The new series from the Haunting of Hill House creator is genuinely, thrillingly unique. <\/p>
By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Monday, 20 September 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>
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With his previous two series for Netflix<\/a> \u2013 the Hauntings of Hill House and Bly Manor respectively \u2013 Mike Flanagan had already firmly established himself as one of the finest horror filmmakers of the modern era. And his refreshingly unique new series, Midnight Mass<\/a>, will only further enhance that reputation when it arrives on the streamer this week. This seven-part series is a fascinating piece of work: imperfect, perhaps, and a little chaotic, but hugely ambitious, tremendously intriguing, and stuffed with some truly terrific performances.<\/p>\n Midnight Mass also differs from Flanagan\u2019s previous TV output in that it is a wholly original piece, not based, however loosely, on an earlier work of horror fiction \u2013 as was the case with both Hill House and Bly Manor. There are shades of Steven King to the setup \u2013 and indeed King has already taken to Twitter to sing the show\u2019s praises \u2013 but it becomes very much its own thing, especially as it builds towards its terrifically demented conclusion.<\/p>\n The series is set on Crockett Island, a rural, fiercely Catholic island community that is living under something of a cloud. On this rock resides a number of troubled and tormented souls: there\u2019s the pious and unpopular Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan), the proudly Muslim Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), and the drunken outcast Joe Collie (Robert Longstreet) \u2013 whose shooting accident led to teenager Leeza (Annarah Cymone) losing her ability to walk. And then there\u2019s Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), a recovering alcoholic who has just returned to the island after serving a four-year sentence for killing a girl in a drunk driving incident, and Erin Greene (Kate Siegel) his former schoolmate, pregnant with her first child and seeking refuge from an abusive relationship.<\/p>\n\n Each of these characters, crucially, has a different relationship to faith \u2013 and each of those relationships are put to the test when a new priest makes a sudden appearance at mass one morning, informing them that their long-serving Monsignor is stuck on the mainland after falling ill during a recent trip. This priest is Father Paul, played by Hamish Linklater in the show\u2019s standout turn. Paul is an enigmatic, unconventional preacher \u2013 on the one hand inspiring and welcoming, and on the other rather crazed and despotic. Linklater plays him with a wonderful, unpredictable intensity \u2013 and viewers will find it near impossible to turn their eyes away from his performance.<\/p>\n Shortly following his arrival, strange happenings begin to occur \u2013 both negative (hundreds of dead cats wash up on the shore) and positive (the sick and infirm begin to make miraculous recoveries). The question is, can Paul be trusted, and is there something he\u2019s hiding? To give too much more away would be to crossover into spoiler territory, but rest assured that things becoming increasingly hysterical and deranged the closer the series moves towards its conclusion.<\/p>\n To begin with, it can be a bit of a slow burn, and yet it\u2019s still strangely propulsive \u2013 such is the intrigue that Flanagan has managed to weave into the story. The main power of the show rests in watching all of the island\u2019s various inhabitants react to the incredible events that begin to take place, with their responses ranging from the fervent (Bev) to the extremely skeptical (Riley). This allows the show the chance to explore everything from faith to regret to loss to addiction.<\/p> And there aren\u2019t always easy answers: it\u2019s the kind of show which is confounding in the best possible way \u2013 not everything is explained, and nor should it be. But its success lies in the fact that it\u2019s grounded in characters and settings that feel totally real, and it seems certain to reward repeat viewings. There are also some tremendously atmospheric sequences: for example, Flanagan makes good use of traditional hymns in the soundtrack throughout, perhaps most notably of all in a stunningly haunting candlelit procession to the church in the penultimate instalment.<\/p>\n Although it would be easy to be uncritically evangelical about the series, on first watch I did think it imperfect. The scope and scale of the hysteria that grips the island is impressive, but at times it felt a little too messy, a little too chaotic for its own good \u2013 it throws everything at the wall, and I\u2019m not sure everything sticks. <\/span>Meanwhile, as well-drawn as the characters are, some of the dialogue \u2013 especially in the early episodes \u2013 can be a touch too expository and on the nose for my liking.<\/p>\n I also think it\u2019s worth noting that although there\u2019s undoubtedly a feeling of deep unease across each of the seven episodes \u2013 in addition to a handful of jump scares and no shortage of blood and gore \u2013 I didn\u2019t find the series quite<\/em> as terrifying as Bly Manor or Hill House, the latter of which remains my favourite Flanagan series to date. That\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing \u2013 just to say that this is a rather different type of horror to the ghost stories that Flanagan has gifted us with in the past.<\/p>\n Anyway, whatever minor shortfalls there might be, Midnight Mass is absolutely a show worth watching. It\u2019s genuinely, thrillingly, unique and certain scenes and moments will live with you long after you\u2019ve finished watching. One thing is for sure \u2013 Flanagan remains comfortably one of Netflix\u2019s best assets.<\/p>\n The new series from the Haunting of Hill House creator is genuinely, thrillingly unique. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":4617,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-scaled.jpg",2560,1264,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-300x148.jpg",300,148,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-768x379.jpg",768,379,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-1024x506.jpg",800,395,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-1536x759.jpg",1536,759,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/midnight-mass-review-another-fascinating-if-imperfect-horror-triumph-for-mike-flanagan-2048x1011.jpg",2048,1011,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The new series from the Haunting of Hill House creator is genuinely, thrillingly unique.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/4616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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