Editor’s Note: This review covers the first five episodes of the series, a review of the final three episodes will appear on the site within the next week.
Mike Flanagan is truly a master when it comes to telling powerful, allegorical tales that scare the living hell out of his audience.
Midnight Mass, his latest Netflix series, follows the Flanagan playbook — truly haunting moments are woven into a tapestry of relatable human drama. Yet, this time around, the writer/director takes more creative risks, not just with his choices of horror, but with how many real-life issues he tackles and how deeply he examines them. The result is a powerful, thought-provoking, sometimes unsettling, and of course terrifying tale.
Midnight Mass follows the arrival of two people to Crockett Island (aka The Crock Pot) – a sparsely populated fishing town that’s been ravaged by the fallout of an ecological disaster. The first is Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights), recently paroled after killing a young woman in a drunk driving accident. He returns to his childhood to find an angry, resentful father (Henry Thomas, a Flanagan regular), a doting, uber Catholic mother (Kristin Lehman, The Killing), and his teenage brother (Igby Rigney, F9). Riley is a man still, literally, haunted by his past who is wading aimlessly through recovery and his reentry into society. The other arrival is Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater, Legion), a charismatic and fervent Roman Catholic priest sent to replace the town’s longtime religious leader, Monsignor Pruitt.
The arrival of both men to the town coincides with two very disparate events – the evangelical awakening of the town spearheaded by Father Paul and the possible sightings of something sinister looming throughout the town. These different events within the series allow for Flanagan to world build in two separate worlds that he’s very comfortable writing in.
The first world is one of absolute terrifying, jaw-dropping horror. It bears repeating that this series is indeed scary as hell. Flanagan is no stranger to both sudden and subtle horror. He knows how to allow terror to slowly creep into the world of the dramatic that he’s so carefully and richly created and then pounce at you when you least expect it. There are so many times where we come off a beautiful piece of acting and dialogue that absolutely hits you in the soul when you’re suddenly struck by a moment of sheer horror. It’s an effective device employed throughout the series and it’s employed so well that you find yourself on edge wondering just what terrible thing is going to happen next. This anxiety is not unwelcomed in this scenario and is never ramped up to an unbearable level (a mistake some films/series make).
While the fantastical world of horror Flanagan creates is what drew us into the series in the first place, it’s the human drama that keeps us planted in our seats. Flanagan has tackled the themes of trauma, addiction, and sexual repression (amongst other subjects) in Hill House, Bly Manor, and Doctor Sleep. However, he takes things even deeper in Midnight Mass. He engages, head-on and in an unflinching manner, everything from the Catholic faith to the afterlife to the plight of the American worker to racism and the weaponization of faith, as well as the trauma, and addiction. The dialogue in this series is staggering as so many characters deliver mountainous monologues rife with powerful insight, questions, and ponderings. Yet, the audience never feels preached to. There’s no finger-wagging or condescension, bitterness, or hubris. It feels like an honest discussion and debate, as well as an allegory for fanaticism and religious hypocrisy.
The dialogue in the series only works because of the actors who deliver it. Hamish Linklater is an absolute revolution as Father Paul. Linklater is tasked with portraying such a complex character that is constantly delivering massive amounts of dialogue. He’s able to completely nail the genial priest mark perfectly, and yet is still able to imbue a sense of discomfort in the character that bleeds its way off the screen. Samantha Sloyan (who starred in Flanagan’s early film Hush) is truly magnificent as the despicable church and town leader Bev Keane. While she might not be some sort of demon, monster, or ghost, she truly exudes evil in the coldest and most calculating way.
Zach Gilford is perfect in the role of the wounded Riley Flynn. Everything from his pained posture to the look of defeat in his eyes paints this sad masterpiece of a man in need of but not wanting or accepting of redemption. Yet, like Linklater, he’s able to imbue something into the character, and that’s hope. It might not be hope for the storybook ending but hope that despite all his sorrow and anger, he actually can forgive himself and move on. This feeling shines whenever he interacts with longtime Flanagan cast member (and his wife) Kate Siegel’s character Erin Green. The two have two amazing scenes together in episodes 4 and 5 about life and death that will render you to tears. Their brutally honest takes about death and the afterlife feel so true-to-life that the words and performances hit you way harder than you’d ever expect. These two are phenomenal together and hopefully we’ll see more of them together in future Flanagan projects.
Midnight Mass is a show that rarely comes across your screen – a genre series that is also a thought-provoking religious and philosophical examination of the existence of God and the afterlife, as well as an emotional tale about addiction, recovery, and self-forgiveness. It hits on so many emotional levels at the same time and it’s hard to shake the show after watching it. Your mind races with questions about everything while the terrifying imagery keeps you awake at night. Midnight Mass might not be Mike Flanagan’s scariest work or his most palpable for the masses, but it just might be his masterpiece.
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