Brightcliffe Hospice: is it a real place? Where is it situated?
The Midnight Club on Netflix tells the story of eight terminally ill children residing at Brightcliffe Hospice. They must come to terms with their upcoming mortality as there is no cure in sight, but even in their darkest hours they are able to laugh and express their love for each other. They drift apart during the day, but meet at the library at midnight to listen to a horror story. Every night, one of them performs on stage and “ghost-works”, but they have no idea that Brightcliffe itself is home to a significant number of ghosts. The setting’s past plays an important role in the story as the teens’ quest for a cure pushes them to their breaking point. Here’s what you need to know about Brightcliffe if you’re wondering if it’s a real place or not.
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Is Brightcliffe Hospice a real place?
No, the Brightcliffe Hospice setting is not an actual location. The book of the same title by Christopher Pike served as the inspiration for “The Midnight Club”. The hospice in the books is known as Rotterham Home, another fictional location invented by the author. Pike created the plot and the setting, but after talking to a fan, he had an idea for the characters and the environment.
A couple with a terminally ill child once came to Pike. She was a great admirer of his writing. The parents reached out to Pike in hopes that their daughter’s dying wish would come true as they understood how joyful it would make her to meet her beloved author. Pike, on the other hand, resided on the other coast, which made it extremely difficult for him to meet her in person. But he continued to communicate with her through phone calls and letters. It was this young woman who told Pike about her book club at the hospital. Every night at midnight, she and the other patients got together and discussed their favorite Pike stories. This affected the author, and he made the decision to create a tale as an ode to his followers.
How much Pike knew of the facility and whether or not he was based in Rotterham Home are both unknown. He took the idea of a book club as the basis for his work, but instead of kids talking about their favorite horror books, he made up new stories for them to swap. Although the girl did not live long enough to read Pike’s book, the author was nevertheless able to connect with other young people who were going through a similar experience.
The complex history of the hospice, and its distinct look and feel from other similar facilities, must have been invented by Pike, as he was writing his book for a wider audience and needed to give the setting a spooky vibe. Additionally, the Netflix series gives the setting its own unique twist by focusing on establishing Brightcliffe as a place full of secrets, horrors, and mysteries rather than a typical hospice.
Where is Brightcliffe Hospice located?
British Columbia, the perfect location for a horror program like The Midnight Club, served as the backdrop for it all. The area is mountainous and verdant, making it the perfect setting for the mystery-filled tale. As for Brightcliffe Hospice, it appears that the main setting of the story was a church in Delta, BC. Other locations were also used, including Bridge Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia.
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Brightcliffe Details
Once Ilonka and Tim arrive, “The Final Chapter” spends most of its time introducing us to the current residents of Brightcliffe and acquainting us with the basic history of the area. The property is maintained by Dr. Georgina Stanton (the legendary Heather Langenkamp), who purchased it in 1966 after a number of different parties, including a spiritual commune by the name of Paragon, had previously owned it. Stanton strikes me now as someone who truly cares about providing comfort to these young people in their final months of life. Because she had lost a son, she rejects the battle analogies that are usually used when talking about illness.
While talking about battling cancer may seem comforting at first glance, it misinterprets death as failure. “Brightcliffe is not about fighting; it’s about permission to leave the battlefield,” she told Ilonka and Tim. We are not here to engage in a fight or to fail in a battle. Here, every day is a success.
Ilonka meets the seven young people staying at Brightcliffe over dinner and a tour of the facilities. After receiving a brief vision of Kevin (leukaemia, four months at Brightcliffe) in visions, Ilonka had already met him outside. The nice boy who shows her around, Spence (five months), is present. We also learn about Natsuki, who has had ovarian cancer for three months, Cheri, who tells pathological stories, Amesh, the class prankster, who has had glioblastoma for two months, and cancer veterans Sandra and Anya (cancer bones, six months) .
With the exception of Igby Rigney and Annarah Cymone, who both appeared in Midnight Mass and play Kevin and Sandra, the majority of young actors are relative amateurs. But there is a lot of promise for this program. Ilonka’s roommate, Anya, played by Ruth Codd, particularly appeals to me because she adds a welcome edge and humorous cynicism to the generally friendly group dynamic.
Anya’s memories of Rachel, the former roommate she shared with Ilonka, provide insight into a more complex past that will no doubt be explored in later episodes. In her later years, Rachel became preoccupied with the occult. She even left a pentagram design on the floor next to the bed Ilonka currently uses. She also claimed to have felt a shadow approaching her in the final moments of her life. It’s possible that this shadow is the one following Ilonka down the hall at the end of the episode.
Brightcliffe’s lights go out at 10 p.m., but on Anya’s first night there, Ilonka discovers her slipping away at midnight. She follows her to the library, where the group is gathered to swap scary stories. The Midnight Club was formed before any of these eight students enrolled at Brightcliffe, as its name suggests. He acts as a stage for the narrative, attempting to terrorize a group of young people who often face death. However, they also made a secret pact: whoever dies first will tell the others what comes from the other side. No one has clearly witnessed a sign from beyond yet, but I have a hunch that won’t last very long.
The Midnight Club seems to be Flanagan’s satire on horror genre clichés. Natsuki continues her conversation with Ren as she tells the first story (played by William Chris Sumpter and apparently imagined in his mind as a version of Spence). The scene opens with Ren stumbling into an unfamiliar block and noticing strangers watching him from every window. However, the mood changes abruptly as a girl’s fuzzy rehearsal of “Are You Lost?” transforms into an endless series of scary jumps with his screaming face appearing in every direction Ren looks.
What is the plot of Brightcliffe?
Flanagan has a lot of fun here parodying the stereotypes he tries to avoid, especially with the funny shot of the girl suddenly appearing in the foreground to scream into the camera. (The second sentence of his Wikipedia page even refers to a “lack of confidence in spooky jumps.”) You get the idea that Spence expresses his own brand of terror through the characters when he corrects Natsuki and says, “ Anyone can smash pots and pans behind someone’s head,” in response to her interrupting her story. It’s breathtaking, not scary. It’s also quite lazy. Even at the climax of the story, Natsuki pulls off a weird quickness by replacing a cat with the actual monster lurking in the shadows. (You just terrified us like a black cat? Spence has spoken his mind. That’s what you end up with first, not last.
Ilonka is the author of the second story of the evening, and as part of her initiation, she is made to tell a story. Most of what she says about Julia Jayne, a young girl whose tumors mysteriously disappeared after being missing for a week while attending Brightcliffe, is true. Julia was obsessed with the idea that she only had about a year left to live, according to Ilonka’s description of events. However, whatever had happened during his absence, she had changed; instead of being aware of her own death date, she had been cursed to always be aware of that of others.
You know it’s not easy? terrifying someone who has heard the worst news you can ever hear. This is how Anya describes the appeal of the Midnight Club for Ilonka. It also acts as the Midnight Club’s mission statement on a deeper level. How can you make your audience feel the terror of your characters when they’re all almost guaranteed to die within a year from the start? We are naturally reminded that there are worse things than death in the answer. Maybe Julia Jayne figured it out on her own.
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