Heather Langenkamp Explains Why She Came Out of Retirement to Star in Netflix’s ‘The Midnight Club’

The Midnight Club is Netflix's a live-action series adaptation of the 1994 novel of the same name by Christopher Pike. The thriller series debuted on October 7 2022, starring not only a large cast of fresh faces but also the once iconic familiar face of Heather Langenkamp as Dr Georgina Stanton.

Langenkamp is best known for her lead character Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven’s horror franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street. But since the horror film’s last instalment in 1994, we haven’t seen much of Langenkamp until now. 

The actress revealed in an interview with Vulture what she’s been up to since the classic horror franchise and why she decided to throw herself into Netflix’s The Midnight Club.

After her A Nightmare on Elm Street performance, Heather went into very early retirement from acting. While she took on small TV and film projects, she has largely abandoned the spotlight. 

She told Vulture that she's been mostly working the makeup effects circuit together with her husband, David LeRoy Anderson.

“My husband and I own the AFX Studio company. I serve as the administrator while he is the makeup artist and makeup effects designer. He acquires the scripts and decodes them to create all the practical effects. We get the opportunity to work closely and on lots of projects together.”

She added that despite starring in The Midnight Club, she isn’t planning to make a big Hollywood comeback. 

“One of the beauties of the acting profession is people still need you when you’re old,” she said. “So, I’ve always thought once I finished raising my family and putting them on their path to success that I would be able to focus more intently on acting again.”

Langenkamp admitted that she never imagined being recognized as a horror icon. “I respect the horror genre. I’ve been working in it for 40 years now. The reason I respect it so much is because it is extremely difficult.”

She claimed that the difference between A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Midnight Club is what captivated her. 

'Film stories are pretty simple. There's the main storyline and a B-story, and in some cases, minor C and D-storylines and weaving them together isn't hard. I think A Nightmare on Elm Street really did it well. A series is quite different because you’re doing character studies and digging deeper into all cast members,” she explained. 

Heather narrated that she was attracted to The Midnight Club because of how the writing enabled each character to explore their lives. 

'It's tough to translate these Christopher Pike stories to live format in 20 minutes. But I admired the storytelling technique that Mike Flanagan (the creator) obviously has,' she concluded. 

All ten episodes of The Midnight Club are available on Netflix. Apart from Langenkamp, the show casts young stars, including Igby Rigney, Iman Benson, Sauriyan Sapkota, Aya Furukawa, Alex Essoe, Ruth Codd, Annarah Cymone, Adia and Chris Sumpter.