Below, the Josh Hartnett sea-creature thriller, remains one of Netflix’s defining hits of October, holding a top-three worldwide daily position on 25 October after weeks at number one on the English-language series chart.
Created by Jesse McKeown, the six-episode limited series stars Hartnett as Calvin, a fisherman in the remote Newfoundland town of Snook’s Arm whose village comes under attack from something enormous in the water. Mackenzie Davis plays a marine biologist investigating the creature, while Charlie Heaton plays Calvin’s son.
A Canadian record-breaker
Below set a record for a Canadian original with 21.2 million views in a single week, according to chart reporting, and it has held the number one spot on Netflix’s English-language series chart every week since its 8 October debut. That is a remarkable run for a genre series without a pre-existing franchise behind it.
Hartnett has said he read the first two scripts in under an hour, praising the clarity of the voice and the strength of the central character. That pace is visible on screen: six tight episodes, a contained setting and a threat that escalates rather than explains itself.
Why it works
Creature features live or die on atmosphere, and Below’s Newfoundland setting — cold water, small community, isolation — gives it an atmosphere few studio productions can match. The series trusts its premise and its cast, and audiences have rewarded that confidence.
For viewers looking for a weekend binge, Below remains the October title most people are actually finishing.
Horror from the water
Sea horror has a long lineage, from classic creature features to modern survival thrillers, because water combines two primal fears: what cannot be seen, and what cannot be escaped. Below draws on both, using its remote setting to isolate its characters and its creature to keep them guessing. The series also benefits from a distinctly Canadian sense of place, with a working fishing community rather than a generic coastal town. That specificity grounds the horror, making the extraordinary threat feel more believable because the ordinary world around it feels so real.
