Midnight Mass

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Midnight Mass is prime example of why Wilson is on my top three list. Compared to a lyrical artist like Barker - Wilson's no frills stripped down prose is perfect for me. Wilson is focused on the important stuff, story and characters. No one plots a novel or epic tale like Wilson, while this stand alone novel doesn't entirely showcase that strength as well as the Secret History of the World stories, this novel is perfectly plotted. Yes. For those expecting another ghost story similar to Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House or Bly Manor, a tale of vampires might come as a surprise. Where did the inspiration come from? Flanagan, who once served as an altar boy, has discussed in interviews how he found ideas of the supernatural in the Bible itself. But networks passed on the ideauntil the success of The Haunting anthology saw Flanagan receive the sweet green light from Netflix. Thrilling and horrific, with a dose humorous irony. Wilson's Midnight Mass is a return to the grisly, purely evil side of vampiric lore. And it's a welcome addition to a genre inundated with romanticized depictions.

When it became clear that Father Paul could still do all of the horrible things I needed him to for the story while being a good person with a pure motive, then I felt like we had a show that was about something,” Flanagan said.

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The climax, however, is more puzzling than stirring, proving chaotic in ways that ultimately don’t make much sense. That doesn’t necessarily undermine the more interesting aspects, but as it closes the books, “Midnight Mass” triggers too much soul-searching about whether it was worth the time investment. On the same road Saul was traveling to Damascus, Monsignor Pruitt wandered from his tour group. Confused and lost in the desert, he was swept up into a sandstorm. The sandstorm uncovered the entrance to an ancient ruin of what Monsignor later believes to be a church. Monsignor stumbles inside -- and meets the Angel. With sharp-edged wings and a thirst for blood, the Angel bares a striking resemblance to a vampire. Vampires. Really?

She continued, "If you look, there's a screengrab in Hush where you're looking at Maddie's computer screen and it says, 'The red and blue lights of the cop car twinkle off the Jesus fish.' That's the first shot of Midnight Mass ." When I was a kid and in Bible study, the horror elements embedded in the Bible are impossible to ignore,” he said. “You’ve got angels patrolling through Egypt and slaughtering the firstborn. You’ve got the river turning to blood. You’ve got plagues of locusts, and a pillar of fire. And you’ve got a God who’s thrilled to just murder people at will and full of wrath. You’ve got demons, you’ve got talking serpents, you’ve got people being torn apart, torture, and it’s all there.” In his 'Author's Note' at the beginning of the book, F. Paul Wilson explains that 'Midnight Mass' was As is often the case with such fare, “Midnight Mass” begins as a creepy, provocative horror yarn and finally can’t deliver on its promise. Created by “The Haunting of Hill House’s” Mike Flanagan, the Netflix series deserves praise for its distinctive ambitions and jolting surprises but too often plays like a long-winded sermon, frittering around the edges of its homily. The actors filling out the series’ ensemble cast include Flanagan regular (and wife) Kate Siegel as Erin Greene, Henry Thomas as Ed Flynn, Rahul Kohli as Sheriff Hassan, Samantha Sloyan as Bev Keane, Annabeth Gish as Dr. Sarah Gunning, Kristin Lehman as Annie Flynn, Robert Longstreet as Joe Collie, Crystal Balint as Dolly, Michael Trucco as Wade, Annarah Cymone as Leeza, Rahul Abburi as Ali Hassan, and Matt Biedel as Sturge.In this book, the hunters have their work cut out. The vampires have taken over the entire eastern hemisphere and are well into their assault on the New World. The mortal world needs a savior, and he is Father Joe, a priest with a past. He is helped by his niece an atheist lesbian martial artist, a killer nun, and Zev the cross-wearing rabbi. There is an uncomfortable subtext involving Jewish-Christian relations, what with the efficacy of the cross against vampires and the mass death of Jews who refused the pragmatic step of wearing a cross. Wilson is careful to say that the power of the cross symbol might pre-date Christianity. He also has a Jewish hero and Christian villians (One of the main vampires is a pedophile priest.), and Wilson's main villians, religion-wise, are people who break ethical rules as opposed to theological ones. If there's a theological standpoint in the novel, it's that religious divisions and intolerance are dangerous.

F Paul Wilson really puts these good guys through hell and he gives no guarantees that they'll survive the experience.

Flanagan does express skepticism over the human-created idea of “God’s plan” early on in Midnight Mass. If he’d leaned harder into that skepticism, perhaps the series’ premise would have more heft. But it seems he would rather pay less attention to what scares and disillusions us (even though in 2021 there’s so much to scare and disillusion us) and spend more time on what connects and unites us. I can see where others might find comfort in that. The vampires were a boring mafia organization of jerks with human goons under their long-nailed thumbs. Oh and the humans on their team were marked by a long stupid earring. What, no weird tattoo or cool scar? Buoyed by a cast that includes Henry Thomas and Annabeth Gish, what distinguishes “Midnight Mass” perhaps more than anything is the nature of its ideas and the extent to which Flanagan clearly wants to contemplate them while toying with horror conventions, seeking to engage the audience in unexpectedly layered fashion. The typical Flanagan fare wraps poignant stories of family, community, and unremitting optimism around horror-filled centers. This combo has made him a perfect collaborator with Netflix, the home of most of Flanagan’s recent work. In all of the films and series he’s written for the network so far, Flanagan has created tales whose horror plots draw broad audiences and whose rosy themes appeal directly to middle America. Flanagan’s Netflix partnership has also given him an enormous audience; The Haunting of Hill House, arguably his most successful project, was one of the most-binged series of 2018.