Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass Is the Netflix Horror Obsession That Keeps Getting Better

If you’ve been following Mike Flanagan’s career from the jump, there’s a good chance you caught Oculus or Hush ages ago. Both are rock-solid horror movies that put Flanagan on the genre map before he blew everyone’s minds with The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. But if you ask me, the real turning point in his run with Netflix wasn’t Hill House—as good as that one is—it was his third series, Midnight Mass. Something about that show just hits harder, and turns out, there’s a good reason for that.

Why Midnight Mass Is Flanagan’s True Passion Project

Flanagan has gone on record (most recently in a 2025 GoldDerby interview) making it crystal clear that Midnight Mass wasn’t just another paycheck gig; this one really mattered to him. When he talks about his work, he calls it "the one that came most from the heart” when it comes to TV. If Hollywood ever shut its doors on him, he says he’d be sad, of course—but also at peace: "I got to do Midnight Mass and Chuck. I’m good."

This Project Was Almost 'the Best Thing I’d Never Make'

If you’ve heard Flanagan talk about how Midnight Mass came together, the whole backstory is a wild ride. He told Entertainment Weekly back in 2021 that he’d always thought of this show as 'the best project I would never make'. It was supposedly too long to work as a movie, and for years, nobody wanted to buy the concept as a show. Here’s a fun detail: that 'Midnight Mass' book that pops up in Gerald’s Game and Hush? Yup, that’s a sly nod to the series he was quietly obsessed with making.

By the time Midnight Mass finally hit Netflix in September 2021, Flanagan was three years sober. That wasn’t just trivia for him—it actually became a major theme of the show. He also used it to dig into religion and atheism, drawing straight from his own background (he grew up Catholic, later became an atheist). The show leans into those topics in a way that’s personal without feeling preachy, and honestly, that’s rare in horror TV.

The Plot: Island Drama (With Vampires, But Not the Twilight Kind)

The setup: Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) comes home to Crockett Island after some truly rough years, reconnects with his old friend Erin Greene (Kate Siegel), and finds his community in the midst of a very unusual 'spiritual revival'—thanks to a new priest, Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater). What starts out as a slow-burn drama about faith, addiction, and regret quickly morphs into one of the most surprising genre experiments Netflix has ever let someone produce.

Here’s Why the Show Gets Better Every Time You Watch

Look, plenty of horror TV shows give you one good shock and then fade from your memory. Midnight Mass is different—it gets richer every time you go back, because there’s so much packed in there about hope, guilt, the stuff that makes us tick. The first time you see the island covered in dead cats (Episode 1: "Book I: Genesis"), it’s genuinely creepy. Next time, maybe you’ll be more drawn to the (frankly, astonishing) scene when Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) walks again.

The thing is, Flanagan’s not just trying to scare people. He’s wrestling with the big stuff: Why do we believe? Can people really change? And—if you want to go there—do we even want to know what comes after death?

The Scene Everyone Talks About (Or Debates, at Least)

Some fans roll their eyes at Erin’s big monologue about death, but for my money, it’s one of the best scenes Flanagan’s ever written. Riley asks, "What happens when we die?" and Erin offers her wild, honest, maybe slightly melodramatic answer about atoms, energy, the whole deal. Yeah, it’s heavy. But it’s also rare for a show to give characters the space to get that real about life and mortality—especially in a genre famous for jump scares and bloodbaths.

The Cast (Because This Is a Flanagan Joint)

• Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn, haunted and stuck, trying to find something worth believing in
• Kate Siegel as Erin Greene, his old friend who gets swept up in the island’s madness
• Hamish Linklater as Father Paul Hill, an electric performance at the center of the weirdness
• Annarah Cymone as Leeza, the "miracle" kid who forces everyone to reexamine what’s really happening
• Plus a whole Flanagan regulars roster that fans of his other shows will spot instantly

Final Thoughts: This Is Flanagan Unfiltered

What really landed for me is that personal touch. You get the sense Flanagan’s not just pulling from Google—he’s writing this from hard-won experience. That's why Midnight Mass feels so raw and honest, while still managing to deliver the genre goods. Even if you don’t care about religion or questions about sobriety, it’s just mesmerizing watching people try and (sometimes fail) to figure themselves out.

Bottom line: If you haven’t watched Midnight Mass yet, fix that. If you have, go back. There’s always something new to dig into, and thankfully, no one sparkles in sunlight.