Original subtitles

- It's okay, you're okay, you're okay, okay--

- Help me, Rachel.

It can't be real.

Wake up. Please wake up.

- Hello, Rachel.

Welcome to the show.

- No.

It was just a dream.

It was just a dream.

- You still haven't finished unpacking?

Soon.

- It is your first day of school,

and we are in a new town.

This is a very big deal.

- Why are you so caffeinated?

- I haven't even had a cup of coffee, yet.

Can you believe it?

That's how excited I am about this.

Aren't you excited?

Rachel?

Rachel, Rachel!

- ♪ Now I'm back in the city ♪

♪ The lights are up on me ♪

- Rachel?

Well, this is a chance to reinvent yourself.

You're starting with a blank slate.

You get to decide who you wanna be.

Rachel.

- ♪ All your darkness...♪

- Going to a new school provides new opportunities.

This is an entirely different speech.

- ♪ Brace yourself world, it's about to blow your mind ♪

♪ It's comin' 'round like a shockwave, hey ♪

♪ It's comin' round like a shock-- ♪

- Hello, young man.

- Hello...lady.

- We're your new neighbors.

- Right, uh... I noticed.

- Rachel, say something to the boy.

- I'm Rachel?

- Is that a question?

- No, no, I mean, um--

- Gavin.

- See, making friends already.

- ♪ Darkness falls into...♪

- Are you thinking about that boy?

I mean, that young man was a real Timothée "Shalamat."

Did I say that name right?

- No. It's Chalam--I think.

- I mean, he looks like he could be the love interest

in a teen romance movie, doesn't he?

- Mom!

- What?

He's handsome.

It's the first day of school, honey.

This is the best day ever. - ♪ The world goes dancing ♪

♪ On and on ♪

♪ To the ever-moving ♪

♪ Onward song ♪

♪ And all there was ♪

♪ Is left in the dust...♪

- Have a good day, sweetie!

- Now, listen, honey, I am so proud of you.

- No more speeches.

You love me. I get it.

You also think I'll make friends this time around,

which is excessively optimistic.

I'm just gonna do my best, Okay?

- That's all I ask.

- You know, I'm rooting for you.

I am your biggest fan.

- I know, Mom.

- Love you.

Be careful.

- ♪ Through my mailbox, a letter dropped ♪

♪ An invitation to a rock'n'roll hop ♪

♪ Sent to me by a friend of mine ♪

♪ Who lives in a castle with Frankenstein ♪

- Yo, Porky! Watch this.

- ♪ Igor, Igor, what's your plan? ♪

♪ Going out tonight and dig a rock'n'roll band ♪

- Hey, man, what'd you do that for?

- Dude, I'm sorry.

- ♪ The band was great and the floor was wide ♪

♪ Three big cats rocking side to side ♪

♪ Up one side, down the other ♪

♪ Dracula was dancing with Frankenstein's mother...♪

- Need some help?

- Uh...

- Not many things I'm good at, but I've mastered the art

of opening these death traps.

The trick is you gotta-- you gotta--

- Oh, back, got it, yeah, Mm-hmm.

- You gotta--you gotta--

- Nice going, Adam.

- Apply force the first time.

They get pretty sticky.

And then...

Huh?

That didn't work.

- I appreciate the attempt.

- Who's that?

- Oh, I see we have a new student.

All right, come on up to the front of the class.

Okay, everybody please be quiet

while the new girl introduces herself.

Hi, I'm Rachel Carpenter.

- You'll have to speak up.

I don't think they can hear you.

- Hi, I'm Rachel Carpenter.

- And tell them something about yourself.

- I'm...new.

- Well, thank you for sharing that very...

informative information with us today.

Okay, I'm assuming that you all know

that the square root of 64 is--

Hey.

Strong speech.

Thanks.

Put a lot of work into it.

- I can tell.

- I'm Graham.

- Watch horror movies?

- Yeah. Just a suggestion.

