(Warning: This post contains spoilers through the finale of Netflix’s “Midnight Mass.”)
One of the aspects of Mike Flanagan’s “Midnight Mass” that sneaks up on those in-universe and viewers at home is the de-aging of some of its central characters.
It’s a plot point driven by their consumption of the angel-blood-laced communion wine Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) has been giving to his flock to bring about the “miracles” the priest (who is secretly their old Monsignor Pruitt, restored to youth himself by The Angel) has bestowed upon Crockett Island since his arrival.
While the decision to slowly be de-aged, healed and vampire-ified wasn’t up to “Midnight Mass” characters being dosed, the choice of how to portray their de-aging was one very much in the control of the seven-episode Netflix limited series’ producers, who spent a lot of time discussing the best route to take to keep the transformations as subtle as possible.