Josh Hartnett’s new Netflix thriller starts with a bang – then hits murky waters

Below ★★★

There’s something in the water: an entire house. In the opening scenes of Netflix’s horror-lite miniseries Below, a two-storey home floats across foggy waters, being pulled by a small tugboat holding the Penneys, a local family of four.

It’s 1986, and small towns on the remote Canadian island of Newfoundland are being resettled by the government, consolidated into larger communities. Disaster strikes when the home is sunk by an underwater force, compelling young Calvin to cut the rope to save everyone on-board – and doom his father, trapped in the house.

Below’s intriguing, menacing opening isn’t matched as the six-episode series jumps forward to the present day. Calvin (Josh Harnett, the former ’00s heartthrob experiencing a renaissance spurned by darker roles in Trap and Oppenheimer) is now a hardened widower and fisherman, albeit one who can’t fish due to environmental laws.

He makes his money by harvesting arctic ice, used in an expensive cocktail for tourists. There’s little future here. His oldest children have left, though his layabout son Wade (Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things) entertains their Airbnb guests: “I consider myself a fisherman, though I’ve never fished”, he tells a couple, no doubt a well-worn line.

Harnett, Heaton and the rest of the cast deliver Newfoundland’s distinct accent – a jarring blend of Canadian, Irish and The Simpsons’ Sea Captain – and strange slang with full-throated enthusiasm. Head-spinners like “Badger Bay was maggots with berger bits this morning. Sweetest ice you’ve ever seen” are common. Speaking of ice, it’s a giant smelly piece in the harbour that marks the creature’s return, wreaking bloody havoc.

Inspired by showrunner Jesse McKeown’s (The Umbrella Chronicles) own time on Newfoundland, Below is a thoughtful, distinct portrait of an eclectic, subarctic community for whom struggle is built into its identity. It’s also a B-movie-inspired monster bash.

That mix can work. Years before remaking Carrie, Mike Flanagan unleashed vampires onto a small, isolated island town to great effect in Midnight Mass, a Netflix miniseries that delivered both scares and cerebral thrills, reflecting on how a remote community can continue after its industry and culture has effectively died. A similar backdrop’s at play with Below’s Snook’s Arm: a real Newfoundland town closed by the Canadian government in 2017 but here still alive in 2026, albeit fighting off both another resettlement and a menacing, ultra-powerful sea monster. Putting aside the body count, maybe it’s just what the town and Calvin need?

Unfortunately, Below is most intriguing in its mysterious first half before so many of its promising elements – including David Wenham as a shadowy Australian researcher – come up bust or fail to thrill. It’s enjoyable enough, but you get the sense Below’s monster story was Frankensteined together.

Below is streaming on Netflix now.

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