Midnight Mass Review- Brilliant, Thought Provoking and Disturbing

"Remember You are dust and to dust you shall Return"

Mike Flanagan has turned into a household name for horror freaks. From Oculus to Stephen King's adaptation of Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep, the genre of work maintained the spookiness on screens through engaging screenplays and well-written characters. The director's recent The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor released on Netflix garnered critical acclaim for redefining the horror genre in Television, and then comes Midnight Mass in 2021, also through Netflix.

Midnight Mass is set in Crockett Island, an island mysterious due to its location and its mere population of 127. The plot begins with the entry of 2 people to the island. Riley Flynn, an ex-islander on release after serving 4 years of prison term due to a drunken driving incident that resulted in the death of a woman. The other person, Father Paul Hill, a new priest to St. Patrick's church. Slowly every character is introduced in a manner we come across our neighborhood. Every character holds a plethora of sadness in their life, similar to the location of the island. The only thing that holds the islanders together is St. Patrick's church, which also acts as a storm refuge center and is the only place to act as so, in the eyes of Bev Keane, who is the zealous and overbearing member of the church. The religious perception of Bev and the importance she gives to the church is established at the beginning itself through her heated argument with Sheriff Hassan, the new sheriff in town. The plot which until then introduced us to the lives of the islanders began expanding when Father Paul starts performing miracles and his acts began transforming the lives of the people. The incidents are brought into the scenario of the revival of religiousness in the islanders, leading to twists and revelations.

The intriguing part of the plot is holding up its mysteriousness. Every scene in the series keeps on adding to the mystery. Bev's extreme religious behavior, Miracles by Fr. Paul, References of winged creature from the beginning, Haunting woman visible to Riley, dead cats onshore, last but not the least in the list, the island itself. The creepy atmosphere was maintained by the director in the same way as in The Haunting series. 

The topic, the writer and the director, means to convey is layered and a never-ending debate. The theory of religious revival, the note on existentialism, an argument on God's will, and the attitude of relating the wordings from the holy book as per human convenience and real-life scenarios, is layered and painted on every character on the island. Sometimes it's the choice of free will that makes a person more humane than others, was felt like something the makers meant to convey. 

While the character of Erin Greene was a cakewalk for Kate Seigel just like in The Haunting series,  Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn, a confused, purposeless, and disoriented person, and Rahul Kohli as Sheriff Hassan, a sidelined patriot and conflicting father on beliefs, were a lot realistic. But the show-stealer was obviously Samantha Sloyan who earns the wrath of every viewer for the exceptional and unapologetic portrayal of Bev Keane. If a character is capable of generating any kind of emotion in a viewer, it can only be because of the honest portrayal by an actor and this is where Samantha Sloyan earns applause. 

A digital piece of work, especially if it has a religious layer, often falters when it starts preachy and opts to satisfy some section of the audience. Such a diversion and failure has been often witnessed by us. But director Mike Flanagan is completely untouched by it. The controversial plot remains genuine lifelike exposing everything wrong from the viewpoint of laymen with every major character sticking to their ideologies, even in life and death. The show has a Thought-Provoking plot accompanied by a brilliant execution leading to a disturbing climax, which might not be for faint-hearted. Give it a try.

Streaming on Netflix