The Dark Artifices: Lady Midnight

The Dark Artifices: Lady Midnight  is an Urban Fantasy Mystery film released in 2023 based on the 2016 novel by Cassandra Clare. It was the eleventh installment of The Shadowhunters Chronicles film series. It was released on September 30, 2023. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics which praised its screenplay, characters, acting and mystery elements but criticized its dark tone, chemistry and pacing. It grossed $410 Million against a $200 Million dollar budget making it a box office disappointment.

Plot
Following the Dark War, the Blackthorn family has grown up as an active Shadowhunter Institute in the city of Los Angeles. Julian and Emma are two parabatai while Emma is adopted by the Blackthorn family after her parents deaths in the Dark War. Meanwhile, Faeries are being oppressed by the Shadow Hunters because they allied with Sebastian Morgenstern. The Blackthorn family discovers Faeries are behind a set of Dark Ritual related killings of Mundanes. Despite being Parabatai, Julian and Emma fall in love which goes against Shadowhunter code. Julian is forced to step up to run the institute due to Arthur Blackthorn's insanity due to the Dark War.

A fairy group called Wild Hunt which is trying to solve the Faerie killings to help keep peace between faeries and Shadowhunters. They offer to free a Las Angeles Institute member named Mark Blackthorn in exchange for the Shadowhunters assistance in clearing their names. Mark and Cristina Rosales investigate a cave involved in the Faerie killings. Emma and Julian travel to the lottery where they encounter demons and a cult running the operation. Emma, Julian, Mark, and Cristina investigate the lottery and find its most recent winner and his son Kit Herondale. They team up but Emma falls through a portal leading into the sea and Julian saves her. Through runes the team uncovers that to complete the ritual the cult leader of the Followers of the Guardian the cult behind the lottery incident.

The Guardians plan is to use the murders to revive his deceased lover, the team finds Cristina's former lover Diego on the case and team up with him. Diego is a graduate of a Scholomance of elite Shadowhunters. He reveals the Guardian needs a book called the Black Volume of the dead and Blackthorn blood to complete the spell. While chasing the Followers of the Guardian, Mark is forced to chose between the Wild Hunt and Las Angeles Institute. He chooses the institute and choses his Shadowhunter side over his Fairy side. Meanwhile the team uncovers that the Guardian is trying to revive a woman named Lady Midnight who is actually Annabel Blackthorn. The team discovers that the Guardian is actually a warlock named Malcolm Fade.

The team confronts Malcolm at a cave where Malcolm uses blood of Tavvy Blackthorn to work on the ritual to revive Annabel. The team battles Malcolm, Malcolm reveals that he killed Emma's parents as part of the ritual which as left Annabel in a catatonic state. Kit Herondale is rescued by Tessa and Jem who reveal that he is the decedent of a lost Herondale named Tobias. Back at the institute Julian and Emma discover that due to falling in love they will have stronger runes but everyone around them will become miserable. They decided to drift apart and Emma uses Mark as a distraction.

in a mid-credits scene, Johnny Rook is attacked and killed by demons due to losing the protection of his house. in a post-credits scene, Annabel Blackthorn opens her eyes inside her coffin as she's partially revived.

Cast

 * Manny Jacinto as Magnus Bane
 * Emilia Jones as Tessa Gray
 * Britt Robertson as Helen Blackthorn
 * Paris Berelc as Aline Penhallow
 * Ryan Kwanten as Andrew Blackthorn
 * Damian Walshe-Howling as Author Blackthorn
 * Andrew Barth Feldman as Mark Blackthorn
 * Zackary Arthur as Julian Blackthorn
 * Mckenna Grace as Emma Carstairs
 * Jamila Velazquez as Cristina Rosales
 * Ariana DeBose as Diana Wrayburn
 * Tony Revolori as Diego Rosales
 * Kyle Lowder as Malcolm Fade
 * Emjay Anthony as Tiberius Blackthorn
 * Johnny Sequoyah as Livvy Blackthorn
 * Sunday Curry as Drusilla Blackthorn
 * Iain Armitage as Octavian Blackthorn
 * Bradley Cooper as Johnny Rook
 * Maxwell Jenkinsas Christopher Jonathan Herondale
 * Iwan Rheon as Kieran
 * Anson Mount as Gwen ap Nudd
 * Nicola Peltz as Wren
 * Serinda Swan as Annabel Blackthorn
 * Patrick Gibsonas Casper Sterling

Critical Reception
The Dark Artifices: Lady Midnight received Mixed to Positive reviews from critics.

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 63%, with an average score of 5/10, based on 250 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it may fell to dark and boring at times and fails to reach the heights of the book, it has some decent drama amidst a dark fantasy murder mystery." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequels
It was planned as the first installment of a trilogy adapting the novels sequels releasing on October 15, 2024 and April 25, 2025. The sequels were delayed following the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Due to the films box office performance, the production companies decided to delay production and the follow up films Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness would be produced on a lower budget.