People are just discovering Netflix’s best horror show as it turns four years old

This incredible series makes for perfect pre-Halloween watching.

For those not aware, the seven-part series was created by Mike Flanagan, who also directed it in its entirety. In recent years, Flanagan has established himself as one of the horror genre's biggest names, thanks to his shows The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher, as well as his films Doctor Sleep, Gerald's Game, Hush, Oculus and Ouija: Origin of Evil.

His crowning achievement, however, may be Midnight Mass, which begins with Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights) returning home to Crockett Island, a tiny offshore fishing village in the US.

A former venture capitalist, Riley has just spent four years in prison for killing a woman in a drunk driving crash. Guilt-ridden for this crime, he has lost his faith, something that leaves him struggling to reconnect with the island community, which is mostly devoutly Catholic.

Riley's return to Crockett Island coincides with the arrival of the charismatic and enigmatic Fr. Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater, Gen V), who claims he is a temporary replacement for the island's elderly priest as he embarks on a pilgrimage.

When a string of strange and fantastical occurrences happen on the island, many of the villagers are quick to deem them miracles.

However, Riley, his childhood sweetheart Erin (Kate Siegel, Hush), the town's Muslim sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli, iZombie) and the town's doctor Sarah (Annabeth Gish, The X-Files) grow suspicious and begin to think Fr. Hill may be hiding something.

Midnight Mass was a long-time passion project for Flanagan, who first started working on the story as a novel in early 2010. The filmmaker even featured a mock-up book version of Midnight Mass in his earlier film Hush, with its lead character, an author played by Siegel, supposedly having penned the tale.

Flanagan grew up Catholic before later in life becoming an atheist. In an essay published by Bloody Disgusting, the filmmaker said part of the reason for this was that he realised how vulnerable all religions were to "fanaticism and fundamentalism" and "how easily a religion supposedly built on love could be made to breed hate".

In the same essay, he also wrote about being a recovering alcoholic and called the character of Riley "a thinly veiled surrogate" and his story a depiction of his "worst, most ingrained anxiety". The latter was his fear that if his self-destructive behaviour wasn't stopped, it might have killed him, "or worse, it would have killed someone else".

Following the surprise success of The Haunting of Hill House and its follow-up, The Haunting of Bly Manor, for Netflix, the streamer finally greenlit Midnight Mass.

And it's clear from the series' rich characters, important themes and earth-shaking monologues that this was a labour of love for Flanagan, brought to life by a wonderful cast of actors who were either already recurring collaborators of his, or would go on to be.

Hamish Linklater as the charming, effortlessly magnetic new priest, who viewers want to trust but can't quite entirely, is the real standout. That said, Gilford, Siegel and Kohli, as well as Samantha Sloyan (The Pitt), as the island's fiery zealot, and Henry Thomas (E.T.) and Robert Longstreet (Halloween Kills), as villagers who get caught up in her madness, also turn in maybe career-best work.

That said, Midnight Mass' real strength is how it infuses all this real-life human horror with a more fantastical scary tale. We don't want to spoil the story, so all we'll say is that the show goes on to put a fresh, inventive spin on a classic horror sub-genre.

It's because of this that the series is often called: "The best Stephen King story Stephen King didn't write."

Perhaps because Midnight Mass just turned four years old or because we're entering spooky season or because recent JOE interviewee Linklater is on screens again in Prime Video superhero Gen V, many have taken to X in recent days to encourage people to check out the Netflix horror classic.

You can see some of these posts below, as the series is still available to watch on the streaming service.