31 Days of Halloween: Some TV

The Midnight Club, 2022, Netflix

Werewolf by Night, 2022, Disney

Life and Thanksgiving overtook most of our available time, so the last three four nights have just been watching our new favourite Mike Flanagan series, The Midnight Club, and chuckling at the one-shot Special, Werewolf by Night. 

I have already fessed to being big fans of Flanagan, so it was no surprise I was in for this latest series. I do like that Netflix is invested enough in him that they have dubbed it the Flanaverse, but also, that's kind of lame. This one sets itself once again in a haunted house, this time a hospice for terminal teenagers, a bucolic estate in the countryside where they can live their final days out in comfort and support. But, of course, something else is going on.

This is based on a YA series, to some degree, and that is present in the conceit of the show, in that The Midnight Club is where the kids come together each night to tell horror stories, and to address a pact they have made, in which when they die, they will do their best to send the rest messages back from the other side. But again, something else is going on in that house, because... well, there always is. Stories within stories seems, to me, to be prevalent in YA fiction.

The first handful of episodes have been, as Flanagan is wont to do, setting up the stories. We meet the kids, understand their motives and predilections, getting to like some and dislike others. I am not as wrapped up in their stories as much in previous series by Flanagan, and I am also not as keen on the continuous jump-scares. I know he likes them, but I guess due to the demographic audience, there was a need to up the ante on them. And as before, as we reveal more of the story and more about the kids, you get more wrapped up in the intermingling stories. 

We are trying to not binge it, but also want to get back to the now-once-again-full queue of downloaded horror movies. Watch what we already had from previous years? Sure, but watch from a growing list of even newer downloads? SURE. (insert the Drake meme image)

Meanwhile over on Disney, they added Halloween to the MCU by giving us an all too brief exposure to some of the monsters in its universe. Marvel has always had some proper monsters in its world, including Dracula, Frankenstein (they drop the apostrophe-monster), Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, etc. They have even brought them together in cross-over comics, such as Midnight Sons. And some have even reached over to the screen, including the much derided Morbius and Ghost Rider and even Hellstrom which is about the Son of Satan. And this time, we get the Werewolf, my favourite of monsters!

I loved Werewolf by Night, the comic, when I was a kid. It was right down my alley of a superhero comic that was not about straight superheroes. I always liked a twist to the usual. They definitely modelled his look from The Wolfman, the Universal monster movie, giving him a sort of Hulk-like appeal, even always leaving him wearing (purple?) pants. I don't recall any of the stories, but the supernatural would get mixed in, and he was a typically tortured soul character.

The show comes along not explaining anything, which is perfect for One Shot Specials. We are introduced to a group of monster hunters, founded around leader Ulysses Bloodstone, and his prodigal daughter Elsa. The monster hunters, a colourful cadre of Z-grade characters from Marvel, are vying for control of the stone, by hunting a monster, and each other, in a maze of Bloodstone's design.

The monster they hunt? Marvel knows its viewers well enough that they are a mix of old fans and new fans, so they hide the monster's identity for a while, eventually revealing Man-Thing (squeee!) and that one of the hunters is not hunting him, but is his buddy Jack Russel, i.e. Werewolf by Night. Their interaction makes it sound like a run of a Team Up comic run. Soon after the reveal, Russel is unmasked as monster, not monster hunter and captured. But not for long, as they invoke The Moon and ... well, slaughter ensues.

It was a fun romp for about an hour. They have a lot of fun playing with the tropes and the style of the show, it mostly being shown in black & white, with overtones of B level monster movies, as well as the buddy-cop motif showing up in more MCU shows of late.

So, what if they were to do a proper Midnight Sons or Legion of Monsters? Morbius was a dud, so many they can recover him? Ghost Rider could be done again, and we know there is already is a Blade movie in the works. So many options!