Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Midnight Club’ follows the story of eight teenagers who are terminally ill and live in a hospice called Brightcliffe. With no cure in sight, they have to make peace with their impending death, but even in the darkest times of their lives, they find love and humor with each other. During the day, they spend their time doing different things, but at midnight, they assemble in the library for a single purpose: a horror story. Every night, one of them takes the stage and “makes ghosts,” but unbeknownst to them, Brightcliffe has quite a few ghosts of its own. The history of the place becomes an important part of the plot, as the search for a cure drives the teenagers to extreme ends. If you are wondering whether or not Brightcliffe exists in the real world, then here’s what you should know about it.
Brightcliffe Hospice is a Fictional Place
No, Brightcliffe Hospice is not based on a real place. ‘The Midnight Club’ takes inspiration from Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name. In the books, the hospice is called Rotterham Home, which is also a fictional place created by the author. While the story and its location are borne of Pike’s imagination, the idea for the characters and the setting comes to him after he talks to a fan.
Pike was once approached by a couple whose daughter was terminally ill. She was a huge fan of his books. The parents knew how happy it would make her meet her favorite author, so they reached out to Pike in the hopes that their daughter’s last wish might be fulfilled. However, Pike lived on the opposite coast, making it very hard for him to have a face-to-face meeting with her. Still, he talked to her through letters and over phone calls. It was this girl who told Pike about her book club at the hospital. She and other patients would gather every midnight and talk about their favorite stories by Pike. The author was moved by this and he decided to write a story as a tribute to his fans.
It is unclear how much Pike knew about the hospital and whether he based Rotterham Home on it. He used the book club as the basic premise for his novel, but instead of children discussing their favorite horror books, he invented new stories that the children would tell each other. Unfortunately, the girl did not live long enough to read Pike’s book, but through it, the author managed to reach out to other teenagers who were in a similar situation.
Because Pike was writing his book for a wider audience and needed to impart an eerie vibe to the place, he must have concocted the complicated history of the hospice, including how it looked and felt different from other such places. The Netflix series also adds its own touch to the place, focusing more on establishing Brightcliffe as a place full of mysteries, horrors, and secrets rather than a conventional hospice.
Fictional Hospice, Filmed in British Columbia
The whole series was filmed in British Columbia, which is a perfect setting for a horror show like ‘The Midnight Club.’ The province is lush and mountainous, providing the perfect setup for the story full of mysteries. As far as Brightcliffe Hospice is concerned, it seems like a church in Delta, BC, was used as the main setting of the story. Other locations were also used, like Bridge Studios in Burnaby, BC.
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