Mike Flanagan’s limited horror series Midnight Mass ends in an ambiguous manner, but it’s the type of project that shouldn’t jump at the open opportunity for a sequel. Following his critically acclaimed Netflix horror shows The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor, Flanagan returned with another terrifying 7-episode limited series that switches out his typical haunted house premise for religious fanaticism and vampires. Midnight Mass documents a small community on the isolated Crockett Island whose town sees miraculous changes when a charismatic young priest arrives – only to reveal the sinister gifts are the product of a vampire he brought back from a trip.
After profound changes occur among the religious and secular on Midnight Mass’s Crockett Island, the belief in Father Paul/Monsignor Pruitt bestowing God’s miracles attracts nearly all of the town to the church’s Easter midnight mass. Having given those who attended daily mass vampire’s blood for communion, Monsignor Pruitt and Bev Keane have devised to influence the parishioners to willingly drink poison and “resurrect” as an undead vampire on this night. Nearly all of the town is changed into a vampire, attacking their fellow parishioners and those inside their homes while burning all of the buildings and boats down to leave no chance of escape for the living and undead alike.
Midnight Mass ends with Warren and Leeza getting away on a small boat, watching their town burn and vampiric families turn to dust at sunrise while leaving it up to interpretation if Midnight Mass’s original vampire actually survived or not. The possibility of the vampire reaching the mainland before sunrise or seeing Leeza and Warren explain the events on Crockett Island set up a possible Midnight Mass sequel. While ambiguity in such matters can easily be used as sequel bait to follow a new town being corrupted by the vampire’s religious influence, that’s not the point of Midnight Mass’s ending, and the same emotional journey shouldn’t just be replicated with new characters.
The point of Midnight Mass’s ambiguity follows with its core themes of faith and belief, even if there’s no scientific or verifiable way to know something is true. Flanagan leaves viewers with the hope and faith that the vampire died, especially by giving it cut wings and Leeza losing the feeling in her legs again (losing the vampire’s restorative power). There’s no way to completely prove that Midnight Mass's monster died unless the series were to get a sequel, but that’s clearly not Flanagan’s intent. Even after the tragic events of faith gone wrong and the dangers in religious fanaticism, he leaves Midnight Mass’s viewers with a restored belief in the unknown, allowing them to have faith that the vampire’s rampage is over without any visible confirmation.
Even if Netflix asked Flanagan to extend the limited series into season 2, it wouldn’t work outside of the Crock Pot because the investment in Midnight Mass is through the characters in the community, not the vampire which would be the connecting figure. Flanagan notably poured his heart out into Midnight Mass as his most personal project yet, and it would be a shame to see his limited passion project turn into a less emotionally poignant vampire horror sequel. At the same time, Flanagan doesn’t seem to like direct sequels anyway, situating Netflix's The Haunting anthology series as separate entities and having never directed a follow-up to any of his horror films. The emotional twists, turns, and profound ideas introduced in Midnight Mass can’t be replicated, so the best course of action is to leave the incredible series as is.
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