Abandon all hope, ye who enter Below. And jettison disbelief while ye be at it. A six-part supernatural thriller forged from industrial-grade bunkum, Below is set in Snook’s Arm, a struggling Newfoundland fishing community beset by an ancient, unknowable evil. And plaid. And sea hags, shifty conservationists, mist, motorbikes, curses, a catch-all nostalgia for the 70s-90s, galoshes, wind and, horrifyingly, the collected works of the Waterboys. But mainly an ancient, unknowable evil (and plaid).
Here’s twitchy young roustabout Wade Penney (Charlie Heaton) with some combatively accented exposition. “I tells ye, these waters can be deadly,” he splutters, waggling his fish slice seawards as he prepares breakfast for his credulous Airbnb guests. “It’s been one seafarin’ tragedy after another for us.” Wade is an idiot but he is not, in this instance, wrong. First there was the seafarin’ tragedy of 1986, a splosh-based catastrophe that saw his family’s cottage – and his disconcertingly muscular grand pappy – dragged underwater by forces unknown. Then there were the fishing bans, the decades of economic uncertainty and the resettlement programme – a looming government-led scheme that threatens the town’s remaining hopes for survival. And now? “Jumpin’ Jesus,” blurts ripped paterfamilias Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett). “Will ye look at dat!” We look at dat. It’s an iceberg. A towering wodge of inexplicable CGI menace has materialised in the harbour, bringin’ with it yet more trouble for the embattled sea hunks.
