Midnight Mass (miniseries) – review

Director: Mike Flanagan

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

There was a conspiracy of silence begged for by Mike Flanagan with regards this Netflix miniseries, which was complied with with great restraint by the internet, at first. I am, of course, breaking that silence (which has already crumbled, to be fair) just by putting the review on TMtV. The silence was around the fact that this is a vampire series – a fact made explicit in episode 3 of 7.

What is more interesting is the ignorance in the series – not one person realises the truth of the threat(/blessing) they face. The V word is never uttered and this leaves the characters in a greater peril as their ignorance is absolute. There is no Van Helsing type character coming to the rescue they must guess the rules themselves.

car crash victim

So, the series starts with a car crash. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford, Rise: Blood Hunter) sits on the side of the road as paramedics work on the victim of his DUI car crash. She dies, despite his prayer, and he is tried sentenced and imprisoned. After being released he returns home to Crockett Island, an isolated fishing community (on an island 30 miles off shore), a community which is slowly dying with people leaving. Riley himself had previously left the island searching for a better life.

Hamish Linklater as Father Paul

Also expected back to the island is Monsignor Pruitt – the elderly Catholic priest from St Patrick’s church. The congregation raised the money to send him on pilgrimage to the Holy Land (though his faculties were already on the wane). Lay minister (it would appear, as well as generally hateful, holier than thou character) Bev (Samantha Sloyan) goes to meet him off the ferry but he is a no show. Eventually she meets a young priest, Paul (Hamish Linklater), who says he has been sent by the diocese as Pruitt is ill. He has a large case and we hear a knock from within.

figure in the storm

Things start off slowly through the initial episodes. We see feral cats (on a nearby small island) grabbed and killed and, after a huge storm, the shore of Crockett Island is littered with dead cats all injured in the same way. During the storm Riley sees a figure that he believes is Pruitt, in his distinctive long black coat and hat – but cannot find him as he searches in the madness of the tempest. Riley has to go to AA as a condition of parole and Father Paul offers to set up a chapter so he doesn’t have to go to the mainland – through this we get an indication of Riley’s lapsed outlook, the ex-altar boy looked for God in prison and came out an atheist.

Leeza's miracle

We also see miracles start to occur. Young paraplegic Leeza (Annarah Cymone) lost her mobility when town drunk Joe (Robert Longstreet, Doctor Sleep) accidentally shot her when ‘hunting’. At the church, much to the congregation’s initial horror, Father Paul forces her to stand, leave her wheelchair and walk to get her communion – it is deemed a miracle. On the other hand pregnant Erin Greene (Kate Siegel, Oculus) goes for a scan and the foetus (too large to have miscarried without notice) has vanished from the womb, tests on the mainland suggests she has not been pregnant. The common denominator is Saint Patrick’s and taking communion.

the angel

So, I mentioned at the head that we find out definitively that this is a vampire story in episode 3. In that Father Paul tells Pruitt’s story; of the old man being much more ill than anyone realised, descending into dementia quickly, of him becoming lost in the desert on the road to Damascus, of taking shelter in a cave and meeting an angel (Quinton Boisclair). That angel, when we see it, is clearly a bat winged vampire that has a nosferatu feel. It attacks Pruitt and drinks his blood then feeds him its own and, in the morning, hides away from the sun. Pruitt has become young again (and takes the Paul persona). Later he mentions the bribes to get the angel out of country and back but the mystery of travelling with a fundamentally photo inaccurate passport and getting back through the States is ignored.

on the road to Damascus

What I did like was just how subversive this was – by having Pruitt convert (as it were) to Paul on the Road to Damascus, but the source of his conversion being a vampire mistaken as an angel, the show asks a fundamental question of Christian dogma – was St. Paul of Tarsus someone to be trusted? The show also shows the worst of Christianity with the character of Bev – who is unrepentantly arrogant, bigoted and proud, and defends her self-righteousness, presumption and lack of humility with scripture. Flanagan juxtaposes this with the character of Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli) and (primarily) Bev's distrust/othering of a Muslim who is clearly as devout an American as he is a follower of Islam. However the show also shows positivity about the religion through other characters – most notably through Flynn’s parents Annie (Kristin Lehman, Forever Knight) and Ed (Henry Thomas, also Doctor Sleep), both of whom are flawed but both of whom have love in their hearts and actual faith.

Erin and Riley

What the series does is concentrate on character a lot – be that in philosophical or psychological musing and in some respects the series could be seen almost as a parable around redemption drawn to the screen. It is a credit to the series that this works so well, testament to the dialogue written and the actors’ skill. What the series doesn’t do much of is examine vampire lore because, as I implied at the head, the series would seem to take place in a world where vampires (in a pop culture sense) are unknown. The congregation are being dosed with vampire blood (as the series moves towards Easter) in the communion wine and this heals injury, medical imperfection (Annie’s eyesight becomes 20/20) and causes a regeneration of youth (or the best version of oneself, is mentioned).

subtle eye shine

Vampires are violently sensitive to sunlight and we see that in the first instance when a blood sample from someone who has been dosed is collected and explodes in sunlight. However, whilst still human, they can move in sunlight. It is only after death that the vampire/human blood ratio is so switched that sunlight affects them. The vampires’ eyes glow subtly and they see light (from candles or stars) in pulsing halos, they also see the blood under the skin of the humans and humans smell *nice* (and tasty one guesses). However, they are still the same person and we see some notable acts of self-constraint. Religious items do not affect them at all.

Samantha Sloyan as Bev

This is a slow burn show and examines character quite deeply but it is so well done. The effects are good, the leathery angel/vampire is well done and the motivations believable throughout. It is probably unfair to select an actor out of the cast as the performances are all really good – but Samantha Sloyan does need special mention for her thoroughly unlikable character (as she was meant to be). This is a new favourite and deserves 8 out of 10 – with the health warning that it takes things at its own pace and favours the art of the monologue.

The imdb page is here.