If you’re a big-time horror fan, chances are you’ve heard of Flanagan. He’s the mastermind behind other popular Netflix horror series, like the adaptations of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, as well as adaptations of the Stephen King books Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. And if Midnight Mass is half as terrifying as any of those other chilling tales (and we’re pretty sure it will be), we’re all just days away from getting scared silly. In fact, the show has already received the highest praise imaginable: an official tweet of approval from King himself. On Sept. 14, King wrote, “Mike Flanagan has created a dense, beautifully photographed terror tale that climbs to a high pitch of horror by the seventh and last episode.” Excited yet? Or just totally terrified? Keep reading for all the gory details and everything we know so far about Netflix’s horror series, Midnight Mass—including whether it’s like a third season of The Haunting series.
What is the Midnight Mass release date?
The highly anticipated, limited series Midnight Mass drops all seven of its episodes on Fri., Sept. 24 on Netflix. However, if you’re lucky enough to be one of the first 1,500 fans to respond to a special virtual premiere event invitation, you could watch it sooner. It’s no joke—Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy recently announced that they will be screening the first two episodes of Midnight Mass via a virtual premiere event on Wed., Sept. 22 at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 p.m. PT. Interested? Shoot your shot by RSPV’ing here. If you’re not one of the first 1,500 to respond, no worries. The series will be made available just two days later on Fri., Sept. 24. Netflix will likely release the series officially at 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET, as is the streaming giant’s standard procedure with dropping new shows and movies.
Is there a Midnight Mass trailer?
Set to the bone-chilling “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, things are eerie right from the start of Midnight Mass’ official trailer. As Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns home to the sleepy, isolated town of Crockett Island after serving time for killing a woman in a drunk-driving accident, a charismatic young priest (HamishLinklater) captivates the town with his mysterious, seemingly divine ability to perform miracles.
Who’s in the Midnight Mass cast?
Midnight Mass stars Gilford (of Friday Night Lights fame), Linklater, Kate Siegel, Kristin Lehman, Samantha Sloyan, Igby Rigney, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Abburi and Henry Thomas, among others. Many of them, understandably, have been fawning over King’s tweet praising the series. “If you could see my blonde hairy arms, you would see the goosebumps,” Lehman, who portrays Annie Flynn in the series, told E! News of King’s tweet. “I’m speechless.” Gish, who plays Dr. Sarah Gunning, said, “He has so many listeners and followers so, hopefully, they’ll pay attention.” Linklater, who plays Father Paul, also reacted in a pretty starstruck manner: “And you know how you know he’s correct? ‘Cause he’s Stephen frickin’ King. He’s not profligate with his praise. That’s real nice.” Gilford, the show’s protagonist, also couldn’t believe King’s public praise. “I mean, if Stephen King talks about something you did, you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool!’” he said. “It’s just cool that he even watched it, and the fact that he enjoyed it enough to publicly say something positive about it.”
Is Midnight Mass based on a book?
Unlike the Flanagan series that came before it, Midnight Mass is not based on a book. Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House was based on Jackson’s 1959 book of the same name; Flanagan’s follow-up miniseries, The Haunting of Bly Manor, was loosely based on Henry James’ classic 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw. But Midnight Mass is not based on any pre-published material. Instead, Flanagan has been meditating on the idea of a seemingly miraculous, yet off-the-beaten-track priest for a while now and when he finally sat down to write the manuscript, it took even longer than expected. “I think it took so long to make [this project]for a couple of reasons,” Flanagan told TheWrap. “I think it took a very long time to take its final shape. I started working on it so long ago and it’s so kind of tied to my childhood and a lot of the bigger questions about life and death and what I thought about all that. I think when I started working on it, it was not nearly formed enough to get made. And then when we took it out as a pitch in 2014, nobody bought it.” Flanagan added, “And it’s interesting looking back at that now because it was disappointing at the time, because we felt it could be a great show. And looking back at it now, it’s like, no it wasn’t ready. There was a lot in the project about religion, but not a lot about moderatism. And there was a lot that I had to say about alcoholism, but I hadn’t gotten sober yet. And so it just wasn’t finished. It didn’t have a complete perspective, at least a complete enough perspective, that it would have worked. And I think this kind of finally came along at the right time, where a lot of us had enough to say, finally, to make it worthwhile.”
Is Midnight Mass part of TheHaunting series?
If you ask Flanagan, that’s a hard no. In fact, he and other co-creators have been diligently working to convey to fans of TheHaunting series not to get their hopes up for Midnight Mass to be a Season 3 of The Haunting in any way. Midnight Mass, Flanagan says, stands alone. “One of the reasons why we’re very careful to calibrate the expectations properly is that I do feel like people who mistakenly approach this material the same way they would approach Hill House or Bly are going to be surprised to find it’s so different,” Flanagan told TheWrap. “And while there are familiar faces and familiar kind of aesthetic techniques that just come with it being an Intrepid project—if you spend the show looking for hidden ghosts, you’re going to be really, really disappointed… I think we’re just very careful not to incorrectly make people expect this to be that.”
What is Midnight Mass on Netflix about?
Midnight Mass takes place on a tiny, isolated beach community called Crockett Island. When Riley Flynn (Gilford) returns to the divisive, sleepy community that is his home town after serving time for killing a woman in a drunk-driving accident, the town is rattled. But then, a new, young and charismatic priest named Father Paul (Linklater) arrives and almost immediately, instills new hope in the town. Unexplained miracles start happening, seemingly at the hands and will of Father Paul, and the town doesn’t just become hopeful again, they’re inspired and reinvigorated by religion. Of course, so far the miniseries sounds like it belongs more in a faith and religion genre, but there is certainly horror intertwined throughout. Miracles, it seems—even the inexplicable, divine ones—may just have a terrible, unthinkable cost.
Will The Haunting have a Season 3?
While it hasn’t been officially announced that The Haunting series will definitively have a third season, Flanagan adds that it’s definitely a possibility. “The Haunting, which we love for its own reasons, whether or not we find a way to get a third iteration of that up in the future is wide open,” he added in his talk with TheWrap. Like the town of Crockett Island, it appears there’s hope.
How to watch Midnight Mass
You can watch all seven episodes of Midnight Mass on Netflix beginning Fri., Sept. 24 at 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET. Next, everything we know about NCIS: Hawai’i, the newest edition to the CBS franchise!
