‘The Midnight Club’ First Look: ‘Haunting of Hill House’ Creator Turns Back the Clock for YA Scary Stories

The year? 1994. The place? Inside your worst nightmare.

Horrifying stories come to life as part of “The Midnight Club,” the latest series from “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Midnight Mass” creator Mike Flanagan. Along with Leah Fong, Flanagan created the upcoming Netflix series, premiering October 7, based on the works of novelist Christopher Pike. The 10-episode series is executive produced by Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures, along with co-creator Fong, Julia Bicknell, and author Pike.

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The official synopsis reads: “At a hospice with a mysterious history, the eight members of the Midnight Club meet each night at midnight to tell sinister stories – and to look for signs of the supernatural from the beyond.”

The ensemble cast includes Iman Benson, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Annarah Cymone, Chris Sumpter, Adia, Aya Furukawa, Sauriyan Sapkota, Matt Biedel, and Samantha Sloyan, with Zach Gilford and Heather Langenkamp. “The Midnight Club” is set in 1994, and marks the first YA series from Flanagan and Macy for Netflix under their Intrepid Pictures overall deal.

Novelist Pike’s selected stories include “Witch,” “Gimme a Kiss,” “Road to Nowhere,” and “The Wicked Heart,” with all of the storytelling onscreen taking place at the mysterious Brightcliffe Manor. The terminally ill teens at the heart of the plot vow to supernaturally return to their friends after meeting their fatal final ends.

Creator Flanagan told Vanity Fair that he has spent decades trying to adapt the story for the screen.

“It was about teenagers having to reconcile with terminal diseases and with death,” Flanagan described Pike’s works. “And it didn’t pull its punches there either. It was a real lesson in how you could use genre to talk about very serious things. This really blew my hair back.”

He added, “The engine of the first season for us is these kids really want some kind of reassurance that their lives aren’t really over. They believe the bonds they formed are strong enough that one of them could come back and tell the others, ‘Don’t be afraid. There’s something else on the other side.'”

“The Midnight Club” isn’t the only storytelling series debuting this fall on Netflix. Guillermo del Toro’s anthology show “Cabinet of Curiosities” taps Panos Cosmatos, Catherine Hardwicke, and Jennifer Kent to helm horrifying stories just in time for Halloween.

“The Midnight Club” premieres October 7 on Netflix.

Check out the first-look photos below.