Horror book franchise ‘Mr. Midnight’ to premiere as Netflix series this October

A live-action adaptation of popular horror fiction book series Mr. Midnight is set to premiere on Netflix this month.

An Instagram account for the series sprang to life in late September, proclaiming the series will premiere on Netflix this October 24. The account has begun sharing the first stills from the series, which appears to take its cues from the style of Netflix’s hit Stranger Things series with house decorations and clothes straight out of the 1990s with stylised lighting,  alongside a main cast of younger teens.

Details are still scarce, including information like runtime or number of episodes.

The plot, per an 8world report, will revolve around a group of friends who become supernatural detectives, recording their adventures in a blog called ‘Mr. Midnight’. Singaporean actress Chen Yixin, Australian actors Caleb Monk and Nikki Dekker, and Malaysian actor Idan Aedan make up the main cast, and the series was shot in Batam, Indonesia over a five-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The popular children’s book series by Singapore-based Australian writer Jim Aitchison under the pseudonym James Lee has spanned over 128 books including special editions, each containing two horror stories. The series has been highly successful in Singapore and Malaysia, with a marketing manager for bookstore chain Popular telling Mail & Guardian in 2006 that the series’ popularity was comparable to that of Harry Potter in the two countries.

The series has since been made available in Burmese, Malay, Indonesian, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, and celebrated its 100th edition (excluding special editions) in 2020.

In other Netflix news, an anime anthology adapting the works of horror manga artist Junji Ito will begin streaming on January 19. Dubbed Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, the anthology will animate and compile 20 stories from Ito’s bibliography in a television series for the first time.

Among the stories confirmed for the anthology is an adaptation of The Hanging Balloons featuring Riho Sugiyama and Daisuke Kishio as the voices of Kazuko Morinaka and Shinya Shiraishi respectively. Rie Suegara and Yumiri Hanamori will voice the titular character and Tsukiko Izumisawa respectively in an adaptation of Tomie: Photo, while Yuji Mitsuya will voice Sōichi in an adaptation of The Room with Four Walls, and Hiro Shimono will voice Oshikiri in Intruder.

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