The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized the premiere episode of Netflix’s The Midnight Club as having the most jump scares in a single TV episode.
So why exactly did director Mike Flanagan decide to include 21 (!!) jump scares? Ironically, he believes jump scares to be overused and lazy but apparently, that was part of the fun.
Executives have consistently encouraged him to use more jump scares in his work, prompting him to do all of the jump scares for The Midnight Club at once.
“If we do it right, a jump scare will be rendered meaningless for the rest of the series.’ It’ll just destroy it. Kill it finally until it’s dead,” he told a room full of press in advance of the big Guinness break at New York Comic-Con. “But that didn’t happen. They were like, ‘Great! More [scares]!'”
Flanagan said for his entire career he has “shat on jump scares as a concept.” This time, he wanted “to make sure it was pinned to me, too, as much as it is to the show, to Netflix, and all of us who have inflicted this on everyone,” Flanagan said.
“Now, I have my name in the Guinness Book of World Records for jump scares, which means next time I get the note, I can say, ‘You know, as the current world record holder for jump scares, I don’t think we need one here,’” he said.