Bev Keane - Underestimating Pure Evil 

The sad thing is, there are people who are literally like her. Living among us.

I just want to say what an incredible actor Samantha Sloyan is. Just the way she stands and holds herself as Bev Keane is so repulsive, and so accurate.

Bev Keane is the most realistic villain for our given time. There are real people just like her, committing equally evil atrocities using the name of their deities to justify it all.

She’s one of the most terrifying villains in all of fiction. Most serial killers, cult leaders and mass murderers don’t know their victims. Bev knew every single one of hers. Crockett is so small and isolated, everyone there is someone she grew up with, knew their families, saw every Sunday in church. Even Monsignor Pruitt who she idolized, was not safe from her. She wasn’t even safe from herself and died the most satisfying coward’s death ever. Bravo Mike Flanagan and BRAVO to Samantha Sloyan. I had no idea who she was (even though I watched Hill House her role was pretty small and kind of forgettable) and her performance blew my mind.

Bev Keane reminds me of Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series. Like Umbridge, Bev views herself as having the moral high ground, and takes it upon herself to impose her will upon everyone else. Both characters are sanctimonious, passive-aggressive, prejudicial, sadistic, cruel, and bereft of genuine warmth or empathy. Bev elicits the same visceral revulsion and horror that one derives from Umbridge whilst reading Order of the Phoenix or watching its film adaptation.

There's only one true bloodsucking monster in this show, and it's not the angel.

The scene of the sheriff and his son praying together at the end before they die is still one of the saddest things I've ever seen. When I first watched that episode, I sobbed for ages. I wish they had been the ones to survive.

I hate that the real ppl who are like this rarely ever face consequences because of their master manipulation. Almost every church, school, or office has a Beverly. However they're almost never fired or disciplined because they've been able to manipulate ppl to believe that their controlling nature is more or less well intentioned. It's maddening seeing everyone else turn a blind eye and, in some cases, that keeps happening till it's too late...

The way that Bev actually made me boil in anger while watching this show is a testament to her acting and how well written her character is

She kinda reminds me of my mother. To her it was "my way or the highway" mentality. She would go around and tell people "May God rebuke you" while pointing a finger in their face. It was extremely embarrassing. The poor people didn't know how to respond except with confusion. Finally she did that to one woman who cut in front of her when we were leaving a store and the woman looked her up and down and asked, "Why should He? Just because YOU say so?" And she leaves. Mom just stood there stunned. And she never rebuked anyone again. 😂

Totally spot on as to why Bev is so terrifying and one of the reasons why I loved Midnight Mass (and Flanagan's Netflix shows in general) - all of her manipulations and crimes hit so close to home and she is just a human woman, the sort of person you could imagine living next door. She is the monster that people can't see coming because real monsters look like you and me, not like in the movies. Real life is always scarier than fiction.

You chose the right character, she is really the worst of the worst...

Wow. I actually really didn’t notice that Bev killed Monsinour Pruitt until you pointed it out and I’ve genuinely watched it about 5/6 times. That’s an amazing detail, thank you for bringing light to it!

She was a narcissist with a massive superiority complex who found religion was the perfect excuse to indulge in her worst impulses. She is not that complex of a villain, but certainly a very memorable one.

This character was so vile and reprehensible that it almost put me off watching the show. I truly could barely tolerate the scenes that she was in without wanting to put my fist through the TV, I was so seething mad. It's been a long while since a fictional character got such a rise out of me but boy, did this abhorrent character rub me the wrong way and then some.

Bev was truly terrifying in her belief that she was good and right and her lack of empathy for anyone who doesn't think like her. However, Father Paul was actually much more terrifying, although he was a truly good man at heart, simply bcs he was so charismatic & persuasive. He also was too quick to allow Bev to feed his messiah complex, which speaks of his covert pride. Bevs of the world could never do much on their own. Also, I reckon every Paul needs a Bev and vice versa. Frankenstein and his monster. The show is a masterpiece, especially as it shows how well-meaning ppl, like Paul can do horrible things. And how most horrible ppl believe they're the good guys, like Bev.

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but Bev digging down into the sand to escape the light in her last moments I feel can be interpreted as foreshadowing her inevitably being sent to Hell, her true allegiance all along being to Hellish evil, and her frantically attempting to turn away from God's light (the sun)

Even as a kid, I ended up finding people like Beverly the scariest monsters. There is nothing more terrifying than encountering an ordinary person who feels completely justified in inflicting pain on others; to become so absorbed in their ideology they develop the conviction and fortitude to actually THRIVE and successfully taint and bring others down to their level. Rosemary's Baby is one of my favorite horror films. And it had nothing to do with the devil (who barely makes an appearance). Rather, it's the nosy neighbors that terrified me. They looked like everyday quirky people. None of them came off as explicitly evil or powerful or intimidating. It was just the way they subtly gaslighted/manipulated Rosemary and steadily controlled her environment until she eventually discovered she was trapped. And this wasn't happening at some secluded island or dark castle; it was in a big city full of people in broad daylight. It's sad, then, that a majority of today's horrors stems from real-life people like Beverly.