- H-have you seen "The Changeling"?

- Have I seen "The Changeling"?

Please.

Wait, have you seen "The Changeling"?

- My performance of Harold Hill

was referred to as, uh,

intensely loud.

Referred to as loud on stage...

- Okay, uh, don't forget. Page 24 by tomorrow.

All right, thanks, everybody.

No.

No way.

It's just a drawing. It's a--

Oh, that's a smoothie. That's a moldy smoothie.

Graham, you're the hero.

You can do this. You can do this.

Nope.

Okay, don't puke, don't puke don't puke, don't--

Mr. Tophat?

- Sorry, it's taken.

- Gavin, that's so funny.

- Mind if I join you?

- Are you serious?

You are serious. Oh.

Wow, uh...

I'm bad at talking to people.

- That's okay.

I-I like silence.

- Awesome.

- Attention students of Herbert West Middle School...

- I think it was good, but it was more like...

That. - That was good.

- Hey, buddy.

- I'll see you guys later.

- See ya.

- I can't believe you did that.

- Okay, I know it's slightly creepy to take this picture

without her knowing, but I just--

- No, I mean I can't believe you took it out of the trash.

You wash your hands 50 times a day.

- At that moment, my curiosity outweighed my germophobia.

- Has that ever happened before?

Never.

- You might have something here.

Talk to Akiko. - Okay.

Uh, see you later, Louise. - No.

- Oh, no! It's a zombie!

- Cut! Cut, cut.

The line is,

"Oh my God, it's a zombie."

- Does it really matter, Akiko?

- You're fired.

- You're joking. - Am I?

- Aah!

- I knew...

that was a kid in makeup.

- You haven't picked a brain yet.

- The good one.

- Hey, Akiko, when are you gonna let me do the music

for one of your productions?

- I don't work with friends, Graham.

- That's a weird rule.

- I must push my collaborators.

I'd be too worried about your feelings.

Party's over.

Look, it's Argenta's finest.

- We've received many complaints from the neighbors

in the area.

- Hmm. Can't imagine why.

- Something about a slide covered in blood?

- Mommy?

- It's corn syrup.

- I also heard there were explosions.

Plural? - Please.

Those were very minor pyrotechnics.

I've got it all under control.

- I'm sorry!

That's a wrap, everyone.

Great work today.

- You know, it seems like it would be kinda cool

to have a cop as a brother.

- How?

- I don't know. Like if--if you got a ticket?

Maybe he could help you with it?

- I don't drive.

So you really took a piece of paper out of the trash?

- Yes, why is that so surprising to everyone?

Right, 'cause it's totally out of character for me.

That was weird.

- What's the new girl's name?

- Rachel.

- And she'd asked you if you'd seen "The Changeling".

- Yep.

- Not terrible.

It shows some promise.

Let's see if she's got the right stuff.

- I realize what went wrong yesterday.

I shoulda used my other shoulder.

I'll get it right this time.

Oh.

- Adam. Save me a spot at lunch.

TMS?

"What is scarier... A vampire or a werewolf?

"Put your answer in the wall behind the curtain

"in the theater classroom.

"PS--do not tell a soul about this

or you will be disqualified."

A vampire is much scarier.

A werewolf only changes during a full moon.

A vampire is a vampire every night.

"Would you rather be a ghost or a zombie?"

I'd rather be a ghost.

Ghosts at least get to keep their personalities.

Besides, sometimes I feel like a ghost already.

"Would you rather spend the night in a haunted house

or a cemetery?"

I'd sleep in a cemetery. That sounds peaceful.

Unless it's raining,

then I'd risk staying in a haunted house.

PS--is the house haunted by scary ghosts or nice ghosts?

That makes a big difference.

"Congratulations! You have passed the challenge.

Be there at midnight."

Yes!

Who are these guys?

I can do this.

Almost there.

Hello?

Hello?

Is someone there?

Don't be scared.

