Religion is a Difficult Subject to Talk About When You Have Religious People in Your Life

 

None has beaten “A Haunting of Hill House” in the past years that I’ve been trying to look for a good horror film/show. So when The Haunting of Bly Manor started streaming, I made sure to watch it. Not as scary as the first show, but it was just as good of a story.

 

Then came Midnight Mass. I saw the trailer and knew that it was from the same creator. Kate Siegel was in there, must be! Now, I have to give a head’s up if you do decide to watch it. It isn’t scary. Yes, I know, that’s bold coming from me, seeing that I am rarely scared of any horror films as of late. But it just isn’t, or maybe not as scary as the first two shows mentioned. It was creepy at best.

 

It was thought-provoking.

 

This show might hurt a lot of the devout and the religious because it’s riddled heavily with religion. Why would it hurt them? Because it could be viewed as anti-faith, anti-religion, it shows their insincerities and inconsistencies. It would be best if you watched this show with an open mind. It is more than just talks of God and salvation. There are numerous symbolisms in the story that make it engaging and fascinating. Just like Hill House, wherein, in the end, you realize that the Crain kids represent the stages of grief, you’ll find yourself thinking about what each character means.

 

So what’s it about? To me, at least, it is about one’s journey in finding faith and peace. Riley and Father Paul (the two main characters) are both on the opposite sides of the pole. One who lost his religion and one who fights for it. I guess you can guess which is which. They have these nightly AA meetings, and each person debates with the other about suffering. There was a scene where Riley didn’t want to drink from the cup, but out of necessity, he had to. Did that mean that the Word of God was forced down his throat? Although other scenes suggested that. The show also had a supernatural element in it, and I found it amazing that the creators have found Bible passages to fit the narrative.

 

Riley was a lost character. He didn’t know his path and he didn’t have any faith. He just stopped caring; I relate to him in a way that I just accepted things as they are and that things didn’t matter because we’re going to die anyway. He only wants to find his peace. I think that type of thinking makes us complacent. We do not put in the effort, and we’re just satisfied and content. Once he found his path then he was ready to go.

 

Father Paul was blinded by his love, that he did anything for that. Even at the expense of other people. His actions beg the question, does the end justify the means? He, who is in power, in authority, can do so much. He could easily sway the people and make them do things even without saying what the intention was. He knows that his people will follow him because no one can contest.

 

They also introduced characters who didn’t believe in God or had Islam as their faith. That was pretty interesting. I have a friend who is practicing Islam, and he mentioned how no one shouldn’t take the words of the Qur'an and the Bible out of context. If a passage said something about killing as if it were allowed, they should read the whole story and express the meaning behind it instead of taking one passage and making it seem as though that’s the entire truth, which is what the whole show was doing. They were reciting passages and turning them into another whole new meaning to serve their purpose, which is not far from the truth in the real world. A lot of people would twist the words just to justify what they’ve done. Yet Shariff (the Sheriff and the Muslim in the story) was a bit of a hypocrite. He encourages trying to find God but hates it when his son tries to practice Christianity. Just like the Christians, he also thinks his religion is the ‘right’ one.

 

Let’s talk about Bev, the blind, avid follower. Quick to look past the mistakes to serve her faith. Her character is truly infuriating. The type you see online, quick to attack, talks so much that the main point is lost, ignoring other people’s plea. The typical goody-two-shoes, goes to mass every day, yet she has done the most atrocious things behind the scenes. A relentless, devout, who will do anything to serve her master, and her search for the ‘eternal life’, in the end, when her master realizes that what they’re doing is wrong, she tries to take charge and make it seem that she is right all along. She takes quotes and passages from the Bible and gives them a whole new meaning. I love how her character ended with trying to dig a hole in the sand as if to “hide one’s head in the sand” as it dawned on her, her inevitable death.

 

Now, the show is timely as it also has themes of politics, religion, and outbreaks. The question that should come to one’s mind is how those in power handle the situation. How do people take information? Do they ask questions? Do they catch the lie? Or do they, like Bev, denies the atrocities, sees it as a miracle, and spread misinformation.

 

The show is open to interpretation. And this post only brushed on it very lightly. Like I said, to me, it was about one’s journey in finding peace, no matter where you are with your faith at this point, it was about suffering and how everyone is battling their own war. How in the end, nothing really matters because we all have the same fate, so we might as well sing a song while we’re at it.

SPOILERS after this

I love how sad and poetic the ending was. How in the end, everyone accepted their fate and just 'let things be'. I love how Erin and Riley were talking about what happens with their body once they die. At first, Erin was still mourning the loss of her baby, but in the end, she changed her answer combining it with Riley's answer. Riley's was scientific, explaining that they recall memories as they die. That's what happened with Erin in the end, she was remembering that moment, and if she could change her answer she would. And she did! Accepting her fate, accepting that it just ends, she explained how the bible passage "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.", in the most eloquent and articulate manner.

8.5/10 ⭐