Midnight Mass Review

We’re nearly done watching the show, “Midnight Mass” on Netflix, a seven-episode horror drama series created by Mike Flanagan, released in September 2021. It’s a show that explores the deep themes of religion, faith, and the supernatural- with a suspenseful and eerie narrative. And yes, you read that right- it is a horror drama and no, it is not for everybody.

If you are an evangelical, the “horror” in this show might not stem so much from the violence and blood, but from its depiction of religion, ie., Christianity. However, as someone who is no longer an evangelical, I don’t see the show as blasphemous. Instead, I view it as a portrayal of any false religion—essentially, fantasy. This perspective allows me to watch it objectively and understand how modern audiences might interpret mainstream religion in 2024 (or in any era). This is crucial for non-Christian Bible students as it equips us to anticipate and counter the falsehoods propagated by the world, which often presents the religious/Christian dogmas and parades them forth in such stories as truth.

So, let’s get the “show on the road” and review this thing, shall we? **spoilers ahead**

The story takes place on a sand-blasted weepy island called Crockett. We see the arrival of a mysterious, charismatic young priest, Paul Hill, which coincides with a series of miraculous events. As Paul, the endearingly handsome priest, revitalizes the small community through his charismatic sermons and apparent miracles, the island’s residents begin to experience unexplainable phenomena, leading to a growing divide between the faithful and the skeptical.

Now, had I not revealed the word “horror” in connection with the show, could you identify whether or not this divine force was good or evil? If you take the dark and eerie aspect out of it and stick to the elements of a young(ish) shepherd’s arrival to a desolate place who is able to perform Bonafide, true miracles, could you yourself believe it?

Take Riley Flynn, the second highest character(?), a man struggling with the guilt of manslaughter and atheism. With his reluctance (or sad loss of faith) to embrace these “miracles”, he ends up being the catalyst to uncovering the supernatural truth behind Father Paul’s powers—is it really an entity, a divine force, a messenger of G-d? Will the faithless, yet level-headed atheist with a huge chip on his shoulder overcome the hypnotic fervor of religion to set the island free and lead them into the truth? Could an atheist really fight against the all-mighty and win?

Next up is the artfully crafted story line of Leeza Scarborough, a young girl on the island who was paralyzed from the waist down after being accidentally shot by Joe Collie, the town’s drunk. Despite this tragedy, she remained a devout Christian and regularly attended church with her family. In a pivotal moment, during one of Paul’s sermons, Leeza miraculously regains the ability to walk (and goes on to forgive Joe in a take-your-heart-out-and-stomp-it-on-the-floor scene that will involve some Kleenex). This event is seen as a divine miracle by the islanders that greatly strengthens its belief in Paul and his teachings. Leeza then becomes a symbol of the priest’s “miraculous” powers, and her recovery inspires others to deepen their faith. As you can imagine, it certainly gets Riley Flynn, our hero atheist to reconsider some things (along with now sober Joe Collie).

Take a brief second to imagine yourself in the shoes of any one of these islanders (the show makes it easy to do)—witnessing something like this firsthand. How could you possibly deny it? Wouldn’t it seem insane to question it? And this wasn’t the only miracle of healing! But herein lies the brilliance of the show: the gaslighting. It’s gaslighting on a level you’ve never seen before. As the audience, you might not fully grasp this at first because you’re aware early on that the divine force behind Paul the priest is malevolent. Yet, Paul believes this force is good because it heals, brings life, restores faith, and even resurrects the dead.

It is you, the audience that’s aware the town is being manipulated by an evil force under the guise of good religion (and Riley as well, just not as certain). And you, the audience can’t help but feel sympathy for the poor saps of Crockett Island, who are deceived by these so-called miracles and healings, which unbeknownst to them are actually fueled by the blood of an “angel” rather than wine during daily mass. But what you, the audience may not realize is how well the show’s writer(s) knows the Scriptures—And I mean, they really know the Scriptures!

