Movies & Series Like Below (Netflix): 15 Sea-Monster and Small-Town Horror Picks

Netflix’s Below has everything a good creature story needs: a fishing town on the Newfoundland coast, a stubborn fisherman haunted by his father’s death, and something moving in the water that the locals would rather not talk about. Josh Hartnett carries all six episodes, and the series is loosely based on a local legend. By the finale, you may well be left wanting more.

We’ve gathered ten films and five series that capture a similar mood, from old classics like Jaws and The Fog to quieter recent picks, including two found footage favorites from our own site. Use the selector below to filter by the feeling you’re chasing, whether that’s the sea, the town or the old stories.

Movies like Below

1. Jaws (1975)

A police chief on the island of Amity finds that a great white shark is hunting off the beaches. The mayor does not want to hear about it, because the summer season is coming and the tourists are coming with it.

Why it’s similar to Below: The model for every small-town monster story that came after it. Like Below, it is about a community that depends on the water for its living and then has to face what lives in it, with a few stubborn men standing between the town and the sea.

What sets it apart: Spielberg keeps the shark off screen for much of the film, and that is what makes it work. It is also much more of a thriller than a horror film, and the last act on the boat is a different movie from the first. Everyone should see it once.

Watch it here:

2. The Fog (1980)

On the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Antonio Bay, a glowing fog rolls in from the sea. Inside it are the ghosts of sailors who were wrecked on the rocks, and they have come back for revenge.

Why it’s similar to Below: This is the film early reviewers keep comparing Below to. A coastal town with something buried in its past, an old wrong that the water remembers, and a tone closer to a ghost story told around a fire than to a modern horror film.

What sets it apart: John Carpenter works with atmosphere and a synth score, not with gore. It is slow by today’s standards. There is also a 2005 remake, and I would skip it.

Watch it here:

3. Sea Fever (2020)

A marine biology student joins an Irish fishing trawler for a research trip. When the boat is stopped by something huge in the water, the crew realizes that the real danger might be on board with them.

Why it’s similar to Below: The closest to Below in the setting: working fishermen, a small crew that knows each other too well, and something that comes up from the deep. It also has the same thing that makes the show interesting, a community under pressure that has to decide who to trust.

What sets it apart: Neasa Hardiman’s film is more of a quiet science-horror film than a monster movie. The creature stays mostly out of sight and the tension is about infection and isolation. It is short, tight and underseen.

Watch it here:

4. The Host (2006)

A mutant creature rises from the Han River in Seoul and carries off a young girl. Her chaotic family refuses to wait for the authorities and goes after it themselves.

Why it’s similar to Below: A monster that comes out of the water, a community that nobody is protecting, and ordinary people who have to deal with it themselves. The creature is also the result of something humans did, which gives it a weight beyond the monster-movie plot.

What sets it apart: Bong Joon-ho mixes comedy, family drama and horror in a way that should not work, and does. It is louder and funnier than Below, and one of the best creature features of the century.

Watch it here:

5. The Last House (2026)

A family has been living sealed inside their home for years, protected from the creatures that hunt outside. Over time they begin to ask what those creatures are and where they came from.

Why it’s similar to Below: Something from the deep, a family cut off from the world, and a long wait to find out what the threat really is. Like Below, it uses its monsters to talk about something older and sadder, and it builds slowly toward the answer. We have a full review and a breakdown if you want to go deeper.

What sets it apart: The Last House is more of a survival story, with the whole film set around one location, while Below is about a whole town. Read our The Last House review or the explained article after watching.

Watch it here:

6. The Wailing (2016)

A mysterious sickness spreads through a quiet Korean village, and the locals start blaming a stranger who lives in the mountains. The local policeman is drawn in when his own daughter falls ill.

Why it’s similar to Below: A small community, a threat nobody can fully explain, and the question of who to believe. Below shares the same sense that the old stories of a place might be true, and the same fear of what that means for the people who live there.

What sets it apart: Na Hong-jin’s film is long, strange and constantly shifts between comedy, police procedural and horror. It does not give you easy answers. If you liked how Below holds back, you will be rewarded here, if you stay with it.

Watch it here:

7. The Ritual (2017)

Four friends go hiking in Sweden to honor a friend who died. When they take a shortcut through an old forest, they find signs that something ancient lives there.

Why it’s similar to Below: Grief, guilt and an old creature that belongs to the place. Calvin in Below is carrying the death of his father; the men in The Ritual are carrying a death of their own, and the landscape seems to know it.

