Ahead of its release, Nightmarish Conjurings’ Shannon McGrew chatted with writer/director Mike Flanagan and executive producer Trevor Macy where we discussed everything from working around the heavy themes in THE MIDNIGHT CLUB,  selecting the right directors, and ending their discussion focusing on the amazingness of Ruth Codd.

Hi Mike and Trevor! It’s wonderful to be speaking to both of you again. Going into THE MIDNIGHT CLUB, I forgot the book dealt with heavy themes centered around sick kids in hospice care. That being said, how was it bringing this story to life and working with those themes?  

Mike Flanagan: It was a tough balancing act, to be honest. There was an institutional push from Netflix early on that was like this is very heavy. Get into the fun. We don’t want to be mired down too much in the medical realities of this. And our pushback was always, well, no, we have to. This is something where everyone has either gone through something like this personally or knows someone very close who has. We have to respect that by taking this as seriously as possible. But, by taking it as seriously as possible, that opens it up to all of the fun because the levity is so important and the connection and the humor and everything else is part of it.

It was a tough balance to strike in the writer’s room, but we were dealing with a lot of personal experiences within the room. The source material absolutely set us on the right path. People like Heather Langenkamp who have dealt with this profoundly in her personal life, when she got involved with the show she was helping us rewrite scripts. She was helping us make sure that we were not only being technically authentic, but emotionally authentic to it. She was one of the loudest people to say, make sure the kids are having fun. Make sure you do not shy away from that. You aren’t being irreverent if that’s how you’re writing it.

We were constantly surprised by the number of cast and crew members who had a personal experiences that came to bear very specifically with a moment in the show. People I’d worked with for years who I had no idea had dealt with certain diseases or with death or had lost people way too young would raise their hands and say, well, I know a lot about leukemia treatment, and let me tell you why this is something that would be important to me to see. So it became very liberating for all of us and kind of opened us up to this beautiful connection on set and in the writer’s room that I never would have expected.

Picking the right stories

What was the process like in picking which Christopher Pike story to use in the series? Was that something you collaborated with the directors on for each of their segments? Or were the stories already picked and then brought to the directors? 

Mike Flanagan: We had written all the scripts before we approached directors. But finding the stories and choosing them is one of the bigger challenges of it. Christopher Pike has 80 books but not all of them are available.

Trevor Macy: It’s a rights problem first. He has his own kind of view about some things he wants to be movies and some things are completely out. But not every book was available and we had to sort of pick and choose. It was an iterative process cause we thought we kind of negotiated the bundle of, I think there were 28 books that we needed cause it’s contemplated as an ongoing show. So we thought, we’ve got a critical mass. But then we actually had to go back and ask for some more because once we started the creative process, we realized we didn’t quite have the thing we needed for a through line in this season that may go to the next one. So it was an iterative process. Mike knew most of the [books]…

Mike Flanagan: I remember most of the books. So I would say, it would be really cool to do “See You Later” in season one. It would be really cool to do “Gimme a Kiss.” But this is why we shouldn’t touch “Remember Me” or “Monster.” So I had that perspective on it.

But then we had the real fun once the scripts were done, to say like, what’s a director we think would be really exciting to tackle this particular story? And we got to say, I want to see Michael Fimognari do “Fincher,” or I want to see Axelle Carolyn tackle Episode 7. She’s someone we can trust with Anya’s [story]. Pairing the directors with the stories was really fun.

Then it was like, you guys have to paint within the lines on the A story side so we’re consistent, but like go to town on your B story. There are no rules. Every episode resets. So you get to go ballistic on tone and aesthetic and just do what you want to do.

Discovery of Ruth Codd

I was blown away to learn that THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is actor Ruth Codd’s first project. She’s extraordinary. You also took great care in making sure there was proper representation since the character of Anya has an amputated leg, as does Ruth. How did Ruth come your way for this role? 

Mike Flanagan: We were determined to cast an actor who had a disability in the part. We cast a huge net internationally looking for actors. Ruth was discovered by Morgan Robbins, in our casting department, on TikTok. Ruth had never acted, ever.

Trevor Macy: She was back in Ireland during the pandemic but she had been working in theatrical makeup in the West End of London and so she was kind of acting adjacent, but this is her first. As we’ve gotten to know her, she’s absolutely game for anything. When Morgan called her she was like, yeah, sure, I’ll go on tape!

Mike Flanagan: Morgan said, have you ever considered acting? And Ruth was like, why not! [Laughs]. She sent in the tape, got the part, and was like oh, okay then [Laughs]. A week into working with her I would say to anyone who would listen that she’s a movie star. Bona-fide star. And I was like, we not only have to take great care of her on this, but we wrote a part for her in “The Fall of the House of Usher” instantaneously to keep her in the family. I think she’s an incredible talent.

What’s funny to me is we are neck deep in “House of Usher” right now and we haven’t looked at THE MIDNIGHT CLUB in a minute cause we’ve been in that show, and I look back now at THE MIDNIGHT CLUB and I don’t recognize Ruth. She’s completely different in “Usher” in such a profound way that I look back at this and I’m like, oh, right, like that’s how we met her. She’s a chameleon.

Trevor Macy: We glammed her up a little bit for Usher but she took to it like a fish to water. She was great.

Mike Flanagan: She’s also the funniest person. And so to see her play so heavy at times in THE MIDNIGHT CLUB, Ruth is effervescent in life. I’m just impressed so thoroughly by her. Our cast on this show has been such a revelation for us. So many of them are first-timers or just early in their career. We had these revelatory moments throughout of just being like, Oh my god, they’re great. Like, they’re going to go on to great things and it’s an honor to be a step along the way with them.

The first season of THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is now on Netflix. To learn more about the series, check out our review.

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Shannon McGrew

Founder/Co-Owner at Nightmarish Conjurings

Shannon is the Founder of Nightmarish Conjurings and a lover of all things horror and haunt related. When she's not obsessively collecting all things "Trick 'R Treat" related, or trying to convince everyone that "Hereditary" is one of the greatest horror films ever made, you can find her designing interiors for commercial restaurants. An avid haunt fan, Shannon spends the entire year visiting haunts and immersive experiences throughout the Southern California area and hopes to one day design her own haunted attraction.

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