By: Brittany Liss
Midnight Mass is a seven-episode one-part series that puts the viewers through an experience of chaos with religion and horror throughout the entire show. One thing about the show is that it starts off slow with a few surprising moments here and there, then towards the end, it starts to get better. An example is when in one of the earlier episodes, Bev decides to poison the dog and that causes a bit of an upsetting atmosphere and worry around the town because no one knew that it was her that did it so they worried that they were going to be next. This example was one of the few scenes that helped people, including myself, to keep watching the show because from this scene and on there were more plot twists and events happening. Midnight Mass starts slow but increasingly gets better as it goes on.
To add more to religion in the show, it was very manipulating and demanding. As I said previously most of the people in this small town on the small island went to the church here. They believed that going to church was the only way to live and relieve themselves of their sins. Father Paul was the biggest manipulator of the show along with Bev who told all the people that the only way that they can live their lives is by always going by the rules of the church. One of the biggest manipulations of the show was in the last episode when Father Paul and Bev manipulated the people of the town to drink the blood of the fallen angel to become “immortal” like vampires so they could stay looking like the best version of themselves and how they look youthful. This horror and religion with manipulation are what helped the audience stay with the show and still be into it, even if the beginning was slow.
Horror was throughout the entire show, and the same with religion, but more at the end of the show rather than in the beginning. The beginning of the show brought out the end even though it wasn’t that eventful. The little aspects of the beginning and some of the middle episodes built the end scenes of the show. For horror, it was not right in front of you, it was the waiting and the intriguing scenes that brought up the horror of the show. An example is when people just started dying from sickness and they were not sure from what, then from that, it led up to Riley, one of the main characters dying. It was also horrifying as the audience did not know what the pastor's true intentions were. As for a slow start with the horror aspect of the show, it was the same thing for religion. Even though the show's whole point revolves around religion, it didn’t start fully coming out until later episodes. Almost the entire town did go to church every time they had it and if you did not go it was a bit frowned upon. By the fourth episode out of the seven everything comes into play with religion when Father Pruitt drinks the fallen angel's blood everything turns into mayhem.
I’m going to show a couple of examples from Midnight Mass reviews about how they feel about the beginning of the show to the end. The first review is from Daniel D’Addario, and he talks about how the show does have passion but lacks precision. “And though it engages with potent ideas, the ultimate impact of “Midnight Mass” is softened by a lack of follow-through. It’s a very talky show that struggles, in dialogue, to answer the questions it poses.” This explains how the show is lacking what it needs in the end and it needs more, especially in the beginning to make the show even better. Another article review by David Fear shows how at the beginning of the show there are a lot of questions that are asked but not answered either until the middle of the show or until the very end. Some examples of questions are “Where is Father Pruitt? What’s the deal with the trunk that Father Paul keeps hauling around? Who’s responsible for all of those dead stray cats on the shoreline, and to whom do those yellow, glowing eyes — the ones we catch peering out of the darkness at odd moments — belong?” I agree with these questions that he put in this review because I’m sure I’m not the only one who asked these questions to myself throughout the show. The last review that shows how the show is slower in the beginning than at the end is by Daniel Fienberg and he mentions how the show gets “increasingly terrifying”. He explained how even though the show consistently got better, the beginning was slower than what it should've been.
Not only do the review articles show that Midnight Mass starts slow, but also some scholarly articles mention that the show could have had a better start off. “The middle section of these seven episodes seriously lagged. This is a dialogue-driven script, filled with heavy-handed, long-winded philosophical and religious monologues that just seem to go on and on…” This shows how the show was very slow starting, especially when the author mentioned how it “seriously lagged”. Another example is more to do with the horror scenes and that the audience would have been more engaged in the show from the beginning if certain aspects were better or if the lighting was better because the scenes were hard to be seen. “Certain scenes, especially ones set outside, are completely lacking in adequate visibility.” This is important because the lack of showing in scenes could cause the audience to switch off the show and not want to watch it anymore. This was throughout the entire show, but mainly in the beginning. Finally, the last problem with Midnight Mass came from an article explaining how the scenes could have been made up so much better. “The series spoils the surprise by including young actors in obvious older-looking makeup. Additionally, the cinematography on the show is often on the darker side, hiding key characters and moments. Because of this, twists and jump scares can lead to confusion in the audience, which can't even make out the scene.” This is one of the big parts of midnight mass since most of the characters have to appear older than they are so in the end when the big scenes come in, they try to appear more youthful. This is a problem in Midnight Mass because I think it made the show take a wrong turn and it could have turned out a lot better than it did.
Even though the beginning of the show was slow, it did have its good moments in the beginning. Some that I will mention will be from reviews and one great thing said by Andrew Webster was “Midnight Mass also increases the scope — and the scares. Instead of a single-family home, its story encompasses a small fishing village, and instead of ghosts, it’s more about monsters. It takes a bit to get going, but by the end, it descends into pure and gruesome horror.” As he explained, though the beginning is slow, it's worthwhile in the end. Another example is by Brian Tellerico and who states “Most of the lengthy conversations are well-scripted, engaging enough in their dialogue, but they also drain a lot of the momentum from the piece, especially after a major revelation mid-season then leads to a couple of episodes of intense discussion when viewers are going to be looking for the bloody stuff.” There could have been more action that went into the show, but either way, it was still eventful in some parts in the beginning. Lastly, an article by David Goodkind mentions how Midnight Mass is a slow, but worthy horror series to watch. “Midnight Mass” is a true exercise in patience yielding reward.” “Presenting itself as a drama first, the show slowly breaks down the audience’s guard with a plot-driven narrative that sprinkles in horror elements before submerging the viewers into the chaos midway through the season.” This is a great example explaining how even though the show started slow, and only gave the audience a little bit at a time until the end when it took off.
Midnight Mass starts slow but increasingly gets better as it goes on. As mentioned throughout this essay, the beginning could have been a lot better, with more action or suspenseful scenes, instead of waiting more towards the end to pile everything in. Don’t get me wrong, as stated in the previous paragraph, there are some good parts, in the beginning, it could have been a lot better than what it was. Some scenes that were good throughout the show were when the fallen angel came into the show, when the mayhem started going across the island because everyone was wondering what happened to the priest when he disappeared, and lastly when the final scenes of the show and all of the people who drank the liquid became vampire-like creatures so they could become immortal, even though in the end they all died anyway. Midnight Mass had its ups and downs, but overall in the end I think that it became a great show to watch.
Brittany Liss is a student living in Eatontown, New Jersey and is studying Sociology and Criminal Justice at Bloomfield College
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