Aidonian's blog

Midnight Mass is a 7 episode miniseries about a local impoverished island community facing supernatural events after a young priest arrives at the island. That’s it in a nutshell, but the story is far bigger than that. After watching it, you could think that this was based on a story by Stephen King of Clive Barker, but it’s not. It’s written and directed by Mike Flanagan, a man who knows how to make horror movies. He and James Wang are a the moment couple of the few people in Hollywood who knows how to craft a good horror movie or show. Mike Flanagan made Hush, Oculus, Ouija; origin of evil, House on Haunted Hill, Haunting of Blye Manon, this show and the Midnight Club. 

If you love slow burn horror movies or shows, where the focus lies on the characters and not the gore, then this might be for you. There are jump scares, but spread across the entire series and Mike Flanagan really knows how to use them effectively. In most horror movies, jump scares take place when all sound disappear followed by a. reveal and a loud noise. One reviewer on YouTube described it like having an orgasm. When you shoot your load, all tension build up to that moment is gone and you have to start from scratch again. I think it’s a good analogy for jump scares in horror movies. When used well, the tension isn’t gone or like James Wong did in Insidious, it’s a foreshadowing for things to come. 

While events start slow, the show focusses on the characters on the island: Bev, Riley, Father Paul, the sheriff Hassan(who is a Muslim and a decent portrayal of a muslim character without resorting to cliche character), Erin. The actors are very good and believable. We follow Riley Flin going back to the island community after serving for 4 years in jail for drunk driving and killing a young woman. He rekindles with Erin and tries to reconnect with his parents and his younger brother. He is surprised that Erin Greene, is pregnant. She doesn’t talk about who the father is. 

At the same time Father Paul arrives at the island to replace monsignor Pruitt. After his arrival, all cats are soon found dead. Riley thought he saw monsignor Pruitt during the storm at the beach. 

Father Paul invites Riley to form a chapter of AA on the island so that he doesn’t have to spend a day at the mainland, in the hopes that Joe, a local drunk also would join them. After a while, Joe does join them. 

Bev, is a devout Christian, righteous, condescending, in other words a real cunt. The actress plays her real well. Sara is the local doctor on the island, who also happens to be lesbian. After a while, she starts to get suspicious something fishy is going on after she sees a blood sample destroyed by sunlight and her own mother- who suffered from dementia starting getting better and younger. After Erin goes to Sarah for a check up, they found out that there was no fetus at all. The baby was gone. Erin goes to the mainland for tests and they reveal to her that she wasn’t pregnant at all. 

When Leeza – who was shot by a drunk Joe years earlier, suddenly started walking again, things really start picking up. 

I can highly recommend this show.