Dive into an exclusive look at Netflix's Josh Hartnett-led supernatural thriller Below

Below brings Snook’s Arm to striking life, with vivid imagery of the table-top peaks and fjords surrounding the rivers where single-dad Calvin makes his living. McKeown describes the show’s main character as “a self-sufficient man—a jack of all trades who can fix anything.” While Calvin was once a successful angler, his business is failing for various reasons: industrialization, climate change, overfishing, you name it. His circumstances force him to find other sources of income—which explains the iceberg harvesting—to help provide for his children: Wade (Charlie Heaton), Jay (Rohan Campbell), and Mary (Ruby Stokes), the latter of whom have moved away for their own education and work purposes. “All that Calvin wants is for his family to come back and be together,” McKeown notes. 

Calvin’s wish is granted in episode one: Jay and Mary return (with their own set of problems: He’s in debt and she’s got a new boyfriend) as part of Newfoundland And Labrador’s Come Home Year, a civic program designed to encourage residents who have migrated out of the province to return home. (And that means that they’re all around when that gosh-darn sea creature starts making itself known.) Wade, meanwhile, stuck around to take over the family business, but wound up helping his dad run an Airbnb instead. All of this background, and the banter that accompanies it, helps make the Penney family feel like, well, a family. Rhoades says the Below team sought out a cast that could “create that sense memory as a group, which began with Josh, and to see who would believably fit as his family.” Rhoades was also keen on reuniting with Mackenzie Davis, with whom she worked on Station Eleven and who plays marine researcher Fonda Howander—a useful ally to Calvin as he unravels the sea creature mystery—on Below. “She had such an interesting and amazing perspective on the character and the world of this show,” Rhoades says. 

The entire cast was further bonded by perfecting their Newfoundland accents. The clip above doesn’t even scratch the surface of the specific, Irish-inspired dialect spoken in Below—if Hartnett’s line readings surprise you, wait until you hear Heaton. When asked about this learning curve, Rhoades commends the actors, who had “a limited amount of time to nail a notoriously difficult accent.” They worked with local dialect coaches, including their co-star Allison Kelly. “When they all came together for a table read in St. John’s before we started filming, Charlie was on Zoom with us from another world,” Rhoades says, referring to Heaton’s prior role on Stranger Things. “But as everybody said their lines in the accent, you could see it work.” 

McKeown notes that the specific culturalisms, turn of phrases, and jokes in the scripts ultimately paid off because “even if it didn’t land for a wider audience, it did for all the Newfoundlanders.” “We feel like we got a seal of approval,” he says.  That authenticity extends to the slice of regional history dramatized in the opening passages of Below. The premiere begins with a flashback to the Resettlement programs of the mid-20th century, in which residents of isolated Newfoundland and Labrador communities were paid by provincial and family governments to move their families and all their earthly possessions (including their houses) to more populated areas. In Below’s depiction of resettlement, tragedy strikes as a family tows their home across the water; it’s a disconcerting sight, one that McKeown says carries a lot of weight for people who grew up in the area. 

“If you weren’t affected directly by resettlement, then somebody in your family was at some point,” he says. “The stories are everywhere, but it’s not a well-known story anywhere, even elsewhere in Canada. But it’s a haunting image of a family out at sea, and it’s the first scene that came to mind as I started writing Below, and then it all clicked together.” 

Below blends the island’s history with the Penney family’s emotional saga and larger-than-life thrills, jump scares, and gory kills, of which Rhoades simply says, “Your core will be engaged.” McKeown says director Jamie Childs (who helmed three episodes) wanted the miniseries to feel like old-school thrillers from the ’70s and ’80s, but in a way that highlights the setting. McKeown adds, “You have no idea what you’re in for. All I can say is, if you want to go down a rabbit hole once you’ve seen Below, you’ll realize why I wanted to set it in Newfoundland.”

Below premieres October 8 on Netflix.

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.