New Netflix thriller is the most horrifying creature feature since Jaws

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video There isn’t a creature horror that has even come close to rivalling Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, even 50 years on. I’ve seen countless films try: Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea, The Shallows – the list is quite literally endless, but ultimately, with perhaps the exception of Open Water, they all very quickly become far too absurd, whereas Jaws tapped into the very real fear of what lurks beneath the surface at your local beach. Josh Hartnett’s renaissance continues to flourish in another ‘Jaws-inspired’ tale, the limited series Below, launching on Netflix today with a similar premise, only instead of an unnaturally enormous shark, a mysterious sea creature is terrorising a remote former fishing town in Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada. The opening scene follows a family and a salesman sheepishly driving a boat that gets stuck in the middle of suitably eerie waters when it runs into a floating house. While the father explores the home, his young boy looks over the boat and catches a giant eye staring back up at him. Moments later, his father is ambushed, trapped inside the home when it suddenly sinks to the bottom of the seabed. Forty years later, that young boy is brooding father-of-three Calvin Penney, mining ice to sell to the local vodka company, and his children are returning home for a rare visit at the worst possible time. Josh Hartnett’s renaissance continues in Below (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) The new thriller launches on Netflix today (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) The town is facing its own Brexit; locals are being encouraged to resettle on the mainland, where there are actually jobs and the opportunity for a new life for a sizeable sum. If more than 75% opt to leave, the whole town is left with no choice but to abandon Snook’s Arm for good. Sign up to Switched On, Metro's new TV newsletter Hiya! I’m Sabrina Barr and I’m Metro’s TV editor. I have spent almost six years at Metro covering all corners of the TV world, and I’m now sharing all my expert insights in my brand new newsletter, Switched On. Join me for Metro's exclusive weekly guide of to what to watch From recommendations for your next binge-watch on Netflix to jaw-dropping exclusive interviews with the planet’s biggest stars, sign up to get plugged into the week’s biggest TV moments. Get the next edition below. Sign up now But there’s a bigger threat to their livelihood that’s been lurking in its waters, and suddenly people start to vanish. A husband and wife visiting the island for its nature trails go missing without a trace until, rather hideously, Calvin finds the wife’s discarded scalp on the shore. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, it’s not even safe to be on land. A mysterious virus that causes hallucinations and severe thirst makes sufferers lose their minds, so desperate for water they throw themselves into the sea without a second thought and, as you may have guessed, are unlikely to ever resurface. Below begins as the best horror of its kind since Jaws (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) Below: Key Details Showrunner Jesse McKeown Cast Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton, Natasha Henstridge, Joshua Close, Rohan Campbell, Willow Kean, Mary Walsh Synopsis ‘When the remote Newfoundland town of Snook’s Arm is terrorised by a mysterious sea creature, a hard-bitten fisherman must fight to protect his family, his community, and his vanishing way of life.’ Episodes 6 episodes Release date October 8, 2026 Where to watch Netflix Below begins as the best horror of its kind since Jaws, for the most part. The monster is genuinely quite terrifying; the show plays on the audience having no idea what the monster really is, and we’re left to fill in the gaps. However, as is so often the case, once we have been acquainted with said monster, the tension gradually begins to swim away – though not entirely. Thankfully, there is more to Below than man versus beast: the division of a town being encouraged to gamble its security to up and leave is something we Brits are all too familiar with. An outbreak that threatens to kill them all before they’ve even reached the ballot is just as terrifying and actually incredibly well handled when, again, it’s a trope that more often than not is more absurd than genuinely scary. The show is genuinely quite scary (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) There is more to Below than man versus beast (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) Will you be watching Below? Yes - sounds right up my street!Check Nope - too scary for me!Check Want to get bespoke updates on the TV shows you love? Sign up to Metro's TV newsletters and tell us which ones you can't get enough of Below is, at the very least, consistently eerie, with plenty of satisfying twists. As a 38-year-old who would do anything to relive the early noughties, I’d struggle not to enjoy watching Josh Hartnett return to horror – for me, 1998’s high school body-snatcher movie The Faculty is easily his best movie, and Below takes me right back to watching him play a miserable hero as only he can. But in a bag of mixed performances, Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton is perhaps the only genuinely great one in Below. Below often feels as though it could be what you’d get if the Duffer Brothers tried to reboot Jaws, which is perhaps why Heaton feels so in his element, but in what is easily his biggest role since Stranger Things, he single-handedly gives the entire show a credibility that would perhaps be missing without him. Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton is perhaps the only genuinely great actor in Below. (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) Heaton plays Wade Penney, an aspiring fisherman who idolises his father (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix) Heaton plays Calvin’s son Wade Penney, an aspiring fisherman who idolises his father and is the only one of Calvin’s children to live on the island. He has ADHD and is frantic, recklessly spontaneous and unnervingly unpredictable – Heaton has by far the biggest challenge of any cast member in Below, and among what are fairly unmemorable performances elsewhere, he sticks out for all the right reasons. Verdict Below is genuinely eerie, just about managing to sit on the right side of being too ridiculous, with a solid and timely premise but at times can be a bit too self-righteous for its own good. There is an enormous amount of fun to be had with Below. Of all the films and TV shows ‘inspired by Jaws’, I’d go as far as saying this is one of – if not the – best horrors of its kind: genuinely eerie, just about managing to sit on the right side of being too ridiculous, with a solid and timely premise. But everything I love about Below ever so slightly disintegrates until the final episode is littered with too many plot holes to forgive, and the giant sea creature becomes the most believable thing about it. Though Below ends with heart and a well-executed message about the climate crisis, which is often very tricky to do, it becomes something else entirely – too soft and too self-righteous for a horror that begins with so much promise. 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