In a summer full of shark movies, Netflix is taking a bit of a different approach to aquatic horror. They’ve just released the first teaser for their upcoming series Below, starring Josh Hartnett as a fisherman up against a mysterious threat from the deep as it encroaches on his small seaside town.
Created by Jesse McKeown, Below stars Hartnett alongside Stranger Things alum Charlie Heaton, Mackenzie Davis, Ruby Stokes, Kaleb Horn, Rohan Campbell, and Willow Kean. The series’ synopsis is as follows:
Calvin Penney is a fisherman whose small village is under attack by a violent creature. As locals succumb to mayhem brought on by strange events, and Calvin’s son Wade starts exhibiting terrifying new symptoms, our hero teams up with Fonda, a marine biologist, to uncover what secrets lie beneath the water.
“I read the first two scripts so quickly, in less than an hour,” Hartnett said to Tudum about the series. “The voice was so clear, the concept was so engaging, and the character was fantastic. I’d never read anything like it before.”
It also sounds like, according to McKeown, that the new series will have a little bit of Widow’s Bay in its DNA. “Folks here have been dealing with unexplained phenomena and tragic events for hundreds of years,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Killer storms. Maritime disasters. The collapse of the cod fishery. People going hungry. Surviving the winter here can be a horror movie in and of itself. So, these strange events fit into a long history of unimaginable difficulties.”
Below is executive produced by Hartnett alongside Jessica Rhoades. Chris Hatcher, Jamie Childs, Louise Sutton, and Sharon Hall. Ahead of its fall premiere, the series will screen at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival as a part of their Primetime program.
Below premieres on Netflix on October 8.
