Marine horror continues to thrive, much to the delight of genre enthusiasts. After the pleasant surprise of Apple TV's Widow's Bay earlier this year and ahead of the highly anticipated film Englouti, Netflix is now testing the waters with its new mini-series, Below. The first trailer, released in July, hinted at a story involving a mysterious sea creature terrorizing the residents of a small town in Newfoundland, Canada – a setting that will undoubtedly resonate with fans of films like Orca and games such as Dredge.
Josh Hartnett leads the cast as a fisherman determined to protect his family from this unknown threat. He is joined by Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire, Blade Runner 2049, Speak No Evil) and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things). To deepen the enigma of its plot and maintain audience curiosity, the series, created by Jesse McKeown, has just unveiled a new trailer and an alluring poster.
Below Be Cool
The initial trailer cleverly chose not to reveal the elusive creature beyond a mere shadow in the water, and this second trailer largely adheres to the same principle, though it offers a few more tantalizing clues. It notably suggests that the monster's (or monsters') arrival might be connected to a strange iceberg adrift in the town's harbor. Furthermore, it appears that whatever lurks beneath the surface might be capable of contaminating, or perhaps even possessing, those who venture too close.
The new poster also refrains from explicitly showing any monsters. Instead, it leans into one of the trailer's most striking visual motifs: a house eerily floating on the water, threatening to sink, perhaps dragged into the abyss by the very creature. As the protagonists approach the house in a small boat, the spotlight is stolen by the colossal iceberg looming in the background.
Perched atop this icy mountain (a disappearing sight, even off Newfoundland's coast these days) is a seated silhouette. Who is this figure? A malevolent presence or, conversely, a victim awaiting rescue? How did they get there, and what is their connection to the creature we imagine prowling in the dark waters below? With a single, astonishingly poetic image, this poster successfully poses numerous questions and expands upon the hypotheses presented in the trailer.
It's also worth noting the clever juxtaposition of the title "*Below*" (meaning "under the surface") with an image that, paradoxically, only showcases what rises above the water. This dissonance subtly underscores the profound horror that could be hiding in the depths. All that remains is to hope that Below lives up to the tantalizing bait its promotion is dangling. To find out, mark your calendars for October 8th, when it sets sail on Netflix.