Riley returns just as a mysterious newcomer Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) arrives, stepping in for the elderly monsignor who he claims is getting medical help on the mainland. And like Dale Barbara in Under the Dome or Jake Epping in 11/22/63 or Mike Noonan in Bag of Bones, he wanders through life disillusioned after his confrontation with darker universal truths.Ĭrockett Island isn’t just the blanched of color, boring hometown of his youth. Like Jack and Danny Torrance in The Shining and Doctor Sleep-or Thad Beaumont in The Dark Half-he’s a recovering alcoholic whose demons keep true growth at an arm’s reach. Like Billy Halleck in Thinner, he accidentally commits vehicular manslaughter. Riley recalls many such King protagonists. He’s a hollow husk of his former self, colored by prison life and his forced sobriety, haunted by guilt and a specter of the woman he killed. Riley returns to Crockett Island-population 127-to be with his family: mom Annie (Kristin Lehman), dad Ed (Henry Thomas), and younger brother Warren (Igby Rigney). The seven-episode series is set on a small New England island called Crockett and centers on Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), a man recently released from prison for killing a young woman in a drunk driving accident. And in many ways, it feels like Midnight Mass learned from King how to avoid certain pitfalls. But also thanks to the lessons he’s learned along the way from King, who is clearly his foremost influence. (I, an on-the-record Haunting of Hill House devotee, would have to agree.) That’s due in large part to Flanagan’s own unique genius. Critics are calling it Flanagan’s best project to date. Now, Midnight Mass is here and real with a gristly beating heart. He’s said that Midnight Mass is “more than a decade in the making” and also, for a while, “the best thing I never made.” Until now.

There are Easter eggs for the project in both Hush and Gerald’s Game. ( Ouija: Origin of Evil, also released in 2016, is a sequel and his other 2016 project Before I Wake filmed in 2013 and had a delayed release.)įlanagan’s been teasing Midnight Mass for a while. (King himself sung its praises and Tarantino called it his favorite Netflix series.) And while both took major liberties with the classic text, Midnight Mass is still Flanagan’s first wholly original project since Hush in 2016.

Both are excellent, the former being a nearly undisputed horror masterpiece. Flanagan previously adapted and brought to life two classic horror novels in his Haunting series: The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw (adapted into The Haunting of Bly Manor). So of course his first wholly original Netflix series feels like a major tribute to King’s oeuvre.

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