Mike Flanagan's The Midnight Club is officially less than a month away from reaching Netflix and, with the date quickly approaching, there've been plenty of images and teasers shared from the Christopher Pike adaptation. While previous shots have teased the return of some Flanagan favorites and set the scene for the Midnight Mass creator's newest project, the latest set of images, coming exclusively from Bloody Disgusting, however, highlights the tragic aspect of the series which revolves around a group of terminally ill patients at Brightcliffe Hospice.
The pair of images is the first look at Flanagan regular Matt Biedel, who was last seen playing Bev Keene's right-hand man Sturge in Midnight Mass, along with Iman Benson. Benson plays one of the unfortunate residents of Brightcliffe, Ilonka, who is driven to the place after a terminal diagnosis derails her meticulously planned future. Determined to defy death, she seeks out Brightcliffe with the hope that the stories of miraculous recoveries are true and that she, too, can continue her life. Biedel, meanwhile, plays her guardian Tim who helps her through it all. All the trust and love the pair share is on display as they tearfully embrace in both images as they deal with the tragedy of Ilonka's diagnosis. It's a reminder that behind the spooky stories at the center of the show is a deep air of tragedy that comes with these characters' lives being thrown into turmoil.
Flanagan is creating The Midnight Club as a sort of gateway horror for younger viewers with fewer of his signature monologues while still including plenty of scares and danger for the titular club's members. He referenced Pike's work for its ability to address darker subjects while still marketing itself to younger readers eager to get into the often-twisted horror genre. With the show centering on hospice patients gathering to tell spooky stories while making a pact that the first to die will contact the others, tragedy will play a big role in the new images only cement that.
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This will be Biedel's second stint in a Flanagan production, though he's slated for a third when he appears in the horror master's adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher. Aside from Narcos: Mexico, he'd mostly taken smaller television roles until appearing in Midnight Mass where he carved out a spot for himself among the series' other standouts like Hamish Linklater and Rahul Kohli. He'll be among his peers with The Midnight Club as Kohli will also appear alongside fellow Flanagan favorites Samantha Sloyan and Zach Gilford.
Alongside Biedel and Benson, the series also stars Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Annarah Cymone, William Chris Sumpter, Adia, Aya Furukawa, Sauriyan Sapkota, Larsen Thompson, William B. Davis, Crystal Balint, Patricia Drake, and Heather Langenkamp. Flanagan co-wrote the series with Leah Fong and also brought on a talented group of directors for the series in Morgan Beggs, Axelle Carolyn, Michael Fimognari, and Viet Nguyen. Flanagan and Fong also executive produce with Trevor Macy.
The Midnight Club releases on Netflix on October 7. Check out the teaser below.