Don't be scared.

Don't be scared.

Don't be scared.

Don't be scared.

This is a bad, bad, bad idea.

- Rachel.

- Put this on.

- Now.

- Take a seat.

- You have passed the initial trials.

- Trials?

- There is one final step.

- You'll meet us at the exact same place,

tomorrow at midnight.

You have 24 hours to come up with a story.

- A story? - A truly scary story.

- If we like your story, you'll join our group.

If we don't, we will never contact you

ever again.

You get one opportunity, Rachel.

Do not waste it.

- I-I'm gonna need more than a day

to come up with something great.

- That's all you get.

- I declare this meeting of The Midnight Society closed.

- Do not tell anyone about us.

- Coming, coming, coming.

Oh, Rachel, there's someone here to see you.

Oh, thank you.

I know.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- Morning. - Hi.

- Your mom and I were just talking about

the hot summer nights here.

Well, I just figured you could give your mom the day off

and walk me to school today?

- Uh... - It's not that far.

Plus it's good exercise.

- Sure.

Whatever, I guess I could walk.

- Cool.

So I saw you last night.

- W-when?

- At 2:00 a.m.

- Um, uh--

- You were climbing in your window.

- Uh, I was at a party.

- Oh, really?

- Oh, for sure.

I love partying.

- Yeah, cool.

- Oh.

- What was that?

Practically saw a light bulb appear over your head.

- I'm trying to come up with a good idea for a story.

- Oh, for what?

- For class.

- What class?

- Story class?

- What kind of story?

- I have to come up with something scary.

Can't decide what to do.

- That's easy.

Yeah, we're all afraid of something.

I'm afraid of vampires, spiders, pop quizzes.

- What are you afraid of?

What scares you the most?

- Um...

I know what I'm gonna write about.

- Glad I could help.

- Me too.

- Lightning always strikes in a concentrated area.

Why am I telling you this in math class?

The atmospheric condi--

- It's all part of the show.

- Let's do this.

Bring on the bag.

I'm ready.

- Toss a handful of this in the fire.

- Every story begins with these words,

followed by the title of your story.

- "Submitted for the approval of The Midnight Society.

I call this story..."

"The Tale of Mr. Tophat and the Carnival of Doom."

They called it The Carnival of Doom.

- Are you ready?

- Her parents promised her it wouldn't be that scary.

- Wow!

- Isn't that something?

- The Carnival of Doom lives up to its name, huh?

Come on.

- Thank you, have a nice--

- They promised her it would be fun.

- Move along, folks.

- But what they didn't know

was she liked being scared.

- Is it--is it really free admission?

I mean, what's--what's the catch?

- No catch, my friend.

Tonight only. Come right in.

- Or at least, she did.

- Okay, come on, yeah.

- Because after that night,

she never set foot in a carnival again.

- The young girl grabbed her mother's sleeve and--

- W-w-w-wait. The clown had no eyes?

- Yes.

- Nothing at all?

Like, nothing in his eye sockets or anything?

- Look, if the story is too scary,

I can always tone it down for you.

Too scary? Ha.

What? I-I mean,

if anything, it's not too scary enough, so...

- Please continue.

- As I was saying...

the young girl grabbed her mother's sleeve

and told her what she saw.

- He has no eyes.

Have him take off his glasses. You'll see.

- Your glasses--would you mind?

- Not at all, ma'am.

- Seems like someone's letting her imagination get to her.

- Yeah.

- Maybe this is too much for you.

You wanna go home?

Nothing bad will happen tonight.

I promise.

You can trust me.

- If only her mother knew how wrong she was.

- Popcorn, honey.

- Everyone enter the big tent.

Tonight's spooky festivities will begin right inside.

Everyone report directly to the big tent.

- Welcome to tonight's main event.

I am Bartholomew.

It is my honor to introduce to you

the master of ceremonies, king of the carnival,

emperor of the night, and friend to no man.

