History Series / TheMidnightClub2022

->''“You guys sneak into the library every night and make ghosts?”\\
“Tell stories.”\\
“ ‘Make ghosts’ sounds better.”''

* ActorAllusion: After passing out when entering the Hospice, Ilonka mentions her seeing an old lady, and Doctor Stanton jokes that "while I'm clearly not an ingenue anymore, I wouldn’t call myself old", this clearly being a reference to the actress playing Nancy, the main character and FinalGirl, in the first ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''-film.

* AMFMCharacterization: An improvised Memorial for when one of the kids died ended with them the rest of club singing [[TheNineties the then new]] pop song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", a melancholy song about friendship and early death. We then cut to Dr. Stanton sitting alone in her room, looking melancholy while listening to the LP of "Seasons in the Sun", a [[TheSeventies 70’s]] Melancholy song about friendship and early death.

* MoodyTrailerCoverSong: The trailer has “Possum Kingdom” by Toadies. It starts off normal and upbeat, but shifts into a slower and more ominous remix as the drama and supernatural elements start to show.

** In episode 8, Natsuki describes a situation as “epic cringe factor”, which is internet-era teen slang from two separate decades (“epic” from the aughts, “cringe” from the teens).
** In episode 9, Amesh mentions the X-Files episode “Folie à Deux”. This episode aired in 1998, three years after the series is set.
** Again in episode 9, Spence’s story begins with his protagonist using an iMac. The iMac line was introduced in 1998.

* TheTopicOfCancer: Ilonka is dying from thyroid cancer, prompting her to be sent to the hospice. The majority of the patients there are also dying from some form of cancer: Kevin has Leukemia, Anya has bone cancer, Sandra has Lymphoma, Natsuki has Ovarian cancer, and Amesh has Geoblastoma (and even still has his chemotherapy port still installed). Cheri is also implied to have some form of cancer (there is talk of her having gone through chemotherapy and also lost her hair) but she never reveals the name of her illness.

* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: With the exception of Ilonka's first story and her reading of Athena's diary, every story told by a member of the club has the characters within the story played by the main cast. The storytellers are clearly taking inspiration from real life, and at least in Anya's case, telling a literal version of their own life, with a supernatural twist.
* CanonForeigner: The majority of characters are actually original to the series. While Ilonka, Sandra, Anya, Spence, and Kevin all appear in the book, Natsuki, Cheri, and Amesh were not. Additionally, the staff all have different names, and the majority of patients have family members that were never mentioned in the book.
* ConnectedAllAlong: The last minute of the series reveals [[spoiler:that Dr. Stanton has the Paragon Hourglass tattoo, this together with her age, her "inheriting" the Hospice building from Aceso and her intense hatred for anything Paragon heavily suggesting that she is Athena.]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:When Georgina confronts Ilonka about how badly things could've gone because of Julia Jayne, Georgina points out that everyone (including Julia) acted as though she found some miracle cure or experienced divine intervention, when it's entirely likely Julia was simply misdiagnosed like Sandra or that her illness simply went into remission. The fact that she was so desperate to break into the hospice to do the ritual shows she wasn't as cured as everyone thought.]]

** The male Dr. White, the administrator running Rotterham Hospice in the original book, becomes the female Dr. Stanton in the show. Additionally, the devil, who was originally described as resembling Creator/JamesDean in the book, in "The Two Danas" is a woman as well.
** The protagonist of "The Eternal Enemy" is switched from female to male, because Spense is telling it.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The show approaches the supernatural this way. Seemingly supernatural events are presented in scenarios where they could be mere nightmares or hallucinations. [[spoiler: Anya appears to experience a kind of afterlife, but it's equally possible that she was having a DyingDream as her body failed to fight off her cancer.]]

** Generally speaking, the dialogue and slang used by teenage characters sounds more typical of Gen Zers than Gen Xers.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the book ''The Wicked Heart'', [[spoiler: Dusty dies by killing himself]] while in the version told here, [[spoiler: Shelia almost does it first but pulls back. He is instead sent to a mental institution]].

