The Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival chose against updating its original premise for more mature viewers, but Netflix’s upcoming The Midnight Club can make up for this decision. Director Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Netflix horror series The Midnight Club is the latest offering from the creator of The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass. Like those earlier critical hits, the series is set to mix angsty character drama and creepy supernatural horror in an adaptation of Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name.

The Midnight Club follows a group of terminally ill teens living together in a hospice who regularly meet at midnight to scare each other by sharing creepy stories. If that premise sounds familiar, that could be because the novel’s central conceit is similar to that of Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Are You Afraid of the Dark?’s framing device was almost identical, save for the fact that the children in that anthology series weren’t living in a hospice.

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In 2019, Are You Afraid of the Dark? was rebooted as a solid children’s horror TV series, now entering its third season. While there is nothing wrong with the reboot’s choice to stick with the original show’s PG-rated Tales From the Crypt-style horror anthology, the Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival could have been a darker, more mature revisiting of the series aimed at nostalgic older viewers who grew up on the original show. Since The Midnight Club was always aimed at older teen readers and has Mike Flanagan at the helm, the Netflix series can now be the more grown-up version of a classic '90s YA horror phenomenon that Are You Afraid of the Dark? opted against.

Midnight Club Netflix Trailer

Both Are You Afraid of the Dark? and the Goosebumps movies of the late 2010s decided to stick with their family-friendly origins, with the two franchise revivals appealing primarily to the same demographic (8–14-year-olds) as the original shows. In contrast, The Midnight Club hiring the director and writer of moving, mature horror dramas like Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House proves that the series will be aimed at an older demographic, likely the viewers who would have been teens when Pike’s novels were at the height of their popularity in the '90s.

This approach means that, unlike the Are You Afraid of the Dark? reboot, The Midnight Club can push the boundaries of what nostalgic '90s horror shows can explore. While the series may not be an R-rated, all-out bloodbath in the vein of the recent adaptation of R.L. Stine's Fear Street books, The Midnight Club can discuss adult subjects that the Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival’s intended audience prohibits the show from touching on. The Midnight Club book dealt with a number of heavy themes, from teenagers facing their own impending deaths from terminal illness to existential questions of what happens after they die. Flanagan’s traumatizing work on Dr. Sleep proves that the director can make horror stories centered around young characters that are empathically not suitable for young viewers, meaning The Midnight Club can fulfill the Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival’s potential to be a more mature, distinctly adult return to '90s teen horror adaptations.

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