The moment she killed that dog, she went to the top five most evil villains for me

It’s very telling how horrifying Christianity can be when the most evil and terrifying villain is just a middle-aged preacher

Actually, I haven’t confirmed this but I saw many Reddit post about it. She didn’t poison the priest, or at least poison wasn’t the reason he’s sick. Mike Flanagan himself said that he died of an overdose caused by consuming a lot of vampire blood in a short period of time, his mortal body couldn’t take it anymore, so he ended collapsing. I guess this means that she actually ended up using poison to deal with the cats or rats or whatever. I would’ve preferred if she had actually poisoned him, it seemed fitting, but it apparently isn’t the case. Another thing I saw on Reddit was that (differently from what I said before, this is only a theory) he might have been slowly poisoned by drinking the vampire’s blood, since the vampire had been drinking blood from many animals who could have poison in their bloodstream because Bev was poisoning the grounds to kill them, so the vampire drank blood which contained poison, then gave his blood (which now was poisoned) to the Monsenhor, and he ended up dying because of that

I have two dogs. If someone so much as hit my dog let alone poison them, they're going to have a horrible time. I was extremely upset by the dog's death. It was senseless. It definitely showed her character though.

I remember something Charlotte Bronte once said. She said that she knew people who could quote the Bible chapter and verse but it didn't make them better Christians for all that. Inevitably she discovered that these bible quoters were hypocrites.

In my country in schools, 2 things are strictly forbidden, drugs and religion. In secular countries, religion has no place in schools, especially because there might be students who are of different religious backgrounds. Even the proposition for a subject as an introduction to religions was refused because the teacher might be religious and there might be favoritism of a certain religion over others.

She was so unforgivably evil in that role that I have trouble liking/trusting her in other roles. From her toxic self righteousness, to her unwarranted attack on that sweet innocent creature, she is unredeemable

I forgot about the dog part... You could feel Joe's despair and sadness, it was gut wrenching 😭

FINALLY. Thank you for speaking so eloquently on a subject I've been trying to bring to light for YEARS. The other character representing this concept is Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter. The Banality of Evil.

After this role, I’ve never been able to watch this actress the same way. It just shows how well she played it

I agree. Self-righteousness is pride. Once you are prideful, you can justify any evil. She was worse than the actual vampire.

I have a lot of bev's in my life god help me

She represents pretty much the norm for the more conservative fundamentalist women out there.

I hated her as much as I hated Mrs Carmody from The Mist with Thomas Jane. They were different chars bc Bev is a lot more quietly seething while Carmody, once ppl started getting scared, got really loud and screamed incessantly but they're joined in the way they use faith and punishment to try and manipulate those around them in order to gain power. Massive kudos to both actors for just nailing their roles so perfectly

I recently watched a video on the Closer Look channel about what makes a villain hateable, and immediately thought of Bev Keane. His basic thesis was that "outsider" and "insider" villains are completely different. We can feel fear and anger toward an outsider, but rarely hate. Hate is reserved for insiders, people who are broadly like us, who have violated the ethical code we expect them to share. We fear the Angel, but we hate Bev Keane. Similarly, we fear Voldemort, but we hate Dolores Umbridge; we fear Sauron, but we hate Denethor.

Bev Keane was horrifying to me. She reminds me of so many people.

Bev and Umbridge are two characters I can’t even stand for 1 minute

In Bev, Flanagan is commenting on Hannah Arendt’s Banality of Evil. And he does it really well.

“The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.” -Julius Caesar, 75 BC

The real villains are the idiots who didn't call her out.

She was singularly the best creation in any Mike Flanagan film.

She is so well written. The scene where Sherif Hassan stands up to her about the Bible she completely turns it around by being like “it makes me sad that you think that of me…” like she was so conniving and evil. Also I didn’t put 2 and 2 together that she absolutely killed Father Paul with rat poison the first time he died. Basically every monologue she did had by jaw on the floor because she was such a master manipulator and SO SCARY

She was just diabolical

Immediately after her interaction off the boat my mom just said "wow she's evil" 😂

I believe that it was confirmed that Bev didn't kill Pruitt, rather, it was the vampire blood. I alwahs thought this was a mistake since it makes so much more sense that it was Bev

Very well articulated and founded argument. I appreciate you and your creation here. Well done! And, thank you!

