Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong’s new Netflix series The Midnight Club has so many jump scares it smashed a world record and made me almost fall off my couch.
The series based on Christopher Pike’s ’90s horror books has scored a Guinness World Record for the most jump scares in one episode — 21 in fact. And 17 of those are in one spooky story. According to Variety, a GWR official presented Flanagan with an official certificate onstage at New York Comic Con on Thursday.
The Midnight Club follows eight young people — Ilonka (Iman Benson), Spencer (Chris Sumpter), Natsuki (Aya Furukawa), Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota), Anya (Ruth Codd), Cheri (Adia), Sandra (Midnight Mass’ Annarah Cymone), and Kevin (Midnight Mass’ Igby Rigney) — living at palliative care facility Brightcliffe Hospice: « A place for teenagers to transition on their own terms. » Each night, they sneak into the library and tell each other spooky stories they’ve created, in order to reveal more about themselves to their friends but also just to scare the shit out of each other.
In one story, in episode 1, Natsuki tells a tale inspired by Japanese horror films that involves a school girl ghost that simply will not stop jump scaring a boy just trying to walk down the street. The scene features a total of 17 jump scares, some in hilariously rapid succession, a feat called out by Flanagan and Fong through the character Spencer in a joyously self-aware moment.
« Don’t be lazy, » Spencer says to Natsuki. « Anyone can bang pots and pans behind someone’s head. That’s not scary, it’s just startling. And it’s lazy as fuck. »
So if you can’t handle jump scares, maybe turn the volume down on this scene.
