Is Midnight Mass Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 6 out of 10. It's slow religious dread on a small island, with some jump scares along the way.
Ruling: It is a seven-episode series about faith on a fishing island, so skip it if animal deaths are a dealbreaker.
Midnight Mass is a seven-episode miniseries set on a fishing island with one church and a lot of people who have been through something. A young priest arrives to fill in for the regular one. The island is delighted, which is the first thing to worry about.
The premise, briefly
A man returns to his isolated hometown after prison just as a charismatic young priest arrives and starts reviving the island's faith, and strange things begin to happen.
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
The turned congregation tears the town apart, and the remaining islanders gather to face sunrise together, singing a hymn. Only Leeza and Warren get away, in a canoe, and Leeza finds she can no longer feel her legs.
In episode 2, early in the series, Joe Collie's dog eats food off the ground at the Ash Wednesday festival and dies. The death is shown and it is brutal. Hundreds of dead cats on the beach are found at the end of the episode before.
The dog dies in episode 2 after eating food that was on the ground. Hundreds of cats also die, starting in episode 1.
Midnight Mass is a slow, talky series about faith that turns into a massacre in the last two episodes.
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A temporary priest on a permanent island
Riley Flynn comes home to Crockett Island after four years in prison. He drove drunk, and a young woman died in the crash. The island is a fishing village still recovering from an oil spill, and Riley has lost his faith. Also on the island are Annie and Ed, his parents, and Warren, his brother, Bev Keane, a devout parishioner, and Erin Greene, his ex-girlfriend, who is pregnant. The regular priest, Monsignor Pruitt, is away on a pilgrimage, so a young Father Paul Hill arrives to cover for him. Then things get odd. Warren notices movement on the remote island where feral cats live, and one of the cats is mauled by something unseen. Riley watches a figure that resembles Pruitt walk along the beach in a storm and vanish. By morning, hundreds of dead cats have washed up along the shore.
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A potluck nobody should have attended
The town cannot work out why the cats died, so Bev spreads rat poison around the church to keep predators away. Father Paul meets Leeza Scarborough, the mayor's daughter, who uses a wheelchair after Joe Collie accidentally shot her. This is the beat with the animal death people dread most, and it comes early: at the Ash Wednesday Crock Pot Luck Festival, Joe's dog eats food off the ground and dies. The death is shown and it is brutal. Joe suspects Bev, whom he resents for pushing the town to accept an oil settlement that helped the church. After that, Erin sees a stranger outside her home, Riley tells Father Paul at an AA meeting exactly what he thinks of God, and a drug dealer named Bowl is attacked by someone unseen. At Mass, Father Paul tells Leeza to stand and take the Eucharist, and she walks.
Walking is the smallest miracle
Leeza's recovery sets off a religious revival across the island. She forgives Joe, who then goes to an AA meeting with Riley and Father Paul. Sheriff Hassan is uneasy that his son Ali has taken up reading the Bible, and he loses an argument with Bev about handing Bibles out at the school. Father Paul collapses, coughs up blood and dies in front of Bev and the Scarboroughs, then revives a few moments later. He explains in a flashback that Monsignor Pruitt got lost in a sandstorm near Jerusalem and sheltered in an ancient ruin, where a winged humanoid creature drank his blood and then fed him its own. Pruitt woke up young again. Father Paul is Pruitt, he is sure the creature is an Angel, and he plans to share its blood with the island.
Communion wine, special blend
Dr. Sarah Gunning finds that Erin's pregnancy has disappeared and decides it was a miscarriage. A doctor on the mainland says there is no sign Erin was ever pregnant. Paul finds out the hard way that sunlight burns him, and Bev figures out who he really is. He gives Communion privately to Sarah's mother Mildred, who has dementia and still recognizes him as Pruitt. Joe visits Paul and catches him drinking the Angel's blood. Paul has been stirring it into the Communion wine that the whole congregation drinks. Paul kills Joe and drinks his blood. Bev finds the body with the mayor and the handyman Sturge, and she covers it up because she thinks Paul's return signals the Second Coming. Paul then lies to Riley about where Joe is. Riley knows Joe's sister is dead, goes back to confront Paul, and finds the Angel topping up a decanter with its own blood, and it goes for him.
The ferries have been sent away
Erin reports Riley missing, and Hassan assumes he relapsed or worse. At Good Friday Mass, Paul's sermon casts the parishioners as soldiers in God's army and tells them to get ready for war. Riley takes Erin out in a rowboat and explains what Paul did, then confesses he loves her. When the sun comes up he catches fire and is reduced to ashes while she watches. Erin goes back to the island, where Sarah shows her that Mildred looks young again and that her blood burns in sunlight. They conclude the Communion wine caused the miracles, and that it also made Erin's pregnancy disappear. Hassan will not investigate the church. Erin, Sarah and Mildred try to leave and find the ferries have been sent away. At the church, Paul reveals who he is and presents the Angel, and he tells the congregation to drink poison and be reborn. Several do, including the Scarboroughs, Sturge, Ooker and Ali. Mildred shoots Pruitt and the Angel attacks her. The ones who drank turn on everyone else. Erin shoots Bev, and a handful escape.
The ending, explained
Mildred is reunited with Pruitt, and Sarah turns out to be their daughter. Pruitt brought the Angel to the island so that Mildred would not die. The turned churchgoers massacre the town. Annie kills herself to distract Bev and Sturge so the others can flee Erin's burning house. Erin, Sarah and Hassan set the boats on fire so the turned can't leave, and Bev orders every building destroyed except the church and the rec center. Pruitt is horrified and condemns Bev, and she answers by calling him a false prophet. Sturge shoots Sarah and Bev fatally injures Hassan. The Angel feeds on Erin, who cuts through its wings so it can't escape. Pruitt fails to turn Sarah, burns the church, and carries her body with Mildred to a bridge she loved as a child. Ali takes out the rec center too. Nothing is left to hide in, so the remaining townspeople sit together at sunrise and sing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as they die. Leeza and Warren get away by canoe, and Leeza finds she can no longer feel her legs, which suggests the Angel's miracles are over.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
Questions people ask at 1am
The whole plot of Midnight Mass is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
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