The setting for Netflix’s Midnight Mass is the creepy-yet-quaint Crockett Island, which is a character all of its own in the show. Is Crockett Island a real place? Is the village real?
Unfortunately, there is no island named Crockett inhabited by a small fishing village. The aerial shots of the small island are CGI. Creator Mike Flanagan (Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor) and the production team of Midnight Mass had the entire time and weather-worn town built in 2019 at Garry Point Park, in Richmond, BC, Canada. Garry Point Park is not an island, but it is on the waterfront, which allowed for an island-like feel for shooting.
Production for Midnight Mass started months later than anticipated because of COVID-19, and everyone had to evacuate for lockdown before they could even start filming in March 2020.
“We left our sets standing, dropped everything and frantically got our cast and crew to their homes as the lockdown began,” Mike Flanagan shared on Twitter in December 2020.
“Kate and I (Mike Flanagan is married to Kate Siegel, who plays Erin Greene) were the last Americans from the show to leave Vancouver, and from the airplane window I could see our sets standing at Garry Point Park. They’d remain standing for months, at the mercy of the elements, and we had no idea when or if we’d be able to return.”
Thankfully, they did return and created a masterful psychological horror that mixed Catholocism, addiction, and vampire lore without any character ever uttering the word “vampire.” (In my opinion, Midnight Mass is the most satisfying story Mike Flanagan has brought to the screen so far.)
Richmond News reported on the shoot’s delay “A huge area of the park was fenced off for a new Netflix series titled Midnight Mass. They put up beach cottages and fake power lines inside and have tons of fishing village stuff.”
Here’s a shot of the film set after it was built from filmmaker Elvira Lount:
Unfortunately, like some sets that are left standing after they’re created for a specific purpose, this set was disassembled after they finished the shoot. (Spoiler: much of it appeared to be burned to get footage for the ending.)
Harry Point Park was the main filming location for Midnight Mass, but it wasn’t the only one.
The 6th and 7th Avenue Piers on Moncton Street in Richmond, BC were used to film the show’s marina shots. Many of the show’s interiors were shot at Anderlni Farms including the church, rectory, general store, school, and rec center. The town square was also shot at Anderlini Farms in Langley, B.C.
The interior of the community center was filmed in Vancouver at the Vancouver Rowing Club.
Where would Crockett island be located if it existed?
It’s unclear where the fictional Crockett Island is supposed to be located. The characters speak as if they are either from the U.S. or Canada, but they don’t ever specifically reference where they are. They speak often of “the mainland” but never mention the city or state where they are near.
Riley Flynn killed someone in a drunk driving incident in NYC, and Erin Greene says she’d previously lived in New York State and Austin, TX after leaving Crockett Island before. The island and its fishing economy seems to orient it somewhere in the Northeast U.S.