As an example, let’s talk about Beverly Keane. She’s one of the most complex and unsettling characters in the series but she is like any rabid churchgoer: a fervent believer in her own moral superiority and religious righteousness, seeing herself as the island’s moral authority and enforcer of what she deems the “will of G-d”. Her faith is rigid and unyielding, often manifesting in an authoritarian manner as she takes it upon herself to guide, judge, and control the actions of others.

And her dialogue is almost wholly scripture.

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I don’t know if I’ve ever heard or seen scripture so adeptly woven into dialogue by a character you are designed to hate in my whole life. If you don’t know the scriptures, you might never pick up on it, but wow! It’s a sad thing how much the show is banking on you, the audience to being Biblically illiterate so it can spew its own hatred of religion upon it by twisting so many verses into a pretzel. It’s the classic upside-down tactic often used by the world to sell the good being evil and evil being good idea (the atheist is the hero, the priest is the antihero, yadda yadda yadda) and pray (!) that you swallow it. Now with that being said, I’m just going to get straight to the point:

The “divine force” behind Paul the priest is a vampire. Paul the priest calls this vampire, the “Angel of G-d”. Sounds crazy, right? Well… not really. Because in this world, again, this vampire- this “divine entity” heals, performs miracles and resurrects unto eternal life. I mean, how much closer to G-d can you get? How much closer to J-sus Ch-st can you get? And let me tell you- they never let you, the audience forget this. The writers WANT the audience to view religion as a blood-sucking, life force depriving, manipulative, shenanigan inducing circus wrapped up in a royal purple cloth of piety, and shock-inducing miracles.

They want you to think that any goodness it purports is really all just wickedness.

And I want you to know that this show perfectly captures the essence of what heavy manipulation of the Scriptures can do to an unsuspecting people who don’t study their Bibles. I want you to know that when this happens it is then, entirely too easy to foister that Scripture gymnasium into something so large, so believable, that it seems absolutely bat-sh$! crazy to expose it as false.

Just like the situation the residents of Crockett Island found themselves in.

They saw the miracles, they heard the captivating sermons, they experienced the healing and invigorating effects of partaking in the mass of the “literal” blood and body of Chr-st that brought such amazing healing properties to their bodies that they looked and felt like children again.

And it was all a lie.

To question it would be to question the validity of every single person’s own experience in the community. If it were a true story, to question it would be ostracization at best, being burned on a stake at worst.

Sounds awful close to questioning the validity of Christianity, don’t it? Questioning the exorcisms, the healing power unique to the name of America’s G-d, L-rd and Savior J-sus Chr-st, the transformations from addict to straight-lacer, the glue that holds a conservative family together, questioning the doctrine of heaven and hell… all of it- akin to the lunacy of setting your own self on fire.

How dare you even think to question so.much.GOOD done in the name of Chr-st? And yet… you never question all the harm? The spiritual suicide of the masses?

The BROAD path?

Yes, that broad path chock-full of signs and wonders, propagated with such force because Yahweh SAID He would do this. That He would send false messengers with miraculous healing powers to the people in order to “test” them- to see what was really in their hearts. And what’s in there? It’s this: an insatiable desire to sacrifice a lifetime over a temporary “miracle”… greed that seeks a temporary high in exchange for eternal deliverance… a temporal gift that forfeits truth. And He sees it. Draws it out of us.

Because we don’t know His Words.

All the eyes are on the signs and not the page. The masses drinking down the elixer of man’s opinions, words and traditions while using the Bible to do it. How disastrous!

But back to the show and wrapping all of this up. There was one scene that prompted me to write this review and it involved a dialogue between Riley and his childhood friend Erin who had recently miscarried (and no, this scene was not the catalyst for the dream I wrote about in the last post- this scene came after, lol). They were talking late one night about what death meant to each of them and were sharing their own visions of the afterlife- Erin’s from the perspective of her recently deceased infant daughter (innocent), and Riley from the perspective of a no-good, murdering atheist (sinner).

