The Midnight Club episode 7 review: A lesson in horror storytelling

Mike Flanagan's The Midnight Club debuted on Netflix on October 7, 2022, with all ten episodes following a bunch of terminally ill children in a manor with a mysterious history. Though the previous episodes were engaging enough, they lacked what is now known as Flanagan's signature element- the play on mind. Episode 7, titled Anya, more than resolved this and delivered one of Flanagan's finest screen moments.

After a sinister end to the sixth episode, viewers were perhaps expecting more horror, ghosts, and supernatural expeditions, after the youngsters tried out a satanic ritual to save their dying friend Anya (Ruth Codd). However, this episode took viewers on a mind-numbing trip in classic Flanagan fashion, which twisted so many times along the way that it could make anyone question their reality.

Read on for a detailed review of The Midnight Club episode 7.

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The Midnight Club episode 7 review: Confusing what is real?

After the sixth episode elevated the tension to a high point, the seventh one opened in a completely different setting, with Ruth Codd's Anya looking and feeling very different from how we had seen her before this. Though the setting feels off from the very onset, the episode continues on this path for nearly half of its runtime.

That is the beauty of Flanagan's writing. Much like the first sequence of his famed Haunting of the Hill House finale, which left viewers questioning the reality of the show, this episode misguided viewers to think completely off-track and managed to carve out a non-existent reality.

Not to forget, this sequence also had one of the scariest parts of the series so far, with Anya losing track of her reality and going through a myriad of dream-like ghosts, all of them drawing from the stories told in the Midnight Club. After drawing in ample scare from this sequence, the episode reveals itself to the audience properly.

The shocking revelation of Anya's death, the imminent reality of their failure, and the warden's discovery of their activities keep the flow in the second half of the episode. This half is also much more emotionally draining with the supernatural theme sliding in the background. Flanagan continues to emphasize how real losses and real fears are human, and he does it more frequently by depicting small sequences of ghosts in between. With each of the youngsters facing death, it is evident how supernatural spirits are secondary in the face of mortal crises.

The Midnight Club seems to have something reserved for each of the episodes before they end in the form of a cliffhanger. The final sequence sees Illonka (played by Iman Benson) overhearing something that changes the course of the story to a large extent. She hears the warden say that one of them is not terminally ill. With this revelation, the show opens up a myriad of questions that should be the focus of the upcoming episodes.

The episode also concludes with a tad of jump scares, reminding viewers of the real theme. All in all, this was the most Mike Flanagan episode of The Midnight Club yet, and also one of the scariest ones.

All ten episodes of The Midnight Club are now streaming on Netflix.