Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Horror
Gregory Robinson
Horror fans are warning the internet about Netflix's 'traumatic' new series The Midnight Club, where the scares are both supernatural and super practical.
Created by Mike Flanagan, who is also behind The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass, the series has sent shivers down viewers' spines after it dropped last week.
Watch the trailer below if you dare:
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Just the mere mention of Flanagan's name is enough to keep fans up at night, but in case you're not in the know, the 10-part series follows a group of terminally ill teenagers living together at a hospice.
Each night, when the clock chimes midnight, they meet up to share scary stories.
The teens make a pact that when one of them dies, they’ll return as a spirit to prove there is life after death. Now that's what we call the ultimate test of friendship.
Even the most strong-willed souls have struggled to make it through the Netflix series - and it's not just the teen's scary stories that have kept them up in the night.
The terminal illnesses each of the main characters must deal with - meaning death is always imminent - has left some viewers feeling heartbroken. They have now issued their own warnings on social media for those who have yet to binge the shows themselves.
One person Tweeted: "Hi #midnightclub was amazing but if you have lost someone in a traumatic way it can be pretty triggering."
Similarly, another potential viewer reacted online with: "The way I want to watch The Midnight Club so bad but the whole Young People Dying of Cancer thing is too traumatic lmao."
A Flanagan fan tweeted: "Me: Mike Flanagan can’t pack possibly pack anymore trauma into his shows. Mike Flanagan: Here’s a show about a hospice for terminal teens."
Another viewer said the show could be a tough watch for those who know people struggling with terminal illnesses. "So #MidnightClub while it is a little creepy and #Flanagan obviously knows how to pull it off, if you’re someone who has come close to or suffers some kind of trauma that deals with death…tread lightly cause it can get very overwhelming," they wrote.
The Midnight Club is based on a book of the same name written by Christopher Pike.
The book was published in 1994 and Flanagan’s dreams of bringing the tale to the screen have stretched back almost as far.
Flanagan read the book when he was a teen, but once he attended college a few years later, the director became convinced that The Midnight Club would be his first Hollywood feature.
This didn't end up happening after Flanagan sent a screenplay adaptation he wrote to Pike's publisher, who in turn responded with a cease and desist letter.
Luckily for horror fans across the globe, Flanagan's teenage dream came true this year with the release of The Midnight Club on Netflix, which is at number two on the overall Netflix chart behind Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.