Throughout all 10 episodes of Mike Flanagan's new Netflix horror series The Midnight Club, the teenagers staying at Brightcliffe Hospice show off their layered, memorable personalities. While Illonka (Iman Benson) is the main character who learns about this place and tells her foster dad that she wants to stay there, there are many great characters here, from the young adults grappling with matters of life and death to the adults who try their best to help them out.
The Midnight Club has a few particularly engrossing characters who fans want to spend as much time with as possible, and these people are so honest about what they're facing that they feel totally real.
Ilonka
It was clear from The Midnight Club trailer that Iman Benson's character Illonka is the focus of the series, as she finds Brightcliffe and begins staying there, meeting other teenagers who are in the same tragic situation that she is in. Not much else is known, and by the time that viewers get halfway through the first episode, they know that Illonka is a fantastic, well-crafted character.
Illonka is intelligent, sweet, and sees through the walls that other people put up. Illonka is particularly compassionate toward her roommate Anya (Ruth Codd), who is tough and prickly but deep down, she's just as caring as everyone else at the hospice center. Mike Flanagan's Netflix series all include layered characters and fans get a sense of who Illonka is right away. She's devastated to not get the chance to go to college and is doing her best to figure out the mysteries of her new home while living as much as she can.
Kevin
The Midnight Club has Flanagan regulars, including Igby Rigney, who played Warren Flynn. Rigney's The Midnight Club character, Kevin, is the most obviously sweet and caring person at Brightcliffe. Kevin welcomes Illonka with open arms and the two begin to notice some strange things happening in the middle of the night, although Kevin is more hesitant to admit that the supernatural might be at play.
Midnight Mass is a dark show about faith, and The Midnight Club is too. Some young characters are more hopeful than others and they each have a way of coping with the terrible hand that they've been dealt. Kevin admits to his friends that he's tired of the person that his mom, brother, and girlfriend think that he is. He knows that he's not a perfect student/friend/family member/boyfriend and just wants to room and space to grow and be himself.
Mark
Zach Gilford starred in Midnight Mass as Warren's older brother Riley Flynn, the protagonist who has a horrible personal tragedy and comes back home to Crockett Island. Although The Midnight Club is a great teen horror TV show, the adult characters like Gilford's Mark and Heather Langenkamp's Dr. Georgina Stanton are stand-outs as well. Mark looks out for the teenagers and also works as a nurse, taking blood and helping the kids when they have tough moments.
Mark has a particularly memorable and empathetic scene when he tells Spence that his parents weren't supportive when he came out to them, which is helpful for Spence to hear since he has AIDs and is struggling with the terrible ways that people judge him. This show is a highly anticipated Netflix October 2022 release and it delivers as Mark is as complicated yet kind as many other Flanagan characters.
Chris Spencer/Spence
Chris Spencer goes by Spence (William Chris Sumpter) and has a heartbreaking story, as he has AIDs and his mom won't visit him. Every time his dad comes by for Family Day, his father says that his mother has "the sniffles," and Spence feels isolated and abandoned. Watching Mark try to help Spence is one of the most emotional scenes on the show.
Mike Flanagan is adapting an Edgar Allen Poe story next and The Fall of the House of Usher will definitely have the same emotional tone and detailed characters as The Midnight Club. Spence is intelligent, kind, and strong, and it's hard seeing how alone he feels. Spence also gets points for telling a funny ghost story with too many jump scares, which the others tease him about.
Shasta
Samantha Sloyan previously played religious Bev Keane in the Netflix horror series Midnight Mass and her character in The Midnight Club is just as riveting. Sloyan plays Shasta, a woman who Illonka continually meets in the woods near Brightcliffe. Shasta explains that she lives nearby and that she loves spending time in nature as well. When Illonka sees Shasta again, Shasta gives her some free natural products and it turns out that Shasta owns a clean beauty company that Illonka is already a fan of.
There is definitely more to Shasta's story and the fact that so much mystery surrounds her makes her a fascinating character who is an important part of the horror series. It's easy to want to keep watching and see what Illonka learns about Shasta next.