You may call him... Mr. Tophat.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls,

cats and dogs,

ghouls and goblins,

fast zombies, slow zombies,

creatures of the night,

enemies of the day,

lovers of fun, and haters of everything good and decent.

Welcome to The Carnival of Doom.

Ladies and gentlemen,

please forgive these technical difficulties.

- What's going on?

- Let's just wait.

- We'll be right with you in just a moment.

- I'm right here. - We should--we should go home.

- It's all right.

Very good scream. Use that one later.

Oh, don't be alarmed, everyone.

It's all part of the show.

You may experience things here that are going to...

Shake you to your very core.

Right down here, right?

But just remember, everyone, it's all part of the...

- Show.

- Yes.

- She understood what was happening.

Look.

- They were putting on a show. She liked being scared.

This was fun.

- Oh, now the real fun begins.

Outside of this tent, adventure is in store.

We've got rides. - Rides.

- We've got food, thrills, danger,

whatever you could possibly want,

whatever you could possibly feel.

But remember, no matter how it may seem,

it's all part of the show.

- Let's go on some rides!

- Sure, yeah, okay. Whatever you wanna do, honey.

- All right.

- Let's go. Fun.

That was fun.

- I gotta go to the bathroom.

- Do you want me to come with you?

- I'll be fine.

- The Carnival of Doom was too big for someone so small.

And little did she know,

one wrong turn would lead her to a place

where no child was meant to be.

- Mr. Tophat.

- Hello.

- Is this part of the show?

What's wrong, little girl?

I thought you liked being scared.

- The scorpions were crawling out of his pant leg?

- Yes.

- And he took one, and he ate it.

Ow.

- Just let her tell the story, Graham.

- Graham, is it?

- This is not the Graham you know.

This is an entirely different one that you don't know.

- Well, I like that Graham.

- Really? - Yes.

- Please continue.

- To make matters worse, the young girl ran directly

into the two meanest girls in her school.

- What's wrong, little girl?

- Someone looks scared.

- Looks like someone's gonna cry.

- Don't go back there, please.

- Why, you think there's something back there

that we can't handle?

- We're not babies.

- We're gonna tell everyone in school

that you couldn't handle the carnival.

- It's not--

Mr. Tophat's back there. He's...

Evil.

- It's all part of the show, you baby.

Come on, let's go check it out.

- She watched them leave. She hoped she was wrong.

She hoped they'd be safe.

- Oh, oh! - Whoa, honey.

- She begged her parents to go.

- He ate one. He ate a scorpion.

- Okay, honey, let's go. - He picked it off the ground.

- She knew they weren't safe.

The young girl woke up the next day,

and her memories from the previous night felt more like

a nightmare than something she actually experienced.

She was grateful it was all over.

- Interest from economic analysts.

And in breaking news,

two middle school girls have been reported missing.

Police have begun the search

with the help of friends and family.

Sources say that neighboring counties

will also be donating resources in the coming days

until the girls are found.

Both the parents and police urge anyone

who may have had recent contact with the girls

to come forward as any and all leads

will be crucial in this case.

- They were at the carnival.

- We will continue to report on this story as it develops.

- I-I told them not to go back there.

- What carnival?

- The Carnival of Doom.

Such a dramatic name.

- You--you don't remember it?

I'm sorry, honey,

I honestly don't know what you're talking about.

- We went there,

together.

Th-the three of us?

- Sweetie, are you okay?

- There was no sign of the carnival.

No one in town even remembered that night.

Not her parents, not her friends,

not her teachers...

No one.

And in time, the girl forgot about the carnival too,

and the man in the top hat faded from her memory.

The two girls were never found.

The end.

Let me guess.

Adam?

- You didn't know it was me?

- It literally never occurred to me.

- I thought I asked you too many questions.

I had to make sure you wouldn't rat us out.

- I'm Louise, by the way.

And this guy over here, who couldn't handle your story,

is Graham.

- I handled it.

