The original post: /r/television by /u/keepfighting90 on 2025-08-15 00:19:54+00:00.
I’m a big fan of Mike Flanagan’s work and consider him to be one of the best horror filmmakers working today. His stories, regardless of what supernatural entity is featured in them, are still very raw, human tales with a lot of emotional power. Midnight Mass is no different, and after finishing it I think it stands near the top of his vey impressive filmography.
It’s been said many times that Midnight Mass is basically the best adaptation of a Stephen King novel that doesn’t exist and I have to agree. It has all the hallmarks of a classic King tale - an isolated small American town in the middle of nowhere, a group of everyman main characters experiencing some kind of crisis, a charismatic outsider and most importantly, something spooky and weird going on in town.
But Midnight Mass is its own unique narrative, and uses its horror trappings to tell its real story, which is all about faith and belief, whether it’s losing it or gaining it, and how that plays into the fear and mystery of the afterlife. Honestly, compared to Flanagan’s other work, MM barely even registers as a horror series. Like sure there’s a vampire and people getting turned and all that, but the focus is on the characters and their beliefs, and how it shapes them.
It’s a leisurely, slow-burn tale that takes its time to get going but it ends up being a powerful, emotionally resonant story. A lot of the themes here, especially the crisis of faith, is something that I could relate to personally. Questions around accepting loss, grief, afterlife etc. - all thought-provoking stuff. Erin dealing with her miscarriage is something that hit me pretty hard, because it’s something that my wife and I have experienced ourself.
It’s all very high quality from a technical standpoint too, with great VFX and cinematography, and great music. Just a very polished experience, which is typical for Flanagan.
I do have some reservations about it that hold it back just short of being a true masterpiece. The monologues are infamous at this point, and tend to be very divisive. Personally, I liked them a lot…for a while. They start off being generally well-written and well-acted, and can be thought-provoking. But I’m afraid that Mike Flanagan kinda starts sniffing his own farts a bit as the show goes on. The monologues get more frequent, start becoming longer and more self-indulgent, and the quality of the actual writing starts to drop as well. There are some truly egregious ones in the last couple of episodes - the sheriff’s speech about 9/11 and Erin’s final monologue on death. They just start sounding rambling and overwrought. This really hurts the pacing of what is already a pretty slow show.
The acting can be a bit hit or miss as well. Hamish Linklater is just brilliant as the priest, and is magnetic in every scene he’s in. Zach Gilford and Rahul Kohli are really good as well, as was the lady that plays Bev - it takes special skill to play a character so detestable. But some the rest of the cast can be a little wooden and unconvincing.
Overall though, Midnight Mass is a really well-made miniseries that tackles some heavy topics and does a mostly good job of exploring them, while throwing in some good old fashioned vampire shenanigans.