And, it's not just religion those with bad intention have to manipulate others. Utopianism was used throughout the 20th century, from Cambodia to Rwanda, centering on the idea of 'This would be a perfect society, if not for these ___.' . It's dehumanization or 'othering', however it's framed.

I've never seen this movie. But it seems like it's written around the single premise of Voltaires statement "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Once you give up your ability to think rationally for dogmatic thought it doesn't take much to push you to this point.

Interesting that you think that Bev poisoned Father Paul after learning he was Pruitt. I didn't see it that way, but it is a very interesting take. I assumed he became ill from drinking too much of the angel (aka vampire) blood and eventually died from ingesting too much of it like Dr. Sarah Gunning talks about in her speech to Erin and her mom in episode 6. Bev looked quite shocked when Pruitt came into his home and dropped dead in front of her and Wade and Dolly (before he came back to life as a vampire). Great video!

Just wanted to correct a minor detail, it wasn’t a cat infestation @ 2:42, a bunch of cats had been killed and strung along the shore and she deduced it as a “rat problem” and she had some kind of high grade rat poison

Yes, such characters are especially evil, pompous, and full of hybris so typical for religious zealots... In some manner, she is similar to the woman in the movie "Mist" which was made on the basis of Stephen King's novel. Those are really the worst, and I am glad that I live in a secular country where those who are religious are just nominally religious, we have a very small percentage of people who go to churches every Sunday, which is very uncommon here, I bet that it is one of the countries where atheism and agnosticism are very spread and common.

There is no hatred, no cruelty like christian love.

She does such a good job at portraying characters that I hate. Like Perfect Penny for example who is partially responsible for killing Derek Shepard. 😢 I cheered when her character left lmao although I was sad to see Callie go (but the writers ruined her character’s storyline long ago anyways).

I really liked this series but somehow 200% missed that Bev had killed Paul until now?? I thought the, like, micro-doses of vampire blood was just finally hitting him.

Holy shit I never realized she was the one that poisoned Paul. I have watched this show 4 times now.

She really was the ultimate kind of villain. Living with us..

_...it's people like Beverly Keane that keeps me away from the church..._ 😒...

her ability to bend scripture to her evil deeds is.. terrifying. And i can see how real life religious fanatics could easily turn "evil"

I agree with every word you said and glad somebody made a video on it, just like the examples you gave at the end that included the likes of the Manson Family and Jim Jones the most frightening thing in this world is those who prey on the weak and are able to use religion and other means to manipulate what could have been good people to do utterly unspeakable things. I believe they took great influence from the Jones town massacre for this show, ignoring the supernatural aspect of the show it is almost exactly what happened in Jones town in that many good people and families (from religious backgrounds) went out in the middle of nowhere under the belief they were in some new free utopia that was all about love and peace but what they found was a cult that essentially turned them into slaves having them work none stop in building houses and infrastructure for nothing in return barely even food to feed their families but they had them believe it was all in the name of the divine and to serve "gods new holy place" the infamous leader who started it all Jim Jones EXACTLY like Beverly Keane was a spineless coward who killed himself with a gun when he was the one responsible for brainwashing people to drink cool aid laced with poison, some willingly did it but many were forced to drink at gun point and anybody who tried to leave were also shot and killed. The most disturbing of it all is how many were children and the parents that made them drink it. So yes, I couldn't agree more. Beverly Keane is the most evil character I have come across in film and tv simply because she is real and many people like her not only live among us but they are in positions of high power.

Ive met so many people like Bev Keane. All were religious, not all Catholics but all well versed in their hatred. All religions are cults. Not all religious people are good or bad. Some are Bev Keans though. Some like Bev are hungy for a righteousness that will never be satiated. No sin isnt justifiable to them as long as they are the ones committing it. God gave us free will and allowed us to question. I personally believe its because we shouldn't follow others and place ourselves in religion, but so we can find it on our own. If you follow the sheep you will find yourself lost, no man is anyrhing other than a sheep. Even Jesus. Thats why he was man. Take the good parts of

Literally said it “I don’t care about you I just want your vote”

I’m genuinely in awe of Samantha Sloyan. One of the best in the game.

Fantastic video man. I was surprised when I saw your sub-count!

Bev Keane is a perfect example of the worst aspects of religious indoctrination

Had just start with the video and distracted by the name! Your name is Jupiter! Thats awesome

The actress who played Bev Keane on Midnight Mass is a superb actress. She embodied the perfect villain.