- We know each other.

- You were scared out of your mind.

- Yeah, but that's a good thing.

I want to be scared. I like to be scared.

Why am I the only person who understands that concept?

- And this is Akiko.

- Greetings and salutations.

- You took off your masks.

You told me your names.

Does this mean what I think it means?

- You do the honors.

Welcome to the club, Rachel.

- Well, it's a lot of pressure.

Hope you can handle it.

- Don't worry. I can.

- I declare this meeting of The Midnight Society

closed.

- I'll have to tell you about my first story sometime.

It was about a leprechaun who drinks blood.

- A vampire leprechaun?

- Uh, no, it's not, um, you know what, it's complicated.

- You could annoy her another time, Graham.

The weird thing is I hate camping.

- Do you wanna know a secret?

You're not annoying.

- Well, I knew that part.

I thought you were gonna tell me an actual secret.

- Hey.

Um, you wanna walk home together?

- If you don't mind me asking, why--

- Why did we choose you?

- Yeah.

- It was your drawings.

- What--what drawings?

- There was one of Mr. Tophat

and one of a giant spider.

- You--you all saw my drawings?

- Yeah, they were amazing.

Really creative stuff, and, um, more importantly,

they were pretty scary.

- Thanks.

So how long have you been in The Midnight Society?

- Uh, around two years. I think.

- I wouldn't have guessed you like scary stories.

I-I-I mean, I guess I don't know much about you.

- Oh, okay, um...

I don't eat meat--that's not like an ethical choice.

I just--I don't like it.

- Right. - The taste, not...

sometimes I worry people will think I do that

just to seem interesting,

but then I remember it doesn't matter what people think.

So-- - Right.

Uh, I like the Knicks.

Um, what do you really want to know?

- Why do you like telling scary stories?

- I think I prefer listening, actually.

Yeah, it's fun to see what people come up with.

'Cause that's the whole fun of The Midnight Society, right?

We get scared,

we get to let our imaginations run wild.

But then we get to go home and sleep,

safe and sound in our beds,

knowing that the real world is much simpler

and nothing's out there going bump in the night.

- Yeah.

- Hey.

Good night, Rachel.

- Good night, Gavin.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes!

- Come on, Jefferson.

- Hey, watch it!

- Move it over here, let's go. - Move it off the back

of the truck-- pull the 18-footer!

- No! Jefferson!

Come back! Wait!

- Adam? Adam?

Jefferson, where's Adam? Adam!

- I'm over zombies.

Next movie is werewolves.

Okay, it's a really underused genre.

- Cops. - What?

Hideo?

What's wrong?

- Hey.

When do I get my own scary mask?

- We don't talk about TMS at school.

- Oh, sorry. Sorry, my bad.

- But the answer is--soon.

- All right, everybody, settle down, take your seats.

Okay, quiet please, quiet.

I've got something I need to share with you.

- You got fired? - Jeremy, come on.

All right, look.

It appears that one of your fellow students

went missing this morning-- Adam Lynch.

Now if any of you have seen him or know anything about it,

please come talk to me

or someone in the principal's office, okay?

Now, on a more positive note.

You wanna hand those back, please?

Thank you.

There's a really fun thing going on this weekend.

- Class, pass these back.

- Pass it along.

- Hand that back.

A carnival's coming to town this Thursday.

- Oh my God.

- Shh.

It's all part of the show.

- ♪ New school, new life ♪

♪ New locker ♪

♪ With notes that make you wonder ♪

♪ What kinds of stories ♪

♪ Likes the Midnight Society ♪

♪ She told the tales of Mr. Tophat ♪

♪ A man that's friends to no one ♪

♪ It's all part of the show ♪

- Adam went missing the same day the carnival came to town.

I think Mr. Tophat took him.

We should go tomorrow night.

Together.

Adam?

- Aah! - Aah!

- Hello, Rachel.

- Get off!

You need to take me to school right now.