* TheTopicOfCancer: Ilonka is dying from thyroid cancer, prompting her to be sent to the hospice. The majority of the patients there are also dying from some form of cancer: Kevin has Leukemia, Anya has bone cancer, Sandra has Lymphoma, Natsuki has Ovarian cancer, and Amesh has Geoblastoma. Cheri is also implied to have some form of cancer (there is talk of her having gone through chemotherapy) but she steadfastly refuses to reveal the name of her illness.

Creator/ImanBenson stars as the terminally ill Ilonka Pawluk, who elects to commit herself to Brightcliff, a hospice specifically designed for dying young adults. She soon finds that her fellow patients secretly meet at midnight to tell each other spooky stories. The scares soon become real after one of the group members dies and mysterious occurrences follow. Creator/HeatherLangenkamp, Creator/ZachGilford, and Creator/SamanthaSloyan also star.

** In the original novel, the name of the hospice was Rotterham Home. Here it's been changed to Brightcliff.

* BaldnessMeansSickness: When Ilonka was informed of her diagnoses, she made a big speech about her being able to beat the odds. GilliganCut to her months later extremely bald, celebrating her 18th birthday. Later, when she gets to Brightcliff, the majority of patients either suffer from this or are implied to have gone through it. [[spoiler: the final scene reveals Stanton is also secretly bald, implying she also has cancer.]]

* HauntedHouse: The Brightcliff hospice comes off like this to Ilonka and Kevin because of the ghosts they see, and their waking flashbacks to the house's past. The other patients also deal with seeing a living shadow haunting them. There is also a very spooky cult-ritual room in a hidden basement. However, the hauntings are never once actually hostile to any of the characters or seek to do them harm. They are just scary-looking. The house itself is mostly as advertised: a hospice with very caring staff who do their best to make the patients comfortable.

* LivingShadow: A recurring presence at Brightcliff. One cliffhanger had wheelchair user Anya witnessing her shadow stepping up from her shadow wheelchair. Several other patients also experience a mysterious shadow haunting them as they near death. Their experiences with it end up being incorporated into some of their stories. Anya has the devil appear first as a shadow in "The Two Danas" before solidifying into a human form.

* NoLastNameGiven: The majority of the characters are not credited with last names. Ilonka is the only member of the titular club to have her last name (Pawluk) mentioned onscreen, Dr. Stanton is the only staff member at Brightcliff to be given a last name.

** [[spoiler: WordOfGod has stated the intention of subverting this. At the end of the series, Spence's mother has begun taking steps towards mending the damage she did by rejecting him, and the plan in Season 2 was to have Spence leave Brightcliff after the new advances in the AIDS cocktail would leave his condition no longer terminal.]]

** The titular club is implied to traditionally always have eight members, for the eight teenage patients Brightcliff can accommodate at a time. Except dialogue suggests that Brightcliff can accommodate at least nine patients, as at the beginning of the show, Ilonka seems to take the deceased Rachel's place as Anya's roommate and her spot in the club, keeping the club number at eight. Except, at this same time Tristan is dying in the recovery room, and she was presumably also a member of the club, meaning their were actually nine club members at the time, with one being absentee. Tristan's place as Natsuki's roommate is also never filled following her death, while WordOfGod states that Anya's place would have been replaced with a new patient come Season 2.

“‘Make ghosts’ sounds better.”''

Creator/ImanBenson stars as the terminally ill Ilonka Pawluk, who elects to commit herself to Brightcliffe, a hospice specifically designed for dying young adults. She soon finds that her fellow patients secretly meet at midnight to tell each other spooky stories. The scares soon become real after one of the group members dies and mysterious occurrences follow. Creator/HeatherLangenkamp, Creator/ZachGilford, and Creator/SamanthaSloyan also star.

** In the original novel, the name of the hospice was Rotterham Home. Here it's been changed to Brightcliffe.

* BaldnessMeansSickness: When Ilonka was informed of her diagnoses, she made a big speech about her being able to beat the odds. GilliganCut to her months later extremely bald, celebrating her 18th birthday. Later, when she gets to Brightcliffe, the majority of patients either suffer from this or are implied to have gone through it. [[spoiler: the final scene reveals Stanton is also secretly bald, implying she also has cancer.]]

