Netflix seems to have a bit of a thing for recapturing the hysteria that greeted Jaws way back when it came out. While there have been movie sensations since then, of course, the sense that a film could genuinely change a generation of movie-goers' attitude to the sea seems like a taller order.
After already scoring one huge hit earlier this year with Thrash, reminding people that sharks are indeed terrifying, Netflix now has a new series on the way centring on a threat in the water. Below is a slightly different proposition, though, as its first teaser trailer makes clear – this might not even be a shark movie at all.
Below stars Josh Hartnett as a dad living in a rural fishing community, eking out a soulful existence. When his daughter comes home to visit, he's thrilled to see her, and it looks like she might have a new boyfriend in tow, too. Introducing him to the world of hard work and seafaring graft that he lives in could be a challenge.
What's even more of a challenge, though, is finding out that there's something stalking the boats and swimmers in the area – something causing disturbances that can't really be explained. The teaser goes out of its way to avoid clarifying what that might mean, and while the natural assumption is that it's a shark (or more than one), that's hardly confirmed.
In fact, the weird imagery in the teaser includes an extended sequence involving a floating house, and it all seems to suggest that there might be something a little more supernatural going on. Again, I don't have any confirmation of that, and Netflix's own blurb about the movie is intentionally vague, but there's definitely more than a whiff of the horror genre about how the trailer is cut.
That all makes Below quite intriguing, as does the fact that it's a limited series rather than a movie. We should get a few hours of mystery and thrills from it when it arrives on 8 October, so drop a reminder in your calendar if you're curious to find out just what is going on.
