When Midnight Mass, Netflix’s latest horror hit series, took the horror fandom by storm on social media, I knew I was in for a treat. And I was not disappointed. Mike Flanagan has been producing solid horror projects ever since his powerful and eerie haunted house horror, Oculus (2013). His works tend to explore our relationship with trauma using horror narratives to elevate the affective responses. In his latest effort, Midnight Mass, Flanagan shifts his focus to religious beliefs as a means to explore trauma and violence. Many other writers have highlighted Flanagan’s nuanced criticism of “faith,” which sets the series apart from other less empathetic religious-horror fare. Like other mainstream discussions of religion in popular culture, these analyses and deep readings of the series offer all-encompassing conclusions using vague and often complex terms such as “faith,” “religion,” and “cult” without much critical unpacking. What sets Midnight Mass apart from other religious-horror films, such as The Exorcist (1973), Midsommar (2019), or Red State (2011), is its awareness of the devastating effects of neoliberal capitalist ideology on charismatic Christian movements.
Before analyzing Midnight Mass, let me clarify both aforementioned terms. Charismatic Christianity is a religious movement that emphasizes an individualist approach to Christianity. It highlights a personal relationship with Jesus, prophecy and biblical literalism, glossolalia, faith healings, and other “gifts” from the Holy Spirit. In essence, in charismatic Christianity, practices are understood to be less about the community and more about the individual. For example, in Charismatic Catholicism, a movement heavily inspired by its Protestant counterpart, the Eucharist, representing communal worship, becomes less important as more individualized forms of worships are put forth.
Charismatic Catholics, as well as other charismatic Christians, have often leaned towards conservative and neoliberal politics. In his book, Faith Based: Religious Neoliberalism and the Politics of Welfare in the United States, Jason Hackworth coins the term “religious neoliberalism” which explains the influence of neoliberal capitalist notions of individuality and market ideology on Christian beliefs and theology. This coalition has often been dubbed the “Christian Right,” ever since their substantial political influence in the Reagan era. However, newer research on this phenomenon tends to focus on “Christian nationalism,” which, as Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry explain in their book, Taking America Back For God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, is “a cultural framework that advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.” While being a “conservative Christian” is not technically synonymous with being a “Christian nationalist,” Whitehead and Perry state that political conservatism, especially conservative ideology that protects status quo capitalism, is by far the strongest indicator of Christian nationalism.
All these elements are interconnected in Midnight Mass to offer a critique of American Christianity that is surprisingly sophisticated for a popular cultural product. In episode 3, the viewer learns that the “new” priest is a rejuvenated Monsignor Pruitt (Hamish Linklater). While on a pilgrimage in Jerusalem, Monsignor Pruitt encounters an “angel.” This “angel” (heavily implied to be a vampire) attacks him, draining his blood, and turns him, too, into a vampire. He is thus returned to his younger appearance and given the “gift” of immortal life. To conceal his identity, Pruitt adopts the name Father Paul, taking inspiration from the biblical figure of Paul, a zealous converted believer, and an important figure in Charismatic Christian circles. Flanagan, here, is foreshadowing a theological change, one that is closely associated with the charismatic Catholic renewal movement.
Upon his arrival back to his hometown, Father Paul wants to share the Good News and increasingly becomes more charismatic in his teachings and mannerisms. In episode 3, he successfully performs a “miracle” by making Leeza (Annarah Cymone), a paralyzed young woman, walk up the church’s stairs to get her communion, in a radical act of faith healing. In episode 4, during his sermon, he speaks of “God’s army” and other militant symbolisms reminiscent of televangelism and charismatic Christian sermons. The town’s Catholicism is slowly adopting ideas and elements of more conservative Christian beliefs.
The strange events happening on Crockett Island are quickly understood as signs of a higher purpose, destined by God. This new brand of Catholicism is, thus, forced out of the private sector and into the public sector, as Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan), Father Paul’s biggest supporter, advocates that it be taught in schools. In addition, Bev Keane also makes it clear that her narrow idea of Catholicism is the only true religious belief, as she dismisses the concerns of Sheriff Hassan, the town’s only Muslim. Here, Bev exerts Christian nationalist ideas – Christian doctrines as the basis of morality, the importance of teaching Christianity in the public sphere, and Christianity as the only “true” religion. Catholicism, in its current charismatic form, is leading to an infallible, authoritarian ideal to be disseminated and admired everywhere.
[Spoilers below]
When the Catholics in Crockett Island make their full transformation into charismatic believers, Flanagan portrays their practices, rituals, and beliefs as violent, monstrous, and highly individualistic. The Eucharist, which was a harmless and communal practice, has become a selfish bloodbath as believers begin to eat the literal body and drink the literal blood of their neighbors. The coding of charismatic Catholicism as vampirism captures the devastating effects of a neoliberal understanding of Christianity. Vampires, which are often characterized in highly selfish and capitalist terms, become the perfect allegory for a charismatic Catholicism embodying extreme individualism. In the last episodes, the “true” believers are asked to essentially commit suicide by drinking a poisonous drink to be “born again” as vampiric beings through a twisted and monstrous portrayal of baptism. By fusing their Catholicism with neoliberal capitalist ideas, chaos quickly ensues. As Crockett Island literally burns, Bev Keane is quick to point to Revelations as an explanation for all this chaos. Her apocalyptic understanding of their situation serves to undermine and mask the violence the resident are enacting on themselves and each other.
The final moments of Midnight Mass feature a community destroying each other through twisted ideology, both religious and political. The residents have succumbed to neoliberal ideology, the same ideology that has caused oil spills in their ocean and a consequent economic deterioration. The striking gothic elements of the town, the church, and the vampiric creature serve to emphasize a decaying state, both economically and morally. A turn away from the communal aspects of worship, beliefs, sacraments, and a turn towards an individual, “kill or be killed” mindset is their ultimate demise. As all the houses in the village are burned down, they have nowhere to shield themselves from the eventual sunlight. In their final moment, the remaining few come together, embracing each other, in an act of communal love to sing “Near My God to Thee.” The residents seem to have finally caught up to their harm. If only it was not already too late…
Works Cited
Hackworth, Jason. Faith Based: Religious Neoliberalism and the Politics of Welfare in the United States. University of Georgia Press, 2012.
Whitehead, Andrew L. and Perry, Samuel L. Taking America Back For God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Midnight Mass is streaming on Netflix.
Zachary Doiron is a PhD student at the University of Waterloo researching the relationship between American evangelicalism, conservative politics, and horror media. He has recently contributed articles for PopMatters and served as a film reviewer for Film Inquiry and Rotten Tomatoes in the past. You can find him posting about scary things on Twitter @ZDoiron13.
