Mike Flanagan’s new show, The Midnight Club, is currently the second-most popular Netflix show in the U.S. at the time of publication. There’s plenty of buzz around it on social media and it seems like the streamer has another hit.
Now add one more detail to its list of accomplishments- a Guinness World Record. On Thursday, October 6th, the creative team behind the The Midnight Club was officially presented with a certificate declaring the show broke the world record for most jump scares in a single episode of scripted television.
What’s the Show About?
The Midnight Club is a horror series that’s based on the young adult novel from author Christopher Pike. Set in 1994, it follows a group of terminally ill teenagers in a hospice facility who meet up each night to tell scary stories. They make a pact that whoever is the first to die will try to reach out to the others from beyond the grave.
Cast members include Iman Benson who starred in #BlackAF as well as Samantha Sloyan and Zach Gilford from Midnight Mass.
It follows a string of horror-themed limited series to hit Netflix from Mike Flanagan that includes The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and, of course, last year’s Midnight Mass.
Why so Many Jump Scares?
A Flanagan-produced series might seem like an odd candidate to take this new record, as he has previously expressed that he thinks jump scares are overused. In fact, there are a total of 21 jump scares in the record-setting first episode of The Midnight Club.
Speaking to NPR, Flanagan said, “I react very much to not the jump scare itself, but to the insistence that I get usually from executives that say, ‘you need to have a prescribed number of [jump scares] in the show.’”
But perhaps we know his motivation now as he also said, “So now I’ve got this Guinness certificate, which I think gives me the right the next time I get the note… I can say ‘well I’ve got the world record.’”
A Spooky Time at Netflix
The Midnight Club is one of many new horror shows and movies coming out in October 2022. Others include Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, a new season of Unsolved Mysteries, and the stop-motion animated film Wendell and Wild.
For a full list of the new Halloween shows and movies streaming this month on every major streaming service, check out our article here.
