Netflix's Below is rooted in Newfoundland history that is all too real
If you’ve already binged Netflix’s new Newfoundland sea monster thriller Below, you may be looking at open water with a fresh sense of dread.
The six-part series stars Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a stubborn fisherman trying to protect his family and his remote community from a creature in the water, while holding on to a vanishing way of life.
Now audiences are left wondering – is any of it real? The monster isn’t – at least we hope not – but creator Jesse McKeown built the series on the place itself and its whispered folklore and documented history.
"I always knew I wanted to make something here in Newfoundland. Preferably something big. And something strange," McKeown told EW.
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"Something that taps into the terrifying ruggedness and isolation of the place."
The real history of the floating houses
Below opens with a family towing their house behind a boat. The scene echoes a real aspect of Newfoundland’s past - the government-led resettlement programmes, which ran from the 1950s to the 1970s.
These were designed to encourage families to leave isolated communities for larger popular centres. Many of these frontier folk took their homes with them across the water.
"So many families now are directly affected by resettlement," McKeown told the Canadian Press. "If you spend any time there, or if you grew up there, that image of the house floating on the ocean is a key image."
Resettlement schemes like this continue, with community-led relocation very much a part of life in the region. The series builds on this phenomenon, showing how Calvin’s town is in the process of voting on a cash offer to move.
The creature
Netflix is keeping the creature’s precise identity a closely guarded secret, and the show leaves the mystery for marine researcher Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis) to solve.
Early reviews have speculated about the possibility of a giant squid haunting the waters – a creature long linked to legends of sea serpents living off the coast.
The collapse of a way of life
In addition to potentially including local legends, the series also reflects the economic pressure on Newfoundland’s fishing communities.
Commercial fishing, and more recently harvesting ice from icebergs, are the backbone of the town’s economy.
This backdrop mirrors the real-life 1992 cod moratorium, which devastated communities. On July 2 that year, Canada banned cod fishing along the east coast after decades of overfishing had reduced northern cod stocks to about one percent of their peak.
Nearly 30,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador lost their jobs in what has been described as the largest mass layoff in Canadian history, effectively ending centuries of cod fishing tradition.
So, while the monster itself may be made up, it is possible the creature symbolises the wider dangers facing seafaring communities – with the struggle portrayed by Hartnett’s character showing how some doggedly held on to their disappearing way of life against the odds.
All six episodes of Below are available to watch on Netflix now.
Michael D. Carroll