Netflix Supernatural Horror Series Is Slow Burn To Apocalypse

Midnight Mass opens with Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) killing a woman while driving drunk. Four years later he returns to the tiny community of Crockett Island—a dying fishing village with a population barely over 100.

Things between Riley and his family are tense at first, but that tension breaks after he announces he won’t be going to mass the day after his return, and his enraged father (Henry Thomas) makes it clear that Riley will go to Church or he’ll sleep somewhere else.

Riley’s drama is hardly the only one brewing in Midnight Mass. Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli) is a single dad who, as one of the only Muslims on the island, deals with a fair share of intolerance. Along with being the only doctor in town, Dr. Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish) struggles to take care of her dying mother.

The wheelchair-bound Leeza (Annarah Cymone) is too often reminded of the drunk who shot her in the back and paralyzed her from the waist down. Erin (Kate Siegel) is expecting her first child and doesn’t know what to make of the return of her old flame Riley.

And then there’s the friendless Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan), the judgmental church member who bubbles with self-righteousness every time she’s on screen in Midnight Mass.

Everything begins changing for them all after one priest disappears and a new one takes his place.

Before we’re introduced to Crockett Island, the priest of Midnight Mass‘ St. Patrick’s Church is the elderly Monsieur Pruitt who most of the parishioners believe is suffering from dementia.

Shortly before Riley’s return to the island, Pruitt goes on a trip to Jerusalem. When Pruitt is expected to return, however, we instead meet Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater).

Father Hill assures the people of Crockett Island that his time there will be short, and that Pruitt is merely recovering from an unexpected illness. The priest seems to surprise the people of Midnight Mass with his openness and acceptance—showing particular interest in Riley, who plenty of other townsfolk are giving the side-eye.

As kind as he seems, Father Hill’s arrival coincides with the beginning of dark and inexplicable events on Crockett Island. Townsfolk keep seeing strange figures outside their windows at night, at least one local man disappears without a trace, and in one night hundreds of cat corpses wash up on shore.

It isn’t just dark supernatural events that occur in Midnight Mass. Father Hill soon goes from being the replacement priest to the island’s savior when his work gives way to genuine miracles. The sick are healed, and people with injuries that have bothered them for years suddenly have their pain drained away.

Of course this is a horror series so while it takes most of the characters of Midnight Mass a while to discover it, as viewers we soon learn the miracles are coming at a high cost.

To say much more would reveal secrets that I was pleased to find out slowly while watching Midnight Mass. Suffice to say the secrets behind it all threaten literally ever soul on the island.

So far, beyond The Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass is the only one of Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries I’ve watched, and as much as I loved the former show, part of what makes the latter series so great is how different it is from Usher.

While in House of Usher we meet a family of mostly unapologetically despicable people, the characters of Midnight Mass are more relatable and even the most monstrous among them are so perfectly human and well-intentioned.

Hamish Linklater’s portrayal of Father Hill is mesmerizing, and even as the narrative goes from dark to pitch black and Crockett Island’s own apocalypse seems inevitable, you rarely get a hint that he wants anything more than what’s best for his parishioners.

Another standout performance comes from an actor so good—Samantha Sloyan as Bev Keane–that it is almost painful to admit how great she is. Bev is without a doubt the most thoroughly hate-able character in the show, and Sloyan embodies her masterfully. It’s no secret why she’s one of Flanagan’s regulars.

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Even if horror isn’t your usual scene, I would still give an eager recommendation for Midnight Mass. Its characters are layered and believable, and their realization through Flanagan’s cast is wonderful. You can stream all seven episodes of the miniseries now on Netflix.