Review: "Midnight Mass"

SPOILER WARNING

Mike Flanagan burst on to the streaming scene with Netflix back in 2018 when his horror drama, The Haunting of Hill House dropped. It featured beautifully written fully realized characters and while the scares weren't horribly scary, they were seeped in reality making it much more relatable to it's viewers. Since then Flanagan has seen success with his follow up to Hill House in Bly Manor, then he also went on to the big screen adapting Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. Flanagan takes a lot of inspiration from Stephen King so it is no surprise to hear that he has adapted two stories from the beloved writer and many of his original stories still have a bit of that King flavor to them. The same can once again be said about his newest creation, and his biggest passion project to date in Midnight Mass. Flanagan is a great writer when it comes to humanistic horror and that is on full display in this incredibly intimate tale that delves heavily into themes of addiction and religion. Flanagan, himself, admits this has been his long time passion project due to struggles he has had with alcoholism and growing up as a pastor boy in Salem. The passion and attention to detail radiates through every episode and every long winded dialogue of this intriguing horror drama.

The plot follows a small dreary religious town that has it's share of problems. It's a devout Christian town, named Crockett Island, that is filled with struggling fisherman that all seem to have some sort of ailments holding them back from their best selves. In comes two people with two different backgrounds, one in Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), who was once a pastor boy for the town who left trying to make something of himself only to succumb to alcoholism and in doing so accidentally murdered a younger woman and found himself doing time in jail for it. From there, he found himself returning to the very place he never wanted to return too. In his return, and to the behest of his God-loving parents, he has forsaken his belief in any God. Not just a Christian God. The other person coming to Crockett would be in the form of Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) who has been sent to take over for the town's longtime priest that had recently fallen ill. Father Paul is a bit of a mystery but immediately takes to the people of Crockett and gives hope to a hopeless group of people that have been barely skating by.

Hamish Linklater's turn as Father Paul is, well for lack of a better word and rather fitting given the material, a revelation. Linklater has for the most part been relegated to smaller roles in the past but here he takes the words on page and the character of Father Paul to a level that a lesser actor could not. He is immediately believable as a man of the cloth and a true standout in an ensemble piece filled with well written fully realized characters. His scenes opposite of the rationale and atheist Riley are a true highlight throughout the seven episode series. Of course the entire time that Father Paul is performing miracles, or renewing peoples hope the viewers begin to believe that he is a good person but yet the rational reasoning in us all make us question if there is something sinister hiding behind it all. It's also realized later into the series that he is indeed the old priest of the town, but revitalized. This takes him on a turn where he believes this "miracle" that had been bestowed upon him was a gift from God and he sees the people of Crockett and how they have suffered and wants to right that wrong. While his intentions are good, they are ultimately naive making him such an interesting character study throughout the seven hours. It is a wonderful mix that Linklater pulls off masterfully.

At face value, most potential viewers will believe Midnight Mass to be simply a horror series and while yes it does deliver some scares but the truth of it is it delivers much more. Over the seven hours, there is something that any one human can relate to on an emotional level and when it does it'll deliver a gut punch straight to the feels. That is the biggest strength in the writing of Mike Flanagan. He knows how to write fully realized characters that really shine in an ensemble and shines in using symbolism to foreshadow a truly depressing but equally beautiful end to one of it's main characters. The dreams that Gilford's Riley endures in the beginning of the series seem to indicate the loneliness he is struggling with and the emptiness. It isn't until his final chapter where we realize it was just showing his end.

Flanagan fans will notice that once again some of his usual actors once again return. His wife, Kate Siegel appears as Erin Greene, the town teacher and someone who is viewed as the town slut by some. Bly Manor's standout, Rahul Kohli appears as Crockett's sheriff who abhors the town's religious turns and fears that he may lose his child to their beliefs. Samantha Sloyan has appeared in just about all of Flanagan's work to this point but gets a much bigger turn as Bev Keane, the local religious tyrant if you will. She is another standout in a series filled with wonderfully nuanced and beautifully written characters but admittedly she will most likely be one of the most hated television characters of this year. Annabeth Gish, Henry Thomas and Robert Longstreet all return to help Flanagan deliver his beloved project.

For all the praise I give Flanagan, that is not to say that he is a perfect story teller. His background in theater shines through in all of his work, the most obvious case being The Haunting of Bly Manor. Some episodes drag a bit due to the long winded conversations, while incredibly necessary to the tale, they don't exist in reality. The inflection, the words that are used by the characters are not the way humans in day to day life would speak to one another, but still, this is taking place in a medium that is art. It doesn't distract from the plot, in fact, it simply gives deeper meaning to the horror taken place on screen as well as the growth of the characters. That being said, it won't be for everyone. It'll be a tough watch for some and in tackling some of the religious overtones throughout, may also read as preachy to some. It also seems to make his finale's really suffer as with Hill House and Bly Manor he struggles to really stick the landing. Instead of delving heavily into a big ghoul filled horror romp, it stays true to what Flanagan is, a humanistic horror writer that focuses more on the growth or fall of the human spirit.

Midnight Mass is a heartfelt, emotion and intimate tale that takes inspiration from Salem's Lot but differs greatly from that well loved Stephen King novel. Midnight Mass tackles greatly in the struggles of addiction not just with alcoholism but also that of being a human being living in a flawed world. The heavy religious overtones are battled by that of the atheist Flynn that make for great conversation pieces between he and Linklater's Father Paul that are standouts over the course of the seven episode series. Flanagan's strengths and even weaknesses as a story teller shine bright in this project and while it may not hit the high highs of Hill House it still stands out as another great series by the up and coming writer and director. The opening few episodes may lose some people but those that stay with the show throughout will be rewarded by an incredible final three episodes that are equally brutal and heart wrenching.