Below

Every coastal town has a story about something in the water. In Snook's Arm, a tiny fishing town on the coast of Newfoundland, Calvin Penney has been carrying his for decades. When he was a boy, his father died in a way nobody could explain, and Calvin saw something out there that day that he's never been able to forget. Now the town is falling apart, the government wants everyone to move away and something is coming up from the deep again. That's the setup for Below, a six-episode Netflix series starring Josh Hartnett that arrived on October 8, 2026, with all episodes dropping at once.

The show premiered as the Primetime opening night selection at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and the early buzz called it a fresh take on the sea monster story. It's part creature feature, part family drama and part love letter to Newfoundland. Here's what to expect before you press play.

What it's about

Calvin Penney, played by Hartnett, is a stubborn fisherman and a single father of three. His town is shrinking. The fish aren't what they used to be, the young people keep leaving and now the residents are being offered a buyout to pack up and move somewhere bigger. Calvin has heard this offer before. The last time his family was asked to relocate, his father ended up dead.

The story starts during Come Home Year, a celebration when people who've moved away return to visit. Calvin's grown children come back to town. His oldest son, Wade, played by Charlie Heaton, never left. His youngest son, Jay, played by Rohan Campbell, and his daughter, Mary, played by Ruby Stokes, return after years away. Mary brings her boyfriend from Montreal, Noah, played by Kaleb Horn, who looks very much like a city guy who didn't pack for this.

Then strange things start washing up. There are deaths that nobody can explain, and animals turning up where they shouldn't be, including dead flamingos on a cold Newfoundland shore. And an iceberg drifts into the bay that, as one early reviewer put it, turns out to be "much more than just frozen water."

That's when Fonda arrives. She's a marine researcher, played by Mackenzie Davis, and she teams up with Calvin to figure out what's in the water and what the island has been hiding.

The people behind it

Below was created by Jesse McKeown, who also serves as showrunner. He's best known for his work on The Umbrella Academy and The Sinner, two shows that mixed genre thrills with messy family stories, and that combination is all over this one. The writers include Perry Chafe, Karen Walton, who wrote the cult werewolf film Ginger Snaps, and Natty Zavitz.

The six episodes were directed by Jamie Childs, who worked on The Sandman, Stephen Dunn and Helen Shaver, who directed episodes of Station Eleven. Hartnett is also one of the executive producers.

McKeown told Entertainment Weekly, "I always knew I wanted to make something here in Newfoundland." That shows. The series was filmed in Newfoundland and Labrador from July to October 2025, and the place isn't just a backdrop. It's the heart of the show.

Josh Hartnett, the reluctant hero

Hartnett has had a quiet comeback over the last few years, with roles in Oppenheimer and the thriller Trap, and Below gives him a leading part built around him. Calvin isn't a monster hunter or a tough guy. He's a big-hearted, hard-headed dad who wants his kids home and his town to survive.

Early reviews have singled him out. Jack Giroux at What's on Netflix praised his "brash but sensitive" performance. And Hartnett has said that what drew him to the role was the feeling that the powers deciding our lives are so far away that it's hard to change anything. He called seeing ordinary people unite against those powers "a very satisfying level of wish fulfillment."

That's the real engine of the show. The sea creature is the threat you can see. The government buyout, the dying fishery and the slow emptying of the town are the threats you can't fight with a harpoon.

The rest of the cast

Mackenzie Davis plays Fonda, the scientist of the pair, which sets up a nice balance between her research and Calvin's gut instinct. Davis has done a lot of strong genre work, from Halt and Catch Fire to Station Eleven, and she's comfortable in a story where the rules keep shifting.

Charlie Heaton, best known as Jonathan Byers from Stranger Things, plays Wade, the son who stayed. His relationship with Calvin is the emotional center of the family story. Willow Kean plays Ruth, Calvin's sister and the town's harbormaster, and Natasha Henstridge plays Jan Hickey, the officer in charge of the resettlement plan, who has a personal history with one of the Penney men.

David Wenham and Alexander Karim round out the cast as the leader of a research ship and a marine biologist who arrive in Snook's Arm with their own interest in the creature. Newfoundland comedy legend Mary Walsh also appears as a member of the community, and Joshua Close plays local officer Jaxon Noseworthy.

A real history underneath the monster

One of the smartest things about Below is where it gets its tension. Newfoundland has a real and painful history of resettlement. In the decades after it joined Canada, governments paid families in small outport communities to leave their homes and move to larger towns. Many people still remember it as the loss of a way of life.

The show builds its story right on top of that. The buyout Calvin's town is being offered is the kind of choice real families in Newfoundland had to make. The early TIFF coverage noted the series is inspired by a real story from the region, and its themes also touch on climate change and how a warming ocean is changing life on the coast. A creature rising from the sea feels like a natural metaphor for all of it.

How it compares

Early reviewers reached for some classic comparisons. What's on Netflix compared it to Jaws, John Carpenter's The Fog and the 1970s horror film Messiah of Evil, all stories about a close community under threat from something that comes out of the water or the night. Heaven of Horror pointed to the Norwegian Netflix film Kraken, though it stressed that Below isn't a remake.

It's also worth comparing it to Stranger Things, which is fitting with Heaton in the cast. Both shows are about a town, a family and something monstrous breaking into ordinary life. But where Stranger Things has the glow of 1980s nostalgia, Below has wind, salt and fog. It feels older, colder and more folk tale than pop culture.

What's on Netflix described the tone as a "campfire-style tall tale," and that's a good way to think about it. It's scary, but it also has the kind of humor you'd hear from people telling stories at a kitchen party. The official logline promises a blend of local myth, suspense and humor, and the show leans into all three.

What critics said

Early reactions have been warm. Dread Central, in its TIFF impressions, called it an "atmospheric sea monster tale kept afloat by a bounty of charismatic performances." Heaven of Horror said the series "deserves a Fresh rating" based on the first two episodes, while admitting it wasn't sure where the story was headed. And What's on Netflix suggested the show could be a "breath of fresh air" for horror fans on the platform.

The common thread is that the atmosphere and the cast are the strengths. The creature itself has been kept mostly under wraps in early coverage, which is either a smart way to build suspense or a sign that the show is more interested in people than in monsters. Probably both.

Should you watch it?

If you like creature features with a strong sense of place, yes. At six episodes of about an hour each, Below is an easy weekend binge, and it's a limited series, so you're not signing up for a story that drags across years. It's rated TV-MA, so it's not one for younger kids.

If you're looking for nonstop monster action, keep your expectations in check. Early reviews suggest the show takes its time, building the town and the family before it lets the creature take over. That's the kind of pacing that works if you enjoy getting to know a place, and less so if you want a jump scare every five minutes.

I'll admit the setting is what makes me most curious. There aren't many big shows set in Newfoundland, and a sea monster story told in that accent, in that weather, with that history behind it, sounds like exactly the kind of thing Netflix doesn't make often enough. I would put it at the top of the October watchlist.

So wait for a gray evening, turn the lights down and start with "Come Home Year." Just maybe skip the seafood dinner that night.