What sets it apart: David Bruckner, who also directed a segment of the original V/H/S, builds a bleak and beautiful forest and keeps the creature design for the end. The last act is where it divides people. On Netflix.

Watch it here:

8. The Lighthouse (2019)

Two lighthouse keepers, one old and one new, are stranded on a remote rock off the New England coast in the 1890s. Storms, drink and secrets slowly push them toward madness.

Why it’s similar to Below: The sea as a character, sailors’ superstitions and mermaid and sea-god folklore all mixed together. If the old stories of the sea are what draw you to Below, this is the most extreme version of them.

What sets it apart: Robert Eggers shot it in black and white in a squarish frame, with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe at full tilt. It is more art-house than monster movie, and you either fall for it or you do not.

Watch it here:

9. The Bay (2012)

On the Fourth of July, a small Maryland town on the Chesapeake Bay starts to fall apart as a parasite from the water infects its residents. The story is pieced together from cameras, phones and news footage.

Why it’s similar to Below: A coastal town and something in the water that the authorities do not take seriously until it is too late. It shares the feeling of Below that the sea around a town can hide something that the town has been ignoring.

What sets it apart: Barry Levinson’s film is found footage with an environmental message, and it is more believable than most. It is one of our favorites in the genre, so read our The Bay review for more.

Watch it here:

10. Troll Hunter (2010)

A group of Norwegian film students follows a mysterious hunter into the woods, thinking they are making a documentary about a poacher. He turns out to be a government employee whose job is to keep trolls hidden from the public.

Why it’s similar to Below: Local legend turns out to be true, and the people who live near it have known for years. It has the campfire-tale feeling of Below, and a creature that is part of the landscape.

What sets it apart: André Øvredal’s film is funnier and lighter than the others on this list, and it has a real sense of wonder in the creature scenes. It is also one of the best found footage films ever made, and we have a full Troll Hunter review.

Watch it here:

Series like Below

11. From (2022)

A family driving across America ends up in a town that they cannot leave. Every road leads back, and at night, monsters come out of the woods to hunt the residents.

Why it’s similar to Below: The best match for Below in series form: a whole community that has built a way of life around surviving something it does not understand, and a mystery that deepens with every season.

What sets it apart: From is bigger and more sprawling than Below, with several seasons and a large cast. It can be frustrating when answers come slowly, but it builds dread very well.

Watch it here:

12. Midnight Mass (2021)

A man returns to his remote island home after prison, just as a charismatic new priest arrives. Miracles start to happen, and the small community begins to change.

Why it’s similar to Below: A tiny, close-knit island community, old faith and old secrets, and a threat that turns out to be much closer than anyone thinks. Like Below, it is a slow-burn story about grief and guilt.

What sets it apart: Mike Flanagan’s series is more about faith, guilt and addiction than about scares. It is a Netflix miniseries of seven episodes, and it is moving as well as unsettling.

Watch it here:

13. The Terror (2018)

Two Royal Navy ships are trapped in the Arctic ice during the 1840s Franklin expedition. As supplies run low, something is stalking the crews from the ice.

Why it’s similar to Below: Men at the mercy of the sea, a creature tied to the landscape and old stories, and a threat that is as much about human behavior as about the monster.

What sets it apart: The first season is based on Dan Simmons’ novel, and it is bleak, slow and beautifully made. It has no small-town warmth at all, and the cold is part of the horror.

Watch it here:

14. The Rig (2023)

The crew of a North Sea oil rig is cut off from the mainland when a thick fog surrounds the platform. Something that has been waiting under the water starts to come up.

Why it’s similar to Below: Working people at sea, an isolated community with its own tensions, and a force from the deep that has been disturbed by human industry. It is the closest series to Below in setting.

What sets it apart: The Rig is more of a straight thriller, and it leans on ecological themes. It is a six-episode series, so it is quick to watch.

Watch it here:

15. Siren (2018)

In the harbor town of Bristol Cove, a mysterious young woman arrives from the sea, and a local marine biologist starts to uncover what the town has been hiding about its past.

Why it’s similar to Below: A fishing town with a long history and a creature from the water that the locals have known about for generations. It is the lighter, more teen-friendly side of the same idea.

What sets it apart: Siren was made for a younger audience, and it is more romance and soap than horror. It still mixes mystery and mythology well, and it is an easy watch after something as heavy as Below.

Watch it here:

Where to Start

If you want the closest match to Below, start with Sea Fever for the fishing-boat setting or From for the community under threat. If you want the classics that inspired it, watch Jaws and The Fog back to back. And if you want something that feels like a campfire story, try Troll Hunter or The Bay, both of which are found footage and both of which we love.