Midnight Mass

After productions like ‘The Haunting of Hill House‘ and ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor‘, some still think that Mike Flanagan is a simple teller of ghost stories and haunted houses. But the director and writer goes far beyond that.  In 'Midnight Mass', the Church is at the center of it all, and Flanagan embraces a more concrete horror style to speak, in an intriguing and engaging way, about the threats of religious fanaticism and how it can blind people and leave them vulnerable. After haunted houses and ghosts, Mike Flanagan embarks for the village of Crockett, located on an island far from civilization. There, we follow the arrival of Riley Flynn (played by Zach Gilford), a former resident who went to try his luck in the city, but who saw his life fall apart after being involved in a car accident that killed a girl. Back at his parents' house, after four years in prison, Flynn is faced with a place falling apart and a community struggling to survive. However, things change with the arrival of Father Paul (played by Hamish Linklater), a charismatic priest who brings with him a climate of renewal and hope but also some mysteries that promise to shake the village. Specialist in creating claustrophobic environments and uncomfortable characters, Flanagan develops his narrative with a dying village as a backdrop, where decay is explicit in the decaying and suffocating houses. This type of place, accompanied by a cold and dark photograph, serves to reinforce the menacing tone of the plot. Skilled in dealing with the conventional, the director excels at manipulating fear, as when converting the church, a place of faith, into an attractive and dangerous refuge. The space gains strong colors, intense light and faithful thirsty for a little hope. The atmosphere gets even heavier from the moment we get to know the people who inhabit Crockett Island (I have to mention how perfect this cast is). In addition to Linklater's powerful acting as the mysterious Father Paul, characters such as Bev Keane (played extraordinarily well by Samantha Sloyan), Mrs Mildred Gunning (played by Alex Essoe who's hidden under incredible makeup) and Erin Greene (played by the great Kate Siegel who once again gives us an excellent performance), transform the narrative into an engaging, angry, reflective and terrifying religious spectacle accompanied by biblical passages and existential questions. Anyone who has seen other works by Flanagan knows that the director is not a fan of easy scares, and in ‘Midnight Mass‘ he remains faithful to his convictions about how to provoke fear. The camera movements packed by an incredible soundtrack show throughout the narrative that Flanagan has full control of his work. However, the great horror of the series is present in the fierce dialogues, very well written and not forced. I was quite reluctant to see this series derived from the whole religious context and, being a non-religious person, I hypothesized that I might not like it. But Mike Flanagam ends up surprising me once again and delivering a great work of art. I recommend!