After The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Minor, Mike Flanagan is back with a new horror series. Midnight Sermons brings back familiar faces from its previous series, but totally changes the universe.
What is it about ?
A community faces miraculous events and grim omens after the arrival of a mysterious priest.
Midnight Sermons, a Mike Flanagan series with Zach Gilford, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Annabeth Gish, Henry Thomas…
Who is it with?
Used to working in a troupe spirit, Mike Flanagan often summons the same actors and actresses from one series to another. This is the case once again here where we find Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan that we have already met in the collection. The Haunting of.
But new faces are arriving. Thus Hamish Linklater interprets the mysterious priest, Father Paul, who arrives in this small community. And Zach Gilford plays Riley, a young man who returns to the island after serving time for manslaughter.
Netflix
Other faces known to series fans are also present: we see in particular Annabeth Gish (X-Files), Kristin Lehman (Motivates) or Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica)
Well worth a look ?
No more haunted houses. Mike Flanagan now attacks religious dogma. And if you liked The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, then Midnight Sermons should be your thing. As usual, series creator Mike Flanagan has developed a horror story that delves directly into the human psyche.
He gives himself up with an open heart to all the turpitudes that cross him, he, the former altar boy, who wonders about the place of humanity in the universe and what place religion holds in all these metaphysical considerations. Through his series, he questions faith with the ability of believers to believe in a loving higher power while going through the worst trials.
Netflix
But at the same time, Midnight Sermons is a series that in its own way demands the faith of the viewer. Because it’s a Netflix series, the temptation will be to gobble up the episodes all at once. However, we must resist and keep pace with the series which slows down on purpose to ask questions so complex that they will never find answers, but which deserve reflection.
No ghosts hiding in the corners
This does not mean that Midnight Sermons is a purely cerebral series. It has a twist – pretty awesome – that we can’t reveal. And it is indeed a horror series. It starts with Riley Flynn, back on the isolated island that saw him grow up, four years after causing the death of a young woman while driving while intoxicated and serving her prison sentence.
Netflix
His return coincides with the arrival of Father Paul, who succeeds the old priest of the island. His passionate homilies spark a new religious zeal that only intensifies as miracles occur. And in the midst of all this, the characters take the time to wonder about the meaning of life and develop their thinking for whole minutes. Rather daring for television.
It’s hard to talk about Midnight Sermons without revealing the key plot element on which the main part of the story is based. And difficult to recommend it without passing for the fanatics that the series denounces, but it is really a series that shakes up and pushes the viewer to think. Much more than trying to scare him. You often have to be patient, but the reward is at the end of the road.
