'Midnight Mass', The Latest From Director Mike Flanagan, Begins Production

Mike Flanagan is headed back to work. The filmmaker has begun production on his new Netflix horror series Midnight Mass, making it the latest production to start shooting during the pandemic. The series will reunite Flanagan with several cast members of The Haunting of Hill House and the upcoming The Haunting of Bly Manor.

For a while, it looked like virtually no film or TV series would be able to shoot anytime soon. But little by little, more and more productions are finding ways to get off the ground, even during the pandemic. Midnight Mass is the latest example, as Mike Flanagan revealed today that the series just started shooting. In the seven-episode series, "A community experiences miraculous events and frightening omens after a mysterious priest's arrival."

The cast includes Haunting of Hill House cast members Robert Longstreet, Annabeth Gish, and Henry Thomas, and also features Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Abburi, Crystal Balint, Matt Biedel, Alex Essoe, Rahul Kohli, Kristin Lehman, Igby Rigney, and Annarah Shephard. The show is part of an overall deal Flanagan and producing partner Trevor Macy signed with Netflix that also includes The Haunting of Bly Manor, the follow-up to Hill House that retains several cast members in different roles, telling a whole new story. While season 1 was an adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel, Bly Manor draws from the work of Henry James, particularly James' famous ghost story The Turn of the Screw. No release date for Bly Manor has been announced yet, but it's expected to premiere this year.