midnight mass is a masterpiece and i need to evangelize
(mostly spoiler free!)
Yesterday morning (yes, morning) around 11:30 am I finished watching Midnight Mass, and what a wild ride this limited series is. Jaw-dropping, tear-jerking, and stomach-turning are phrases that barely scratch the surface.
If you aren’t familiar with the show, Midnight Mass’ premise is this: “A young man returns to his isolated hometown on Crockett Island, hoping to rebuild his life after serving four years in prison for killing someone in a drunk-driving incident. He arrives at the same time as a mysterious, charismatic young priest who begins to revitalize the town's flagging faith.”
It seems simple enough, so simple that I was NOT expecting this show to be a visceral crash course in faith, questioning, disbelief, religious psychosis, and religious trauma. There is SO MUCH here to discuss that I love. The acting, the writing, and the pacing were all extraordinarily done. There are multiple twists and they are all NUTS. I had to pause multiple times just to process what I was watching (a very good thing, in my book.)
The horror begins as atmospheric, but it quickly becomes more and more real. Ideas that start as eerie suspicions become terrifying. There is so much realism in this series and that is the true horror of it. As things in this small community continue to get worse, the Bible is often used to justify all of it, and if you really pay attention, you can see exactly how people have managed to use that same Bible for all sorts of horrors and cults over the centuries. The amount of things that humanity can turn a cold shoulder to if one powerful person could just manage to justify it in the Good Book is plain unsettling, and that realism makes this show a ten out of ten for me.
This show gave me one of those rare feelings where I felt as if it was made for me; as if someone dug through the files of my life and pulled out a few to base a show on. It’s so heavy at times and somehow so light at other times. Hamish Linklater is such a believable yet dynamic priest that you manage to both feel for and despise. Kate Siegel (I LOVE HER) plays a woman dealt a very difficult hand just trying to find meaning and significance through it all, and her character gives a monologue at the end of the last episode that I am obsessed with and think I need tattooed somewhere.
If you like Vampire Wannabe, I guarantee you will adore this limited series! If you’ve watched it or are planning to watch it, let me know in the comments!
It's very different to MM, just with how it all starts and the subject being ghosts but oh my goodness, it's beautiful. Once I got over the scary ghosts, I was so invested. It's stunning. It really is.
I saw this whenever it was new (was it last year?) and as an ex-Catholic, I felt it in my bones. The realism in Flanagan's horror is what makes it so chilling. The minute the whole thing flipped and we had the body of Christ/blood mixed with the miracles... My mind was blown. I was very touched by the moment where everybody decided that their faith was theirs to navigate and they took it upon themselves to make the right choices. That was beautiful. Also, the judgement from that stuck up one who assists the priest? I've known people like that. "I practice my faith harder than everyone else so I deserve more" are the types that turn you away from church. They forget that everyone is equal in God's eyes. Well they're supposed to be anyway. I loved Flanagan's take on this. It is probably my second favourite after Haunting Of Hill House.