Midnight Mass Review: Highly Engaging!

Midnight Mass piqued my curiosity because it comes from the same mind that gave of us The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mike Flanagan. Flanagan to me is one of the few horror filmmakers today who gets it. He understands what today’s audience needs in the genre and he’s willing to dig deep emotionally and portray subject matter that’s rarely visited in horror. Real horror starts in the mind and I want to be disturbed.

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Midnight Mass is centred on a small town that’s actually a small island filled with various inhabitants of varying faith and religion. When the town’s golden boy Riley Flynn played by Zach Gilford, returns following his major success in the Silicon Valley tech world and his subsequent deadly DUI, he realises the town he left behind has changed. A big factor owing to this is the highly religious town’s new priest Father Paul, played by Hamish Linklater.

This short series has a very intriguing premise. Forget what you know about religious or occult horror, because this is something new entirely. This show delves far deeper into religion than might be comfortable for some viewers so, discretion is advised. Personally, I don’t have this problem and rather than repelling me, it revved up my interest right away.

It’s not the weird cheesy way they generally tend to portray religion in horrors but rather focuses on religious concepts with brilliantly detailed references to Christianity and The Bible. What I like most of all is that Mike Flanagan shows here that you can take existing concepts and spin them to explore new facets. You never have to reinvent the wheel.

Religion isn’t new to the horror genre however, the focus on religious concepts and character development is a new angle. It shows how religion specifically Christianity here, can be distorted to completely change the initial message.

The interactions between characters is one of the series highlights and it has alot more emotional range than I expected. With award winning performances from Zach Gilford, Kate Siegel, Hamish Linklater and Samantha Sloyan, Midnight Mass is highly engaging, short but well paced, impactful and the finale explosive. Another hit for Flanagan.

‘Midnight Mass’ Rating – 4.5/5

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