Josh Hartnett in “Below.”Credit: Netflix
Did you, like much of the TV-watching population, become rightfully obsessed with Widow’s Baythis year? Are you on the hunt for a new show with similar small-town scares? Then allow me to introduce Netflix’sBelow, starring Josh Hartnett and Mackenzie Davis.
Similarly to Widow’s Bay, Belowtakes place in a remote ocean community where something is badly amiss. In Widow’s Bay, that “something” is an ancient curse tied to the island itself. In Below, it’s a threat from the deep: a mysterious sea creature who’s terrorizing the locals and leaving havoc in its wake. What follows is a fun, tightly crafted riff on Jawsthat’s a perfect way to ease into spooky fall viewing.
What’s Belowabout?
Belowwhisks viewers away to the small town of Snook’s Arm, Newfoundland, home to fisherman and iceberg harvester Calvin “Cal” Penney (Hartnett). He’s celebrating the town’s “Come Home Year,” a Canadian civic event that encourages residents of remote communities to do exactly that. This year, he’s welcoming home his son Jay (Rohan Campbell) and daughter Mary (Ruby Stokes). His third child, wildcard Wade (Charlie Heaton), lives with him and helps him run their Airbnb. What Wade really wants is to join his father out on his boat, but Cal is having none of it.Recommended deals for you
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Not getting on the boat might be for the best. Not just for Wade, but for the entirety of Snook’s Arm. That’s because strange events keep occurring in local waters. Whole hosts of fish are disappearing. Tourists are vanishing on hikes. A Portuguese fishing boat and its crew have been missing for days. As the worrying incidents pile up, Cal and local ocean researcher Fonda Howander (Davis) confront the ugly truth: There’s a violent creature just off the coast, the entire town is in danger, and it’s up to them to figure out how to put things right.
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Belowstirs up sea monster scares, Jaws-style.
The team-up between a veteran seaman and a scientist recalls the dynamic between Jaws‘ Captain Quint (Robert Shaw) and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), although Hartnett’s Cal is less a grizzled loner like the former and more of a family man. Still, Belowwears its Jawslove on its sleeve. Many of its frights swim in Steven Spielberg’s wake, from a well-timed jump scare of floating human remains to a terrifying shot of the creature barreling towards a dock. (At one point, Cal even emphasizes his need for a “bigger boat.” Not for monster hunting, but for his fishing business.)
Belowartfully conceals its creature for some time, showing a glint of a giant eye here, a flash of a tentacle there. But even once the show reveals its monster’s true nature and appearance, it finds more ways to perturb and set itself apart from its clearest inspiration. For example, after an encounter with the creature, Wade begins to sleepwalk and hallucinate, receiving distressing nighttime visits from the Newfoundland legend known as the Old Hag. (Between this and Widow’s Bay‘s Sea Hag, 2026 is officially the year of the hag.) As he wastes away, the rest of Snook’s Arm begins to follow suit. Parasitic paranoia ensues, with Belowcrafting horror that is decidedly un-Jaws-like. The external threat of the monster remains, but how can the community combat that andthe threat that lurks within themselves?
Below‘s biggest strength is its Newfoundland community.
To give its scares the highest stakes possible, Belowbuilds Snook’s Arm into a living, breathing community, one rooted in Newfoundland history. A key element throughout the show is the possibility of resettlement, which would see the town relocate somewhere more populous and easily reachable. The series opens with the resettlement that led to Snook’s Arm in the first place, when Cal was a little boy. An image of boats pulling an entire house through a bay is among Below‘s most striking — and that’s saying something, filled as it is with gorgeous shots of icebergs and underwater mayhem — but entirely based in fact. (A real community named Snook’s Arm was completely resettled in 2018.)
A new push for resettlement becomes a point of tension between Cal and his children, especially as it’s tied up in the shady, wealthy Crocker family who essentially runs the town. Other real-world issues encroach on the town: Climate change threatens to warm the ocean to an unreasonable degree and make life untenable for the local fish. These touches of reality enhance the more outlandish threat of the creature, highlighting just how much Cal, his family, and his community have to lose. With the help of that intrigue, Belowcreates a strong base from which it can launch its delightful hijinks, tentacles and all.
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
