Below (Jesse McKeown, 2026)

Josh Hartnett has had no fear of genre fare in his career, and its arguably his consistent return to horror that's helped keep his career on a solid footing. Introduced to audiences in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in the same year he'd be among the ensemble of The Faculty, Hartnett solidified his place as a teen heartthrob through the horror genre. Through the years, he'd come back to it in 30 Days of Night and then on the small screen in Showtime's Penny Dreadful. He's leading a new Netflix limited series, Below, which is playing with a few different sub genres of horror.

Back in July, I wrote a piece in my series The Art of Fear and the Power of the Frame, arguing part of what's been missing in the discussion about why horror has become the most reliable genre at the box office, is the way streaming has erased barriers that were the result of marketing and broader social perspectives on the horror genre. Netflix, even before the Streaming Wars and every major distributor or studio developing its own streaming service, was having success with not just horror series it produced, but also helping some independent movies that had suffered as a result of lack of marketing and theatrical availability, find the audience they were meant for. Karyn Kusama's The Invitation began finding a broader audience when it was first available on Netflix, and his since developed a dedicated cult following that evangelizes for it at every opportunity. I am among that cult following.

Below is a clever mix of creature feature, folk horror, seaside/aquatic horror and eco horror. Creator Jesse McKeown and his fellow writers, Perry Chafe, Karen Walton and Natty Javitz, have a strong grasp on the sub genres they're playing with, as well as the cosmic horror sub genre it flirts with early on. The primary draw and pleasure of Below is the way it plays with genre audiences expectations. There's also a degree of Spielberg-ian approach to themes that is the product of influence, instead of the kind of imitative reach for the nostalgia audience that's been common. Below is more interested in telling its own story than it is in reminding the audience of the stories they loved as children and find success in moving them by associating itself with those experiences.

It would be easy to say Hartnett's steady, lasting career is the result of his striking good looks, but that devalues the fact that he's always been good at embodying and conveying a sensitivity that feels authentic. Throughout his career, he's been cast in various roles expecting the character to navigate whatever conflict or circumstance the story throws at them, with that sensitivity as the defining nature of the character. In Below, it's essential to make the series and the story work. Without that sensitivity, the soft touch he brings to the character of Calvin Penney's interactions with the rest of the cast, there would be no hook, no reason for the viewer to follow Calvin on this journey. It's easy to imagine another actor's interpretation of this same character devolving into bland, blunt, brooding, brutish stereotype. Hartnett, and co-stars Mackenzie Davis and Charlie Heaton provide a beating heart to the clever use of genre that gives Below some life, instead of feeling like an academic exercise in genre theory.

The series isn't breaking new ground in its story of a place and its people struggling with forces beyond their control, threatening their sense of identity and way of life, but it does approach that story with respect for the experience and how it effects their relationships to each other. It's using genre as the roadmap through talking about the way the intersection with a broader world outside this place influences it and how it interacts with the lives of people just trying to survive in the way they know how, that has been passed from generation to generation. At the foundation of the story Below is telling, is a recognition of the cycles of colonialism, and the cost of a socio-economic order that can only conceive of everything on earth as a resource to exploit or a barrier to be broken down in relation to profit and accumulation of wealth. Part of what Hartnett brings to his characters, is the way the sensitivity he embodies, that soft touch, conveys trust and care for the characters around his. There's a perspective on the kind of story, the themes Below is using, that believes confrontation is the only worthy intent. It can be a worthy intent, when handled adeptly, but it's not the only worthy intent. The storytelling in Below is treating the audience as if the confrontation isn't necessary. Telling the story is enough, in itself, because its effect renders confrontation unnecessary. As usual, I tend to think both are necessary in the broader universe of storytelling, and the way Below is handling its themes and story are approached with care and dedication to its intent.

It is though, a series that is likely to be most appealing to genre fans, because of the way it's subverting and mixing the sub genres it's playing with. The way the story unfolds isn't particularly surprising, but the way it arrives at the necessary and particular beats is through the subversion of genre and sub genre expectations. It's not exactly meta in the sense of being self referential, but it is crafted with a sense of awareness of what audiences will expect from their already established experiences with these has been, and how to use the ways they connect to change what sub genre they think its in or to intertwine sub genres in ways that feel organic, instead of forced in for shock. It's possible the performances and the suspense will carry the non-genre dedicated through, but familiarity with the horror genre and the sub genres Below is mixing were the primary pleasures of the show for me. The love of them is clear in how well they understand them to be able to so deftly mix and subvert them, and there is a playful sense of creativity in this.

Below doesn't have the depth of emotional impact some of its influences do, but it does work well as a light, subtle exploration of its themes and genres, and it's not afraid to show some teeth along the way. It doesn't wallow in cruelty or pain, but because of this, it succeeds in being a little shocking in its deployment of special effects and the consequences people of this small town are paying for the way decisions and events of the world outside are effecting them.

If you're looking for a good yarn, spun well, that's able to weave an old tradition of storytelling into a contemporary setting and feel, you could do far worse than Below. If you're looking for an experience that will take you to heights of emotional impact, this probably isn't going to be satisfying.

Below is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.