Stephen King Just Praised Netflix's Upcoming Horror Show From The Haunting Of Hill House Creator
While one may not necessarily put Stephen King's advice on high when it comes to fine wines or wireless sound equipment, the prolific author is very obviously a trustworthy source of horror-minded suggestions and recommendations. (Not to mention hard-boiled crime novels and other brainy flights of fancy.) So fans definitely shouldn't sleep on his endorsement for the upcoming Netflix horror series Midnight Mass, as created by the Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor mastermind Mike Flanagan.
With Midnight Mass set to hit the streaming service near September's end, which should help to give the Halloween season a fanatical tentpole of a jump start, Stephen King took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the under-the-radar new show. In his words:
First, I love that Stephen King is a master of research as much as he is a master of genre fiction (and non-fiction), and that he very clearly had access to the internet, and still went with when he believed Midnight Mass will hit Netflix. King ain't got time for Google sidebars.
Now back to the topic at hand: the island-set, religion-fueled chaos that is Midnight Mass. Created by Mike Flanagan, who wrote and directed all seven episodes, Netflix's latest fright fest stars Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn, a disgraced resident of an island community whose return coincides with the arrival of a mysterious and affable priest, Father Paul, as portrayed by Hamish Linklater. Once certain miraculous events begin occurring on the island, its residents are overflowing with faith, but those beliefs may be aligned with the wrong powers. Early buzz for the show has already been pretty solid, and King's complimentary take will hopefully help secure Midnight Mass a decent number of viewers who might have otherwise not sampled it.
Stephen King is no stranger to penning tales of religious zealotry and enigmatic strangers with unexplainable forces guiding them. In fact, his 2014 novel Revival has some surface-level connections to Midnight Mass, which makes it not so surprising that Mike Flanagan was tapped in early 2020 to adapt Revival into a feature, though he unfortunately had to vacate the idea due to financial improbabilities involving securing a budget.
Mike Flanagan is very much a Stephen King fanatic, too. He directed adaptations of both Gerald's Game (for Netflix) and the Shining follow-up thriller Doctor Sleep. So one has to assume that King's praise will feel quite nice for the Midnight Mass filmmaker as he continues filming his next Netflix series, the Christopher Pike-inspired semi-anthology The Midnight Club.
Be sure to take Stephen King's advice and check out Midnight Mass when it premieres on Netflix on Friday, September 24, which comes at the end of a huge premiere week for the 2021 Fall TV season.
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Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper. Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.