Netflix’s New 6-Part Creature Feature Is Reviving Spielberg & Carpenter Horror for the 2020s

Over the years, Netflix has given us some thrilling creature features, but Below promises to be one of the most terrifying series yet. The first official trailer for Below has teased a new creature feature inspired by horror and thriller legends such as Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, among others. The series is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on October 8, 2026, making it perfect viewing over the Halloween season as one of Netflix’s most chilling new horror-inspired shows.

Below is created by Jesse McKeown, who previously wrote for The Umbrella Academy, The Sinner, and more. The six-episode limited series stars Josh Hartnett (Penny Dreadful), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire), Natasha Henstridge (Diggstown), and more as residents of a small Newfoundland town terrorized by a creature from the sea. Blending a deep-sea monster adventure with the psychological toll of small-town living, Below will be Netflix’s best creature feature yet.

Below Pits Small Town Residents Against a Mysterious Sea Creature

After Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay followed the residents of a small New England island as they faced supernatural and paranormal threats, Netflix’s Below takes a more grounded, realistic approach. Instead of something otherworldly and inexplicable, Below follows the residents of Snook’s Arm, a Newfoundland community founded by fishing families in the mid-1800s.

One of these legacy fishermen is Calvin Penner (Hartnett), whose childrenvisit from the mainland before chaos ensues. The appearance of a strange iceberg near Snook’s Arm signals the emergence of a mysterious, unseen creature that seems to terrorize and affect the waters around the community.

Far beyond just battling the creature itself, the residents of the town will undergo psychological and physical transformations in Below, making it one of the most sinister, chilling, and intriguing creature feature series in Netflix’s roster. The creature’s appearance ties to the death of Calvin’s father years earlier, deepening the mystery.

Calvin will likelyteam up with other town residents, including his restless son Wade (Heaton) and marine researcher Fonda Howander (Davis), to take on the creature. Along the way, they’ll uncover the buried secrets of their community, leaning into the genre’s grounded yet dark, cold atmosphere.

Inspired by horror legends and balancing thriller tropes with monster themes and exhilarating fantasy elements, Below is gearing up to be one of Netflix’s most exciting and captivating new series.

How Below Takes Inspiration From Spielberg, Carpenter & Other Horror Legends

Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney on a boat in Netflix's Below — Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney on a boat in Netflix’s Below

While paving a new direction for the creature-feature genre with one of Netflix’s most intriguing premises, Below is also expected to pay homage to past creators. The limited series seems to draw direct inspiration from horror and monster legends such as Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, among others.

Below looks to channel their incredible talent for producing intense, psychological creature features that stay unforgettable decades later, cultivating old-school, hand-crafted tension and atmospheric dread. Below will mirror these themes, most notably by sticking to the hidden-monster restraint of classic creature features such as Jaws and The Thing.

Like the shark in Jaws, the mysterious sea creature terrorizing the Newfoundland town stays largely hidden throughout Below—at least in the trailer—building suspense gradually rather than delivering an all-out CGI spectacle. Like many of Spielberg’s projects, Below focuses on a family unit by primarily following the Pennys.

Series creator Jesse McKeown explicitly cited classic, tactile 1980s-style genre filmmaking as an inspiration for Below, so the series should deliver a nostalgic, old-school feel that could make it an instant classic for Netflix. The approach blends high-tension creature mystery with the rugged locale, folklore, and historical hardships of coastal Newfoundland.

That kind of isolation is something both Spielberg and Carpenter excelled at producing, the latter in works like The Fog and The Thing. John Carpenter is perhaps best known for horror-inspired stories that build slow-burn tension rather than relying on CGI-heavy spectacle, which Below replicates.

Carpenter also focuses mostly on the community’s psychology and spreading paranoia, which Below handles perfectly by keeping the creature just out of sight while making its effects unavoidable. Josh Hartnett’s grizzled fisherman protagonist echoes many of Carpenter’s blue-collar heroes, all of whom are thrust into impossible and unexplainable horrors.

McKeown cited Spielberg and Carpenter as direct inspirations for Below in an Entertainment Weekly interview, but the series likely draws on other iconic filmmakers and creatives, too. The Lovecraftian creature terrorizing Snook’s Arm may also draw on other iconic monster-movie filmmakers, such as Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Ridley Scott (Alien), David Cronenberg (The Fly), Joe Dante (Piranha), and more.

Below is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on October 8, 2026.