MIDNIGHT MASS NETFLIX SERIES

While it appears friendly on the surface, the island pulses with thinly veiled racism and regular microaggressions. That wouldn’t usually be something to note, but his recent transfer to the island has shaken up the small Catholic community. He’s the prodigal son returned, which is both fitting, and a completely intentional setup for the religiously charged horror that follows.Ĭrockett Island is kept safe by the thoughtful, kind, and consistent Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), a practicing Muslim. Before that, though, Riley is welcomed by his mother Annie (Kristin Lehman), and more reluctantly by his father Ed (Henry Thomas).

MIDNIGHT MASS NETFLIX SERIES

These two seemingly unconnected new inhabitants set off a series of events that pit neighbor against neighbor, and father against son. Riley’s arrival is mirrored by that of a new priest, Father Paul (Hamish Linklater). Crockett Island is a pressure cooker fueled by a dying fishing industry, which has broken the island and its people. The spectrum of human cruelty and the impact of choosing to think of others is at the center of Midnight Mass. Something terrible is coming to Crockett Island, and it lives or dies off the ways others are willing to wound. As the season moves forward, it’s at its most powerful when examining who carves out that space with kindness and accountability, and who embraces and wields the violence within themselves. But the isolated community of Crockett Island holds plenty of secrets, along with an ever-shrinking group of inhabitants who each have a journey to go on to find their own form of self-acceptance. Since we know what Riley’s done, it’s clear he’s our anchor for that idea. Like most of Flanagan’s work, this is a tale about redemption and forgiveness. The show’s supernatural elements are hard to talk about without spoiling its secrets, but the story begins when Riley returns to Crockett Island, the tiny Maine fishing village where he grew up. But even viewers with no personal connections to the things that so clearly shaped Flanagan’s newest series can lose themselves in the dark fairy tale it weaves.

How effective viewers find it will surely be influenced by their own experiences with addiction, recovery, and most importantly, religion. His new series continues those threads, albeit with a completely different setup. His personal touch and willingness to dig into abuse, addiction, and loss made his shows The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor into massive hits for Netflix. While the show is filled to the brim with supernatural scares, it’s more concerned with the terrible things people do to each other, and the ways acceptance and accountability can bring about change.įlanagan has established himself as a horror storyteller who consistently uses the genre as a vehicle for deep emotional exploration. These dueling cruelties - both human, in Riley’s fatal lack of care for others, and cosmic, in the abjectly random nature of his victim’s death - are a bleakly perfect tone-setter for the newest horror series from Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan. As he realizes she won’t survive, he turns to God and begins to pray, but gets no answer. The young woman he hit is thrown through her window, and lies dying on the rain-slicked pavement while he sits on the curb with barely a scratch. A drunk driver, Riley (Zach Gilford), crashes into another car. Netflix’s horror series Midnight Mass begins with an act of immense cruelty.

Midnight mass netflix