Midnight Mass, creator Mike Flanagan’s seven-part very successful series, filmed in Gary Point Park, in Richmond Canada, near Vancouver, is currently airing on Netflix. It is the rare horror show that wants to make you think, as much, or maybe even more so, than it wants to scare you. Stylishly filmed and meditatively written, it features profound and often moving ruminations on death, guilt, grief, addiction and the power of religion to both inspire and coerce. At times these philosophical ponderings, often featured in long stretches of dialogue between two characters, bog down the plot a bit, but for the most part, they give valuable insight into the characters’ motivations and the filmmaker’s lofty intentions. Flanagan, whose previous projects include The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, has described Midnight Mass a deeply personal passion project and it shows. The show is deeply rooted in Flanagan’s Catholic upbringing, as well as his alcoholism, and eventual sobriety and embrace of atheism, giving the series a grounded realism which persists even as it wrestles with terrifying supernatural phenomenon and dares to ask its big questions: what happens to us after our deaths, and while we’re alive, what do we owe our fellow human beings?
The show begins with return of prodigal son Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) to Crockett Island, a decaying but scenic coastal community with a population of 127. Riley has spent his life trying to escape his dying hometown, but is now exiled there after a stint in prison for a drunk driving accident where he killed a young woman. Haunted by the accident and his complete lack of prospects, Riley is viewed as the town pariah, and is welcomed back only by his mother. At the same time, a charismatic young priest, Father Paul, (Hamish Linkletter, in a standout performance), arrives to fill in for Monsignor Pruitt, the ailing, long-term pastor of the island’s St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. Monsignor Pruitt, who was much frailer than his parishioners wanted to admit, had been gifted a dream trip to the Holy Land by his grateful congregants, but has taken ill and is recovering on the mainland. Or is he? Several islanders think they see him, as a ghostly figure wandering around late at night and during wild in his trademark long coat and fedora.
As Father Paul ministers to his flock at St. Patrick’s with kindness and compassion, several other strange things begin occurring on the island, from the creepy to the miraculous. A huge winged creature like an albatross is spotted flying across the island and a plethora of blood-drained cats wash up on the beach after a storm, but there are other unexplainable events which the stoic islanders greet with tears of joy. Flanagan skillfully deploys his trademark jumpcuts, long, sweeping takes (one lasting over seven minutes), and zoom-ins to amp up the terror. When the unearthly cause behind all these happenings is finally revealed, some viewers might find it somewhat disappointing, but by then, the series has completely drawn you in. The cinematography is undeniably gorgeous, with long, sweeping vistas of the pewter-colored sea and sky surrounding Crockett Island giving the series a stark beauty it shares with its island setting. The characters are compelling and the acting is first rate. Linkletter is nothing short of remarkable as Father Paul, in a tricky performance you can’t take your eyes off of. Gilford gives Riley a resigned grief and guilt- stricken weariness that is very affecting. Kate Siegel brings a melancholy allure to her portrayal of Riley’s former love, who like him has returned unhappily from the mainland after an abusive marriage that has left her pregnant and living in her mother’s old house and teaching the bored teenagers at the small school. Samantha Solyan, as the sanctimoniously pious, ever helpful Bev Kean is scarily overbearing and yet familiar, and Rahul Kohli, as the Muslim sheriff who has sought out this lonely outpost for his own reasons and struggles to maintain his faith amid an overwhelming Christian majority, is ruggedly sincere and convincing. Perhaps the series’ greatest strength is how much we come to care about all these inhabitants of Crockett Island, which makes the blood-soaked finale not just shattering but incredibly poignant as well. Midnight Mass and the deep questions it raises will remains with the viewer long after the final credits roll, making it truly haunting.
-Maureen McCabe