Erin’s, of course, was the traditional Christian, “we all go to Heaven when we die” where we are surrounded by family and friends while we bask in the love and presence of “G-d” forever. Oh the joy her daughter will experience in a perfect body having never experienced a pain filled life here on earth. You know the tripe.

On the other side, Riley’s is a rational, almost scientific perspective on death as he describes how he envisions his body shutting down, his heart stopping, and his brain ceasing to function. He says that his consciousness will fade away as the electricity in his brain, those last firing neurons play out his good memories in one last dream. Finally at the end, he will experience nothingness, akin to falling asleep and never waking up.

He imagines his body decomposing, becoming part of the earth, feeding the grass and trees, and eventually returning to the universe as stardust. The vision he tells to Erin provides him with a sense of peace, as he sees himself as part of a larger, eternal cycle of life and death, even without the presence of a soul or afterlife.

After reading that, wouldn’t it be crazy to tell you that Riley’s synopsis is closer to what the scriptures actually tell us about death and afterlife than Erin’s?

It’s because of this, that I am writing this post. It is to reveal evil vs. evil wearing a disguise of GOOD vs. evil. And even then, the “good”, the “hero” is an atheist! But I digress.

Yahshua claims that no one has ascended into Heaven and that we all go to the grave to await the resurrection. Revelation tells us the abode of the heavens is where Yahweh, Yahshua, the angels and the creatures reside (not humans) and that it will be the marriage supper that unites heaven and earth (heaven will be open to humans then). And if your wondering- no, I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness 😉

It is the meek who inherit the EARTH remember?

But alas, we like the comforting lies from Sunday wolves that tell us things like everybody goes to heaven where we float on clouds and bask in G-d’s presence (nowhere is this idea found in the Hebrew Scriptures). And then in the world, on a show watched by millions, we are given what looks to be a wolf (an atheist) who’s actually like a lamb, spouting truth. It all culminates in a gotcha moment where Riley sends a parting note to Paul the priest, where he writes: from dust we are made, to dust we shall return.

The ultimate trump card pulled on the “chosen of G-d”. Down is up and up is down.

And… that ends the second-to-last show. The big finale? Don’t know. Haven’t seen it yet. Maybe the whole island sinks- who knows.

So what do I know? Well, the cinematography was good, it had decent effects, good script, interesting characters (with pretty excellent acting, by the way), with what I believe to be moderate to poor pacing throughout. I didn’t find it frightening in anyway, but others might. To me, it was an excellent character study of how religion in an isolated community can hold so much power with its bandwagon propagandizing. Humorously, only atheists and Muslims have the acumen to see through it all.

Here’s what I also know- don’t take your truth from what the world has to offer and don’t take your truth from what CHRISTIANS have to offer. Take your truth from what Yahweh SAID. He said through IsaiYAH that there is no light or understanding in those who do not keep His laws. He says they cannot know truth and they are hostile to it. Beware of those who claim to know the scriptures and yet disobey or disbelieve His right-rulings. They are blind guides.

Blind guides lead the blind and they both fall into the ditch.

The Torah (Genesis thru Deuteronomy) gives us the blueprint for true religion, and it is the beacon of light for all to see, to grasp, to cling to. But the world, and the largest religion in the world will not believe (the way is hidden and narrow and few find it). Instead, they will either tell you Yahweh’s Torah does not apply to you or they simply create their own truth to tell. NEVER will you *actually* be exposed to good vs. evil. The world nor Christianity knows what is- it only thinks it does.

If, and when, you are given the gift of spiritual eyes that SEE, you will notice the constant portrayal on a “tell-a-vision” that is offered: evil vs. evil. That’s all it always is and if you see that– now we’re talking about a true miracle: the gift of spiritual sight.

Don’t let the world and modern religion gaslight you.

Walk in the Hebrew Truth of Yahweh and Yahshua (not Jewish or Christian). Shalom.