Midnight Mass Trailer: Mike Flanagan Returns To Netflix For A Religious-Themed Horror Series

Mike Flanagan and Netflix are at it again with "Midnight Mass," a new horror series that Flanagan created and directed. The show is set in an isolated community that suddenly begins experiencing miracles. But are these miracles really divine, or something far more sinister? Featuring a cast that includes Zach Gilford, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Rahul Abburi, Crystal Balint, Matt Biedel, Alex Essoe, Annarah Cymone, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Kohli, Kristin Lehman, Robert Longstreet, Igby Rigney, Samantha Sloyan, Henry Thomas, and Michael Trucco, the series debuts later this month. For now, though, check out a new trailer. 

Midnight Mass Trailer

I'm in the tank for all-things-Mike Flanagan at this point. I first became aware of Flanagan with his feature debut "Absentia," and I've been following him ever since. Since that debut, he's helmed "Oculus," "Doctor Sleep," "Gerald's Game," the Netflix series "The Haunting of Hill House," and more. And now he's back with "Midnight Mass." Like "Hill House," it's a series he created and directed in its entirety, and that's really all I need to know! But if you need to know more, here's a synopsis: 

From The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan, MIDNIGHT MASS tells the tale of a small, isolated island community whose existing divisions are amplified by the return of a disgraced young man (Zach Gilford) and the arrival of a charismatic priest (Hamish Linklater). When Father Paul's appearance on Crockett Island coincides with unexplained and seemingly miraculous events, a renewed religious fervor takes hold of the community – but do these miracles come at a price?

"Midnight Mass" premieres globally on Netflix on September 24, 2021. I can't wait.

There Is Darkness At Work on Crockett Island

When a teaser trailer for "Midnight Mass" arrived last month, it came accompanied with a personal letter from Mike Flanagan in which he called the show his "favorite project" he's worked on to date. He added: 

As a former alter boy, about to celebrate 3 years of sobriety, it's not hard to see what makes this so personal. The ideas at the root of this show scare me to my core. There is darkness at work on Crockett Island. Some of it is supernatural, but the scariest is born of human nature. The darkness that animated this story isn't hard to see in our own world, unfortunately. But this show is about something else as well ... faith itself. One of the greatest mysteries of human nature. How even in the darkness, in the worst of it, in the absence of light – and hope – we sing.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of that. I'm assuming the human horrors will involve religious zealotry, similar to the Stephen King adaptation "The Mist." But the singing part is a mystery to me. Maybe "Midnight Mass" is a secret horror musical. Probably not, though.