I don't know about you, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I learned that Crockett Island, the extremely creepy former fishing town in Netflix's Midnight Mass, is not a real place. The tiny island, home to so-called miracles and dead animals aplenty, is practically a main character in Midnight Mass—as with his last project, Haunting of Bly Manor, director Mike Flanagan knows how to set a scene—and the show hinges on the fact that you can't get off the island, except via a beat-up ferry that comes and goes if and when it feels like it.
Not only is it difficult to physically leave the island, the inhabitants of the island can't quite manage to spiritually leave it, either. Take protagonists Erin Greene (Kate Siegel) and Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), who find themselves drawn back to the island as adults even in spite of knowing how limited life there is. And the island is not a good place to end up—in addition to its economic collapse, it is also home to Bev bloody Keene (Samantha Sloyan) and a variety of increasingly creepy happenings, and not in a fun, bump-in-the-night way.
Where was Midnight Mass filmed?
In spite of its dark, beaten-down vibe, "Crockett Island" is actually filmed in the bucolic Garry Point Park in British Columbia, Canada. Per local reporting by the Richmond News: "A huge area of the park was fenced off for a new Netflix series titled Midnight Mass." Richmond News cites a tweet by an observer, who notes: "They put up beach cottages and fake power lines inside and have tons of fishing village stuff." You can also check out behind-the-scenes shots of the set, taken by another observer.
The same park played home to a couple episodes of Once Upon a Time, as well as an episode of the CW's Nancy Drew series. And if a Getty Image search is any indication, it looks delightful:
It is not, however, all that delightful in Midnight Mass. But maybe that's my residual horror from the dead-cat scene speaking.
Where is Crockett Island meant to be?
Short answer? Nobody is quite sure. Per Den of Geek, "All we have to rely on is basically vibes. And in terms of vibes, Crockett Island does feel vaguely New England." Remember, everyone always seems kind of cold in Crockett Island, wrapping up in sweaters and long skirts and jackets, even though all the strange happenings take place around Easter. So you'd assume Crockett Island was in the Northeast rather than, say, off Florida. (Besides, is there anything as un-Midnight Mass-y as Florida?)
Den of Geek does point out that Flanagan shared a photo of himself as a young alter boy in Governors Island—which is in New York—writing, "This story runs deep for me." So it's possible that the kind of island Flanagan had in mind was one like Governors Island, which has fewer than 1,000 residents and is only accessible by ferry, per The Wall Street Journal. Also, Governors Island, like most of New York, would be pretty cold around Easter. But don't expect Crockett Island vibes if you visit Governors Island now: In recent years, Governors Island has become a tourism hub, attracting close to a million visitors each year.
Still, if you do want to make a visit to "Crockett Island," sans the fishing sets and fake power lines (which I'm assuming are now long gone), you can still visit Garry Point Park in British Columbia. Just...don't blame me for anything weird that happens when you get there.
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