Mike Flanagan’s (Very) Slow Burning Series

“Nah, but I swear you’ll see, from episode 12, it’s awesome.” How many times have your friends tried to convince you to continue a series when the enthusiasm was not there? Because not all shows start “with a bang” or a plane crash, like, respectively, The Shield and Lost. Let us quote The Office Where Parks and Recreation, whose first season (of only six episodes, phew) does not set the tone, as if the series was still looking for its identity. Some are even still stranded in the early hours of The Wire, yet “the best series in the world”.

Available since Friday on Netflix, Midnight sermons is the new series from Mike Flanagan, creator of The Haunting of Hill House, director of Doctor Sleep and new master of horror. It is also what is called in English a “slow burner” and which can be translated as “slow combustion”. The expression suits him perfectly, both literally and figuratively.

A terror far from the “Conjuring” films

Midnight sermons recounts Riley’s release from prison, following manslaughter, and his return to the small family island of Crockett Island. This return to the fold coincides with the arrival of a new priest, in charge of the Saint-Patrick Church deserted by its faithful. Strange phenomena then occur, miraculous or sinister. A girl who rediscovers the use of her legs, eyes shining in the night, cats washed up on the beach and, of course, sermons, prayers, like so many reflections on faith, death… As written our colleague Anne Demoulin, the mini-series of 7 episodes is the most personal work of Mike Flanagan. He leaves ghosts and haunted houses there to explore the macabre symbolism of Catholicism and with it a religious terror.

A terror far from the movies Conjuring or the horrific all-comer. The series thus has few jump scares or gore effects, but a lot of dialogue scenes, over several tens of minutes, sometimes simple backfires. She takes the time to live with her characters, to wander the streets of the island, and to lose spectators? That’s the risk, and that’s okay. You may sometimes pick up, get bored, doze off, but also and above all, over the minutes, hours, episodes, be spellbound, carried, then jostled and finally overwhelmed. Like its title and like a prayer, Midnight sermons marries a repetitive, haunting, self-fulfilling rhythm. The staging does not target the spectacular but the human, which does not make it less virtuoso.

Burn everything in its path

Either it’s about Chainsaw Massacre, Rosemary’s Baby Where The Witch, these horror films are considered classics of the genre and among the most terrifying. However, almost nothing happens there, with regard to the current codes of the genre, and for example Blumhouse productions. Everything is only a slow installation, characters, atmosphere, tension, before the hammer blow: a chainsaw, a basket or a final image. What the spectators remember. The same goes with Midnight sermons. The combustion may be slow, it ends up burning everything in its path. Literally. There remains a boat on the water. A blow of the club.