* GiveMeASign: One of the Clubs Oaths is that it will be the job of the next member of the club to die to give this to the rest of them, thus proving there is an afterlife. [[spoiler: The broken ballerina statue in Anya's things reappearing with the leg inexplicably repaired is taken by them as a sign]].

* HauntedHouse: The Brightcliffe Hospice sure feels like this, with an array of spooky shadows and the kids gathered around a table, unaware that a figure cloaked in black is also in their midst.

* {{Irony}}: Lampshaded. Amesh includes [[OurAngelsAreDifferent some form of angels]] in his climax of "See You Later", and they see that Sandra slept through it.

* KidsRaidingTheWineCabinet: The first shown Midnight Club had the kids passing a bottle of wine around (despite the one member pointing out how it could fuck with all their medicine). They raided it from Dr. Stanton's private stash. They seemingly continue to raid it as the series goes on, and have wine at almost every meeting.

* LivingShadow: A recurring presence at Brightcliffe. One cliffhanger had wheelchair user Anya witnessing her shadow stepping up from her shadow wheelchair. Several other patients also experience a mysterious shadow haunting them as they near death. Their experiences with it end up being incorporated into some of their stories. Anya has the devil appear first as a shadow in "The Two Danas" before solidifying into a human form.

* NoLastNameGiven: The majority of the characters are not credited with last names. Ilonka is the only member of the titular club to have her last name (Pawluk) mentioned onscreen, Dr. Stanton is the only staff member at Brightcliffe to be given a last name.

* WritersCannotDoMath: [[spoiler: The reveal that Stanton is Athena falls into this. Heather Langencamp was 58 when the show was released, and Stanton makes a comment that while she's hardly young, she doesn't qualify as "old" yet, implying they are of similar ages. However, Athena is stated to have been 16 in 1940, which would make her 70 in 1994 when the show is set, making her more than a decade older than the actress playing her ''and'' putting a lie to Stanton's comment.]]

* AdaptedOut: Given that it's turning entire novels into stories that could reasonably be told in a single sitting, this is inevitable. The truncation of some stories leads to Shelia's love interest Matt being cut out of ''The Wicked Heart'', and the entire Nazi revelation being cut out of "The Wicked Heart". It also only adapts a single story from the original novel, with Spence and Kevin's stories being replaced with other Christopher Pike stories, and Ilonka's replaced with an original story.

* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: [[spoiler:The reveal of most the Stories. Sometimes more a thematic throughline, sometimes a revealed Dream and sometimes literally what genuinely happened except the supernatural was a metaphor for substance abuse and pretending to be perfect in front of your parents and your normal life.]]
* AscendedExtra: In the original book, Sandra was more of an observer to the club and never shared any stories except for a rambling anecdote about losing her virginity to some guy in the park. [[spoiler:The fact she didn't have any stories foreshadowed Sandra being misdiagnosed, meaning she was never really part of the club because she wasn't going to die.]] Here, Sandra has her storyline regarding her faith and eventually delivers ''Gimme A Kiss''. [[spoiler:She still ends up leaving because she was misdiagnosed.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler:In the novel, Sandra was the patient who was misdiagnosed and left the hospice. Ilonka eventually realized Sandra never had stories to share because she wasn't dying, and thus wasn't really part of the club. Here, Sandra does have a story to tell while it's Cheri who never shares any tales with the club giving the sense to those who read the original book that Cheri's the one who'll leave the hospice. It later turns out Sandra's still the misdiagnosed teenager.]]

* BaldnessMeansSickness: When Ilonka was informed of her diagnoses, she made a big speech about her being able to beat the odds. GilliganCut to her months later extremely bald, celebrating her 18th birthday. Later, when she gets to Brightcliffe, the majority of patients either suffer from this or are implied to have gone through it.

