The foggy, cold, and hardscrabble community of Snook’s Arm, Newfoundland, serves as the ultimate backdrop for ocean-borne horror in Netflix’s gripping series Below. This distinct sense of place sets the production apart, though the characters who inhabit it are equally fascinating. Anchored by Josh Hartnett’s grounded and weary performance as Calvin, the show boasts atmosphere for days alongside a creepy, compelling story that effortlessly balances chilling scares with deep emotional beats.
For audiences who devoured the series like a voracious sea creature and are now craving more slow-burn, deeply human horror—having already exhausted similar streaming recommendations—the logical next step is to explore feature-length terror. Several classic and contemporary films capture that exact same mood of isolation, marine dread, and community-driven peril.
Jaws Created the Template for Horror Stories Set in Remote Seaside Communities
When it comes to kindred spirit stories dealing with threats from the deep, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece Jaws remains the undeniable blueprint. The seaside setting is immediate, featuring a pre-glam Martha’s Vineyard standing in for fictional Amity Island, complete with picturesque beaches and crashing waves to spare. The tight-knit community under threat feels intensely real, and its citizens harbor economic concerns and personal grudges just as legitimate as Calvin’s struggles in Below. Furthermore, the film delivers legendary shocks and frights, forever transforming the commercial landscape of blockbuster cinema while offering a masterful depiction of a relentless natural force terrorizing a vulnerable town.
The core narrative also mirrors Below’s thematic framework. When a young woman is killed by a shark during a late-night swim, Amity Island Police Chief Martin Brody attempts to close the local beaches to protect the public. However, the town’s mayor refuses, arguing that Amity depends entirely on its summer tourist trade for economic survival. Following a subsequent tragedy, Brody teams up with seasoned shark hunter Quint and oceanographer Hooper to track the beast, quickly realizing they are dangerously out of their depth against a relentlessly singular predator. Both stories explore the tense friction between economic necessity and human safety in a changing world, driven by a small group of individuals forced to fight an overwhelming natural terror.
Like nearly every horror film or television project produced in the decades since its release, Below owes a profound debt to Jaws in terms of storytelling technique and pacing. From the isolated, ocean-centric setting and the lingering mystery of the monster to the deliberate strategy of showing only fleeting glimpses of the central threat, viewers who enjoyed the Netflix series will find much to love in the classic film that influenced it. Jaws is currently available to stream on Netflix and to rent on Prime Video.
More Movies Like Below
For viewers who have already revisited Jaws and are still searching for terrifying cinematic experiences in the same vein as Below, a selection of atmospheric thrillers offers similar chills, remote settings, and deep human stakes.
The Bay (2012)
Directed by Barry Levinson, The Bay approaches its scares through a different lens by utilizing a found-footage documentary style. Despite the stylistic shift, it shares the same remote, water-centric setting, a sharp focus on a vulnerable small community, and a narrative rooted in the terrifying idea of a fundamental resource—water—becoming polluted and corrupted. Set in the coastal town of Claridge, Maryland, the film unfolds as citizens fall violently ill and perish in massive numbers, triggering immediate panic. As investigators race frantically to isolate the source of the biological contagion, the situation devolves into visceral carnage. Much like Below, the ultimate threat in The Bay stems directly from humanity’s reckless disregard for the natural environment upon which survival depends, placing local residents firmly at the center of a desperate fight for existence. The Bay is available to stream on Tubi and to rent on Prime Video.
The Host (2006)
One of the most resonant elements of Below is its grounding in authentic human relationships, where family tensions feel earned and messy, reflecting the chaotic realities of an community facing existential crisis. Bong Joon-ho’s acclaimed monster movie The Host similarly examines a fractured family struggling against a grotesque, waterborne creature. When a mutant monster suddenly emerges from Seoul’s Han River and attacks a gathering crowd, vendor Park Gang-du watches helplessly as his young daughter is snatched away. After receiving a desperate phone call revealing that she is still alive but imprisoned within the creature’s subterranean lair in the sewers, Gang-du and his family break quarantine, arm themselves, and embark on a perilous rescue mission against impossible odds and corrupt government oversight. The Host can be streamed on Kanopy and rented on Prime Video.
Dagon (2001)
Loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s classic short story The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Dagon follows a group of friends on a yacht off the coast of Spain. When a sudden storm wrecks their vessel and severely injures one of them, a couple named Paul and Barbara journey on foot to a nearby coastal village to summon help. Instead of a welcoming haven, they discover a decaying, insular community paying a terrifying toll for having worshiped a malevolent sea demon named Dagon in exchange for historical wealth and safety. Over generations, the pact demanded a horrific price, slowly transforming the villagers into mutated, amphibious abominations. Like Below, the film examines the grim compromises communities make in the name of survival and the hidden costs borne by individuals. Dagon is available to stream on The Roku Channel and Tubi, and to rent on Prime Video.
The Fog (1980)
For viewers captivated by Below’s foggy, liminal aesthetic and the creeping dread of unseen horrors lurking just out of sight beneath the waves or behind the mist, John Carpenter’s supernatural classic is essential viewing. As the small coastal town of Antonio Bay prepares to celebrate its centennial anniversary, a strange, unnatural fog rolls in from the sea, blanketing the streets and concealing vengeful spirits. As the body count mounts, the dark truth behind the town’s founding and its initial prosperity comes to light, revealing that the descendants are finally being forced to pay the long-deferred price for the bloody crimes committed by their ancestors. The Fog can be streamed on Kanopy and Plex, or rented on Prime Video.
Offseason (2021)
For those who find the eerie isolation of off-season coastal towns uniquely unsettling, Offseason delivers a nightmarish exploration of that very theme. After receiving news that her estranged mother has passed away and been buried in Lone Palm—an isolated beach town against her explicit wishes—Marie travels to the community just as tourist season ends and the bridge to the mainland closes for the year. This timing casts the town in a surreal, liminal atmosphere familiar to anyone who has visited a seasonal resort during its dormant months. As a heavy storm approaches, Marie and her boyfriend realize the remaining townsfolk are behaving with unsettling hostility, rapidly devolving into a maelstrom of psychological and supernatural terror that will deeply resonate with fans of Below. Offseason is currently available to stream on Hoopla and to rent on Prime Video.
