If movies like Cannibal Holocaust or The Serbian Film or Martyrs are examples of pushing the extreme of physical horror, Midnight Mass is an extreme of philosophical horror. And like any extreme, it's divisive. You're either going to love it or hate it.
Personally? I loved it. It reminds me, in some ways, of Shirley Jackson, one of my favorite writers. The quietness of her The Summer People. The pettiness of We Have Always Lived in the Caste. It is horror grounded in the basic human needs of connection, intimacy, hope and purpose, and the horror of it doesn't rest in the flinch-worthy grossness of physical horror, or jump scares or monsters, but in how it asks you the question "What would you do? If it were you, what would you do?"
Horror at the extremes
If movies like Cannibal Holocaust or The Serbian Film or Martyrs are examples of pushing the extreme of physical horror, Midnight Mass is an extreme of philosophical horror. And like any extreme, it's divisive. You're either going to love it or hate it.
Personally? I loved it. It reminds me, in some ways, of Shirley Jackson, one of my favorite writers. The quietness of her The Summer People. The pettiness of We Have Always Lived in the Caste. It is horror grounded in the basic human needs of connection, intimacy, hope and purpose, and the horror of it doesn't rest in the flinch-worthy grossness of physical horror, or jump scares or monsters, but in how it asks you the question "What would you do? If it were you, what would you do?"