Why Midnight Mass Never Uses The Word Vampire

The monster in Midnight Mass is very much a vampire, but the show never once uses the word “vampire.” Mike Flanagan’s decision to omit the explanation behind the creature has to do with the overall themes of the series, and how the show doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as a “vampire show.” Following the acclaim of his Netflix haunted house horror shows The Haunting of Hill House and its standalone successor Bly Manor, Mike Flanagan returned in a different nightmare-inducing direction. As an extremely personal project that reflects his own horrors, the Doctor Sleep director used Midnight Mass’s vampire monster premise as a vehicle to explore highly accessible human fears involving faith, guilt, sobriety, forgiveness, loss, and death.