Sam Amico
You wouldn’t think telling scary stories to fellow kids could break records as the plot of a show. But, The Midnight Club has managed to do exactly that.
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As relayed by Men’s Health, the premiere of the Netflix series, The Final Chapter, set a Guinness Book of World Records. It is now the only series with the most scripted jump scares in a single episode. In this case, the number is 21.
The Midnight Club takes place at a hospice for young people, who gather every night to tell spooky tales by a campfire. It was adapted from a novel by Christopher Pike and was turned into a Netflix show by Mike Flanagan. Flanagan is no stranger to developing horror series. He previously help complete artistic control over critically acclaimed projects such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and 2021’s Midnight Mass.
As for The Midnight Club, the record is set when a character named Natsuki (portrayed by Aya Furukawa) is telling a story in which a screaming ghost keeps appearing suddenly in the frame.
Flanagan admitted that the jump scares can be a little over the top, but also impactful.
“Generally speaking I have a love/hate relationship with jump scares, and that’s mostly hate,” he said, via Men’s Health. “Some of the most fun I ever had growing up in the genre and watching horror films was when a really terrific jump scare would land… I think if you can get somebody once, if you can get somebody twice, that’s pretty impressive. I’m hoping we can get somebody 17 times. It’s going to be like machine gun fire.”
The Midnight Club premiered on Netflix on Oct. 7.
