“We Actually Sunk a House”: Creators Dive Inside Netflix’s Wild Josh Hartnett Horror Series 'Below'
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"We Actually Sunk a House": Creators Dive Inside Netflix’s Wild Josh Hartnett Horror Series 'Below'
By Jack Giroux | September 17th, 2026 - 12:41 pm
Picture Credits: Netflix & Josh Telles/Deadline via Getty Images
"Below" is catnip for seaside horror stories fans. If anyone is interested in tall macabre tales from the sea, then showrunner Jesse McKeown and producer Jessica Rhoades have got the show for you. When strange and violent happenings begin in Newfoundland, ice fisherman Calvin (Josh Hartnett) has a family and town to protect.
Showrunner Jesse McKeown and Producer Jessica Rhoades Preview 'Below'
The first two episodes are chock-full of atmosphere and character. The limited series is six episodes long, so the story wastes no time creating these characters up and running in their surreal homeland. Once the madness truly begins, expect a little bit of Danzig and, as McKeown and Rhoades told What’s On Netflix at the Toronto International Film Festival, plenty of lovingly crafted moments of horror.
I went down the flamingo rabbit hole today.
Jesse:
Well, it’s funny, that flamingo thing is real. It was my wife’s neighbor, a guy named Mark Ferguson, who works at the museum in St. John’s, Newfoundland, called The Rooms. He told me that story about the flamingo having shown up in Newfoundland somehow and that some random person shot it, and now the flamingo is in the museum. I went and looked at the flamingo. I saw it.
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But that just struck me as a very interesting detail about when things start going wonky with our environment. How does a pink flamingo from the Caribbean end up in Newfoundland?
So as fantastical as this series gets – and when you see the rest, you’ll see it gets pretty crazy – it all came from real Newfoundland history or folklore that’s been around there for a long time.
Jessica:
I’m really hoping by the end of the series the audience will have the experience that I think a lot of us had. I didn’t know Newfoundland before I picked up the script or started watching the series. By the end, you really feel like you know the place, you know people that are there, you know them very intimately, but also you, I think, are going to have a full, fun ride. Then you’ll get to your search engine and be like, “Wait, what? This, that and the other.”
Jesse:
You learn things that I had to learn. Newfoundland is in its own time zone. It’s an hour and a half ahead of where we are right now [in Toronto], four and a half hours ahead of LA. It’s the only place that has that.
It’s in its own world, basically. It was its own country before. Most people in Canada don’t know this, but it was its own country for a long time until it joined Canada and became the 10th province in 1949. So, it’s a very distinct place that has its own sort of self-sufficient vibe.
BELOW. (L to R) Josh Hartnett as Calvin and Willow Kean as Ruth in episode 102. © 2025 Netflix
How is it getting filming permits there?
Jessica:
Honestly, they were so supportive. They were so supportive of us being there. It’s a hard place to film, but not for the reasons that LA is hard, permits and other things. It’s hard because it actually takes rigor and the weather’s hard. I actually think they were extremely kind to us on that front. There were a lot of locals [on set], too.
Jesse:
...