Well done! You have a new subscriber 😊 I'm honestly surprised you don't have more subs already! The algo put you in my feed, so hopefully more people see your channel soon 🙏

Beverly Keen is pretty much alike Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter universe but without any magic in all - untill the very last time when she fully becames a vampire - and well even her when not using magic is very much alike her as magic doesn´t make much difference in a world setting where everyone is mostly magical anyways, so Umbridge is pretty much as Beverly, though this lady is far more realistic and then scarier than even the most hated character on the HP franchise (even more proper classical mighty villains as Voldemort or Bellatrix aren´t so much feared or hated as Dolores because of how real she actually is as evil!!) This lady of this series is very much alike her and far more realistic than Umbridge indeed!

Beverly is so wonderfully evil - but I've actually met people like her who can (literally) cite chapter and verse of anything to the advantage of their self serving agenda.

Hell is other people.

My only complaint is the CSI they used on the monster. Would have been awesome if they used real effects, Van Helsing style

This is completely true. The most terrifying monster is that which lurks among us, hidden in plain sight.

would love to agree with you on this, but i personally found Bev to be a caricature that almost ruined the show for me. it's just my opinion obviously, but i thought the writing for her character (unlike everyone else's character, except maybe prodigal son's mom) to lack believable layering.

To me the most terrifying supervillain is Judge Toon from Cool World. He represents the human desire to abuse capitalism and free markets at the expense of others. Thanks for your excellent analysis. Warm regards from Iceland!!

Bev was the most evil character in this miniseries, even more than the vampire.

Oh man she was awful skin crawling, bravo to the actress

This kind of villain makes me not want to watch the series. I already deal with people like this all the time. She's very well written, too accurate.

By happenstance, I watched Downfall right before and I believe Bev is an analogy to how a normal person becomes a mass murderer, and I wouldn't be surprised that Hitler went through a similar process to do all the things he did, but it was with the Aryan race "religion" instead of Christianity.

That poor actress is so good that I feel a sense of dread whenever I see her face. Which isn't fair, because she seems like an awesome, joyful, carefree person. But I've seen what she's capable of.

damn. I never pieced together her killing Paul for fear of exposure of financial fraud. So her jumping onboard his misguided vampire scheme was just her being an opportunist.

like holy sh1t the actress is amazing, i have never hated someone so much as i have bev keane

Yes she is the worst! Samantha Sloyan is such a great actress.

I don't think I could watch this cause of the dog being poisoned, but I think it's very alienating and chilling to see someone be cruel to an animal. That's pretty much when the audience stops being with you emotionally, and you occupy villain space in the story. It's a great way to see her as a psychopath. She becomes fascinating and frightening. Who wants to like hurting animals?

Have you seen One flew over the cuckoo’s nest? Nurse racket is the Same but way more manipulative. Great video btw.

Exactly Like Disney's Judge Claude Frollo, More Terrifying than Monsters or even aliens.

This is SO similar to Bentley's "The Influence" I'm surprised.

Sounds very heavy-handed.

I was brought up by religious parents and now don’t follow any religion. One thing my parents taught me that I agree with 100% is that taking away other people’s right to choose is evil. If you force someone to follow your religion regardless of their opinion or lack of faith you are doing something wicked. We have social laws we live by for safety and to prevent harm and chaos but freedom is the greatest thing people have. Whether it’s over your life, your thoughts, your actions, your body. Every person deserves freedom which is why a punishment in society for breaking our strongest rules results in physical freedom being removed but even then we don’t cruelly remove other freedoms as it’s a right. The people who do, like the character Bev are evil.

Did Bev poisoned Pruitt with rat poison thats why he died and became a vampire?

She was such a repulsive character.

Yeah, imma go with The Thing by far still. But this lady is pretty up on the list of "rather have at least two countries in between her and me"

It’s the difference between true righteousness and self righteousness. The self righteous are able to manipulate and bully to suit an end by any means - losing their soul in the process with virtually every sin in action.

The Judge from Blood Meridian

She reminds me of the crazy Bible lady in The Mist

She's the best part of the show.

That title is misleading! I see people calling her evil and stuff, BUT you gotta try to see things from her perspective. At the first glance, everyone would recognize the Vampire as a demon. But imagine this: your belief is unshaken, you've read of all the wonders of the Lord. Someone shows up and make those wonders happen in front of your eyes. a cripple can walk again. an incurable illness gets cured etc. With your belief, seeing those wonders, wouldn't you be faithful in whoever manages to present those wonders??

Isnt that the lady from Greys Anatomy that the one character blamed for killing her husband?

Such a good character and great actress

first perfect Penny kills Derek then goes on to be a supervillain >:(

This is like a fictional version of Illuminaughtii.

she gives Gemma teller a run for her money.

"What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference-so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity." - Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass