“Midnight Mass” tells the tale of a small, isolated island community whose existing divisions are amplified by the return of a disgraced young man (Zach Gilford) and the arrival of a charismatic priest (Hamish Linklater). When Father Paul’s appearance on Crockett Island coincides with unexplained and seemingly miraculous events, a renewed religious fervor takes hold of the community – but do these miracles come at a price?
It's ok, nice overarching story. 6.5/10 Due to too many long monologues and philosophy.
sar·casm | \ ˈsär-ˌka-zəm \
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2a: a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual
b: the use or language of sarcasm
its pretty great, if you like flanagans work then you will like regardless. its always interesting how we always manages to make a captivating movie/series with most/at least some unknown actors and low budget. i find him better than james wan when it comes to horror
so bad..gave it a shot..barely made it thru #1 and quit at #2..religion, boring conversations..nothing going on except dead cats and seagulls..oh and cant forget to throw in some diversity!!
Pretty good show with some new (?) take on one of the most famous mythologys .. but sometimes i wished to pull my headphones out when the religious mumbo jambo speeches went for too long.
that religious mumbo jambo speeches is what makes it more horror, and the fact that they can justify everything with some quote from scripture and that it can apply to evil.
finished and its up there with his best works. the priest aka hamish linklater is like perfect casting
the first two episodes are slow but you get mistery pieces here and there and it builds, it was predictable from the first episode for what the horror element is but still the payoff is well done
The series could have been shorter if not 20 minutes monologues about what happens after death and one of the characters gets into philosophical view of being destroyed into atom or creating life from his death... Seriously the same scene is twice in the series, the second time destroying the pacing.
Serious spoilers:
Spoiler:
What bothered me was the last episode where the fanatics cut off communication with outside world. But why?
No one knew that "the Angel" is a vampire, that they will become vampires. I get it that it was a cult thing - a parallel to Jonestown massacre - but come on. They even burned all the houses and prepared a "lair". Why? The priest was poisoned and resurrected, almost all miracles were believable, wouldn't they like to spread it and not cut off themselves from the world without good reasons?
And the girl suddenly loosing feeling in her legs? Maybe I've missed something
What bothered me was the last episode where the fanatics cut off communication with outside world. But why?
No one knew that "the Angel" is a vampire, that they will become vampires. I get it that it was a cult thing - a parallel to Jonestown massacre - but come on. They even burned all the houses and prepared a "lair". Why? The priest was poisoned and resurrected, almost all miracles were believable, wouldn't they like to spread it and not cut off themselves from the world without good reasons?
And the girl suddenly loosing feeling in her legs? Maybe I've missed something
Spoiler:
There is no such thing as vampires in the world of the show, at least thats what ive understand, there is no mention just like in some zombie movies nobody says zombies.
They cut of communication because they didnt want the people to call mainland to tell them whats happening, they only left the boats so they can go to mainland and "infect" people. Bev knew not all will accept the ideea so its not hard to understand why she did it.
They burned the houses so the non believers would die as they dont have anywhere else to take shelter and they didnt know about the sun, whats that hard to understand.
Watched for a bit and this is even more boring then Bly Manor yikes. I think will just avoid
Flanagan shows from no on it's pretty clear Hill House was just a one time thing.
The series could have been shorter if not 20 minutes monologues about what happens after death and one of the characters gets into philosophical view of being destroyed into atom or creating life from his death... Seriously the same scene is twice in the series, the second time destroying the pacing.
Serious spoilers:
Spoiler:
And the girl suddenly loosing feeling in her legs? Maybe I've missed something
I think that vampire didn't make it to the place (shore) where he could hide with ripped wings so when he died, it removed cure effects from people who drink his blood.
This one is a slow burner, a bit too slow in many parts. The story itself is good enough but the writing and pacing isn't even close to the amazing Hill House or the pretty good Bly Manor (which I found very slow in the beginning as well but it grew on me, as did the characters although it was written in the typical Victorian drama format which Henry James was known for).
In this one I don't really feel particularly invested in any of the characters including the main character/protagonist. But I do enjoy it, just not nearly as much as the aforementioned shows. If ("if", which is kinda pointless to ponder, I agree) the writing had been much tighter and better paced without the loooong monologues it could've been a great show instead of the slow meandering show we got.
I'm on episode 6 now and.... (spoiler)
Spoiler:
Doc enters Sheriff's office to ask him to look into a possible contagion being spread purposely.. and he goes into a rant for 6 minutes about how he became a cop, the twin towers falling, being a muslim in the police force etc. etc. etc. etc....zzzZzz. wtf Flanagan... are you trying to bore us to tears as filler material??
As someone who is allergic to conventional horror-ish film tropes and hasn't liked anything from Flanagan over the years, I found this mini-series to be surprisingly entertaining and fresh. It still retains many of the traits of the genre that taste like rat poison, but the ambiguity of its religious themes mixed with the mysterious rural setting and the methodical pacing definitely managed to keep my interest alive till the end.
While the story naturally ventures into over-the-top territory (it was inevitable, wasn't it), the quality acting and a few flashes of genuine intrigue prevented the eucharistic bus from comically flipping over and turning the mass party into a lousy mess. It became over-complacent, but nothing too serious. Kudos to the actress playing Bev and especially to the priest - like jesus himself would say, he absolutely nailed it.
So after having finished it little over a week ago my conclusion is that it's my least favorite of the three Flanagan shows.
1. The Haunting of Hill House - 8.8/10 - a masterpiece in how to write and present a haunted house story with more depth, well fleshed out characters and drama. My fave.
2. The Haunting of Bly Manor - 7.9/10 - the first 2-3 episodes I pretty much felt "meh, this isn't what I expected" but it grew on me and the last 3 episodes were really good. It's more drama than horror and reflects the style of the writer Henry James who wrote the story in 1898.
3. Midnight Mass 6.5/10 - a good idea but the pacing is atrocious with boring monologues going forever and ever. The acting is generally good and the religious theme which is symbolically shown for what it is was an interesting setting. Overall I was bored a lot of the time, waiting for the actual story to continue. I never did feel particularly invested in any of the characters (although some were more interesting than others). Samantha Sloyan who played Bev was exceptional though and made me reeeeally hate her character (in a good way).
The only other Flanagan production I've enjoyed was Doctor Sleep, the rest were just bleh.
On episode 4 and it is boring as fuck!
Even if it eventually picks up pace it can't make up for the time already wasted.
Can't believe this is from the same director who did the excellent Doctor Sleep
im on ep2. its really boring. i don't agree with red letter media here that its stupid to not like long dialogues in this because it's important for characters, depth. The characters are not interesting enough and the actors aren't good enough for you to be entertained by the acting alone. I can listen to long dialogue all day from the actors in Succession, here, no. It's so generic it makes you sleepy.
how old is the protagonist supposed to be? 28-30? He comes from prison to live with his parents, and he's forced like a 12-year old to go to church? LOL. what a man-baby. I have zero sympathy for such a character. He's also as interesting and charismatic as drying paint, same with the others. This is why stranger things s1 was so good, you very quickly get invested into those great, charismatic characters. Dr. Sleep pulled that off to, awesome characters.
I'm absolutely loving this and I'm just at the end of episode 4 and this episode in a very non subtle way told us what's going to happen and I'm looking forward to see it unfold
im on ep2. its really boring. i don't agree with red letter media here that its stupid to not like long dialogues in this because it's important for characters, depth. The characters are not interesting enough and the actors aren't good enough for you to be entertained by the acting alone. I can listen to long dialogue all day from the actors in Succession, here, no. It's so generic it makes you sleepy.
how old is the protagonist supposed to be? 28-30? He comes from prison to live with his parents, and he's forced like a 12-year old to go to church? LOL. what a man-baby. I have zero sympathy for such a character. He's also as interesting and charismatic as drying paint, same with the others. This is why stranger things s1 was so good, you very quickly get invested into those great, charismatic characters. Dr. Sleep pulled that off to, awesome characters.
I agree wholeheartedly. This is the weakest of the three mini-series shows Flanagan's done. I was bored 80% of the time and although monologues can be important for character development I have to say most of the monologues were either waaaay too long or in some examples completely unnecessary. As I've written before, the pacing is weird.. 75% is slow only to suddenly give us 5-10 minutes of fast pacing.
This show could easily have been condensed into a much better show by losing two episodes, trimming away all the unnecessary time-wasting boredom. And that's coming from someone who really liked Bly Manor (although The Haunting of Hill House is top tier for me). I loved Dr. Sleep. It was very different from The Shining but in a good way. Instead of reproducing The Shining while centering on Danny it was actually about the shining and not focusing on the Overlook Hotel.
While there are certain moments and some great acting in Midnight Mass (specifically the delusional over-zealous church activist played by Samantha Sloyan) it's just not enough to make this show particularly entertaining. I really liked the concept of the show which basically showed catholic zealousness for what it is and how it's used for "evil" depending on the goals of the church leaders for that particular chapter.
Signature/Avatar nuking: none (can be changed in your profile)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
