Mike Flanagan’s Answer To Stephen King’s It Is Streaming On Netflix

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Mike Flanagan quickly became a major name in horror thanks to his limited series, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. These shows were inspired by classic stories—Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. But Flanagan didn’t stop there; he also created three more horror series while working at Netflix.

He’s become known for putting his own spin on horror stories – in fact, Midnight Mass is the only project of his not based on existing material. He’s previously adapted Edgar Allan Poe, and recently finished a series based on Stephen King’s Carrie. Before directly adapting King, though, he captured the feel of King’s It in the Netflix series The Midnight Club.

What Is The Midnight Club About?

The Netflix series The Midnight Club is based on the novel by Christopher Pike, and also draws inspiration from his other stories. It centers around the residents of Brightcliffe Home, a place where teenagers with terminal illnesses live. The story begins when Ilonka, a young woman diagnosed with thyroid cancer, arrives and changes the dynamic.

She quickly becomes friends with the seven other residents and joins their unique tradition: the Midnight Club. They secretly gather in the library late at night to share spooky stories and make a promise to each other – if one of them dies, they’ll try to contact the others from the afterlife.

As a fan, I’m completely hooked by what Ilonka and the Midnight Club are discovering at Brightcliffe! It’s not just about their own stories, but also the creepy history of the place. They’re digging into this old cult, strange rituals, and the mystery of a girl from the past who somehow got better – it’s all connected, and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds!

How The Midnight Club Channels Stephen King’s It

Despite their unique qualities, The Midnight Club shares quite a bit with Stephen King’s It. Both stories center on groups of teenagers facing supernatural challenges that adults largely dismiss. This focus on teenage characters gives both a young adult feel, but they still deliver real scares and build tension effectively.

Both It and The Midnight Club use a similar way of telling their stories. They often show characters separated from each other in strange, dreamlike scenes where it’s hard to tell what’s real. In It, the villain, Pennywise, tries to scare each member of the Losers’ Club by isolating them and confronting them with their deepest fears. He changes their surroundings to create a terrifying, personalized experience before everything returns to normal, leaving them disturbed.

In The Midnight Club, the stories the teenagers share are often connected to their own lives, but it’s not always clear what they’re really trying to say through them. As the show goes on, and as the teens face their own mortality, they start experiencing increasingly scary and unexplainable events, similar to how the monster in It torments its victims.

The It Franchise Is In Good Hands

Image via HBO

I’ve always been fascinated by Stephen King’s The Midnight Club, and it’s amazing to see how many different versions and stories it’s sparked! The 2017 movie, with Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, and Finn Wolfhard, really blew me away – it’s incredible that it became the highest-grossing horror film ever! And then It Chapter 2 came along, bringing in fantastic actors like Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain, and James McAvoy, which just made the whole story even richer.

Following the popularity of the It movies, HBO Max released a new series this year called It: Welcome to Derry. Bill Skarsgård returns as the terrifying Pennywise, and the series quickly became one of the streamer’s most popular premieres, ranking as the third most-watched debut.

As a huge fan, and seeing how much everyone – critics, other fans, and even Stephen King himself – loved the show, I’m pretty confident we’ll get a fantastic second season of Welcome to Derry. It’s clear the creative team really captured the spirit of It, and I expect to see that same amazing vibe in other series like The Midnight Club for years to come.

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2025-12-26 16:28