Mike Flanagan has a thrilling new horror show on Netflix, but how scary is Midnight Mass compared to his terrifying The Haunting of Hill House series? Midnight Mass documents a small island town that sees strange changes when a charismatic new priest arrives. Miracles and supernatural occurrences appear as the new priest becomes acclimated with the townspeople, while also bringing horrifying omens to the dying community.
Through his Netflix TV shows, Mike Flanagan is notable for helming the horrifying The Haunting anthology series. The Haunting series consists of two shows: The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020). Although Bly Manor was still a success, Hill House has been regarded as his masterpiece for its sheer terror, character development, and enthralling family dynamics. Hill House followed a family of five siblings in two timelines: 1992 when their parents moved them into the haunted Hill House and the present day as adults where they are still traumatized and haunted by the spirits and events from the house.
Flanagan is known for horror, typically adapting stories by some of the most notable horror authors like Stephen King and Shirley Jackson. With The Haunting of Hill House being lauded as one of the scariest TV shows in recent years, Midnight Mass is expected to bring along nightmares for viewers. In reality, Hill House still holds up as a far more nightmare-inducing, terrifying series compared to Midnight Mass. Flanagan’s new series is extremely dark and has horrific elements, especially when paired with its religious vehicle, but it doesn’t have the same propensity for making one need to keep all the lights on in the house. This may be due to Midnight Mass not adhering to the haunted house and ghost story presence Flanagan has used in his past series, with the 2021 horror TV show focusing more on the terrors of humanity and religious themes.
When asked by fans on Twitter where Flanagan thought Midnight Mass was on the scary scale, the horror series director revealed he would place it between Hill House and Bly Manor. Considering Bly Manor was still a terrifying ghost story, especially the Lady in the Lake, Flanagan’s placement proves Midnight Mass will still be haunting for viewers. One of the main differences between Hill House and Midnight Mass’s horror is that the latter has far fewer jump scares or creeping horror suspensions. It’s not like Hill House’s terrifying notion of Luke crawling under his bed knowing the Tall Man ghost will look under in a few moments; Midnight Mass is much more gruesome and mysterious with its horror.
Early reviews have already pegged Midnight Mass as Flanagan’s best series yet, with many critics rating it higher than Hill House and Bly Manor. The series currently holds a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus noting its slow-burn terror that is more concerned with discomfort and being unsettling than outright cover-your-eyes scares. Hill House’s compelling ghost story adaptation previously received high approval from horror and gore legends Stephen King and Quentin Tarantino, and Midnight Mass has already had glowing reviews from King. While Midnight Mass won’t make viewers lose sleep as much as Haunting of Hill House does, Flanagan’s series is still a wildly enthralling horror tale.
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