** The first twenty minutes of [[spoiler: "Anya" show the eponymous character seemingly recovered and working as a cashier in 1997, with the other members of the Midnight Club now deceased. It however turns out that this is a dream she's experiencing while properly dying. The last few minutes of the episode show Anya's dream substantially transforming from a nightmare into an actual dream thanks to the Midnight Club creating a more positive hypothetical for her life]].

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: [[spoiler:When Georgina confronts Ilonka about how badly things could've gone because of Julia Jayne, Georgina points out that everyone (including Julia) acted as though she found some miracle cure or experienced divine intervention, when it's entirely likely Julia was simply misdiagnosed like Sandra or that her illness simply went into remission. The fact that she was so desperate to break into the hospice to do the ritual shows she wasn't as cured as everyone thought.]]

* KnewItAllAlong: In episode 7, the Club is jarred when Stanton waltzes in and reveals she, and the rest of the staff, have always known about the Club's meetings.
-->'''Stanton''': All these years, it's always struck me as funny that you kids think because I don't stop you, that means I must not know. You think we don't notice when all of our patients sneak out at midnight? You think the night nurses don't hear your voices through the doors? Of course we know. Why do you think there's always fresh firewood?

* KnewAllAlong: In episode 7, the Club is jarred when Stanton waltzes in and reveals she, and the rest of the staff, have always known about the Club's meetings.

* AdaptationDistillation: The series condenses several of Christopher Pike's other novels as the stories the club tells, including ''The Wicked Heart'' (Kevin's story), ''Gimme A Kiss'' (Sandra's story), ''See You Later'' (Amesh's story), ''Witch'' (Ilonka's story), ''Road to Nowhere'' (Natsuki's story), and ''The Eternal Enemy'' (Spencer's story). The most notably condensed is ''Road to Nowhere'' which simplifies the story to just all taking place in the car. However, it's implied that Natsuki is deliberately telling a condensed and altered version of the story, as she is seen reading the full book to Tristan early on. The only story used from the original novel is Anya's "The Devil and Dana", here renamed to "The Two Danas."

** In episode 7, Cheri leads the teenagers in a cello and vocal rendition of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day. This song was released in 1997, three years after the series is set. {{Word of God}} [[https://www.tvinsider.com/1065312/the-midnight-club-green-day-good-riddance-time-of-your-life/]] states that they were aware of the discrepancy, but included the song anyway due to personal importance and fitting the theme.

''The Midnight Club'' is a horror mystery-thriller series developed by Creator/MikeFlanagan and distributed by Creator/{{Netflix}}. It counts as Flanagan's fourth series made for the platform after ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'', ''Series/TheHauntingOfBlyManor'', and ''Series/MidnightMass2021''. The series is based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Creator/ChristopherPike, who also acts as an executive producer alongside Flanagan.

* AdvertisingByAssociation: The teaser advertises the series as coming "from the producers of ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' and ''Series/TheHauntingOfBlyManor''."

* AMFMCharacterization: An improvised Memorial for when one of the kids died ended with them the rest of club singing [[TheNineties the then new]] pop song ''"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)'', a melancholy song about friendship and early death. We then cut to Dr. Stanton sitting alone in her room, looking melancholy while listening to the LP of ''"Seasons in the Sun"'', a [[TheSeventies 70’s]] Melancholy song about friendship and early death.

* AdaptedOut: Given that it's turning entire novels int stories that could reasonably be told in a single sitting, this is inevitable. The truncation of some stories leads to Shelia's love interest Matt being cut out of ''The Wicked Heart'', and the entire Nazi revelation being cut out of "The Wicked Heart". It also only adapts a single story from the original novel, with Spence and Kevin's stories being replaced with other Christopher Pike stories, and Ilonka's replaced with an original story.

* BaldnessMeansSickness: When Ilonka was informed of her diagnoses, she made a big speech about her being able to beat the odds. GilliganCut to her months later extremely bald, celebrating her 18th birthday.
* BloodyHandprint: The journal describing living under the Cult ended with bloodsmeared handprints within the journal.
* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: With the exception of Ilonka's first story, every story told by a member of the club has the characters within the story played by the main cast. The storytellers are clearly taking inspiration from real life, and at least in Anya's case, telling a literal version of their own life, with a supernatural twist.

