, ‘You know, as the current world record holder for jump scares, I don’t think we need one here.'” As the current world record holder, it’s hard to argue with the man.
The Midnight Club only just dropped this Friday, October 7. While some may have seen the show already, most viewers have probably yet to sit down and watch the series. Flanagan's proven himself at Netflix as a horror master with his turns on The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor - the integration of the jump scares is hopefully done well and not distracting.
The series already seems like it’ll be a crowd pleaser. It seems to have plenty of scares for the audience, but its setting also allows for plenty of emotional moments and drama. The Midnight Club sounds like the perfect show to watch for October.
The Midnight Club is available to watch on Netflix.
Source: Deadline