** Anya's estranged best friend Rhett first appears in the second episode within the story she is telling, as the character "Bill". He appears as himself in a DyingDream of Anya's five episodes later, and then finally in person to Ilonka in the final episode.

** Speaking of which, the original book, "Gimme a Kiss" is a teenage Revenge story. Here it's adapted into a noire story.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Anya's estranged best friend Rhett first appears in the second episode within the story she is telling, as the character "Bill". He appears as himself in a DyingDream of Anya's five episodes later, and then finally in person to Ilonka in the final episode.

** Taking WordOfGod into account [[spoiler: the idea that the Janitor was really [[DontFearTheReaper Death]], his seemingly drop-in character take on a new light]].

Creator/ImanBenson stars as the terminally ill Ilonka Pawluk, who elects to commit herself to Brightcliffe Hospice, a medical facility specifically designed for dying young adults. She soon finds that her fellow patients secretly meet at midnight to tell each other spooky stories. The scares soon become real after one of the group members dies and mysterious occurrences follow. Creator/HeatherLangenkamp, Creator/ZachGilford, and Creator/SamanthaSloyan also star.

** In the original novel, the name of the hospice was Rotterham Home. Here it's been changed to Brightcliffe Hospice.

* AdaptationDistillation: The series condenses several of Christopher Pike's other novels as the stories the club tells, including ''The Wicked Heart'' (Kevin's story), ''Gimme A Kiss'' (Sandra's story), ''See You Later'' (Amesh's story), ''Witch'' (Ilonka's story), ''Road to Nowhere'' (Natsuki's story), and ''The Eternal Enemy'' (Spencer's story). The most notably condensed is ''Road to Nowhere'' which simplifies the story to just all taking place in the car. The only story used from the original novel is Anya's "The Two Danas."

* AdaptedOut: The truncation of some stories leads to cases of this, such as Shelia's love interest Matt being cut out of ''The Wicked Heart''.

* GenreShift: The book it is based on has some spooky moments, but is generally a ComingOfAgeStory with some supernatural elements. The ending even veers slightly into sci-fi. The series meanwhile has significantly more horror elements, and the nested stories are often deliberately written to be scary by the storytellers. The stories also go on genre tangents, with two being sci-fi and one being a teenage noir.

* HairTodayGoneTomorrow: Justified example. As all the characters are terminal, and everyone except Kevin has short or shaved hair to signal it, their stories show them with longer hair. Anya is especially notable, where her AuthorAvatar in "The Two Danas" has near waist-length hair.

* JumpScare: The first story that is told features a lot of these, which is heavily called out by the others. WordOfGod says this was done after Netflix asked he include some, and not being a fan of them, he did this as a troll. This has earned the series the Guinness World Record for most jump scares in a TV episode.
* KidsRaidingTheWineCabinet: The first shown Midnight Club had the kids passing a found bottle of wine around (despite the one member pointing out how it could fuck with all their medicine).

* LivingShadow: A recurring presence at Brightcliffe. One cliffhanger had wheelchair user Anya witnessing her shadow stepping up from her shadow wheelchair. Several other patients also experience a mysterious shadow haunting them as they near death.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: [[spoiler:When Georgia confronts Ilonka about how badly things could've gone because of Julia Jayne, Georgia points out that everyone (including Julia) acted as though she found some miracle cure or experienced divine intervention, when it's entirely likely Julia was simply misdiagnosed like Sandra or that her illness simply went into remission. The fact that she was so desperate to break into the hospice to do the ritual shows she wasn't as cured as everyone thought.]]

Creator/ImanBenson stars as the terminally ill Ilonka Poljak, who elects to commit herself to Brightcliffe Hospice, a medical facility specifically designed for dying young adults. She soon finds that her fellow patients secretly meet at midnight to tell each other spooky stories. The scares soon become real after one of the group members dies and mysterious occurrences follow. Creator/HeatherLangenkamp, Creator/ZachGilford, and Creator/SamanthaSloyan also star.