What Really Inspired Netflix’s ‘Below’ and Its Newfoundland Sea Creature Story

The six episode series ‘Below’ takes viewers to a fishing community in Newfoundland, where a mysterious sea creature begins terrorizing the coastline. It streams globally on Netflix on October 8, after opening the Primetime lineup at the Toronto International Film Festival. The premise has pushed many viewers to ask whether it is drawn from real events.

The question of whether ‘Below’ is based on a true story has a more layered answer than a simple yes or no. The creator has been direct about where the idea came from, and he has also pointed to real history and folklore that shaped the world of the show. Here is what the available reporting says about the real events behind ‘Below’.

Is ‘Below’ Based on a True Story or an Original Idea

Speaking to The Canadian Press, creator Jesse McKeown said “It’s not based on anything else,” calling the series personal and something he pitched himself. That makes it an original story rather than an adaptation of a book, a comic or a documented incident.

‘Below’ is also McKeown’s first time as showrunner on a series he created, after recently serving as co showrunner on the fourth season of ‘The Umbrella Academy’. The ownership he describes helps explain why the show carries such a specific point of view.

McKeown describes the series as North Atlantic noir, and it explores current day issues such as communities losing their livelihoods, climate change and family displacement. The monster at the center of the story arrives on top of those concerns rather than replacing them.

The story follows Calvin Penney, a hardened fisherman who struggles to protect his family, and marine researcher Dr. Fonda Howander, who arrives to investigate the strange events. The creature may be invented, but the pressures on the town are meant to feel familiar.

Newfoundland Folklore and the Flamingo Detail

In an interview with What’s On Netflix, McKeown confirmed that the flamingo detail in the series is real. He said a neighbor of his wife, who works at The Rooms museum in St. John’s, told him about a flamingo that showed up in Newfoundland, was shot by a random person and is now on display. McKeown said he went to see it himself.

He said the detail struck him as a sign of when things start going wonky with the environment, since a Caribbean flamingo has no obvious reason to end up in Newfoundland. It is a small moment, but it shows how the writers anchored the unsettling elements in something that actually happened.

McKeown added that however fantastical the series becomes, it all came from real Newfoundland history or folklore that has been around for a long time. The creature is fictional, yet the strange details around it were collected from the place itself.

Producer Jessica Rhoades said she hopes viewers finish the series feeling they know the place and then head to a search engine to look things up. That reaction is likely behind the many searches asking whether the show is a true story.

Resettlement and Real Events Shaping the Setting

‘Below’ explores two real provincial government programs, Resettlement and Come Home Year. Both give the series its social backdrop and help explain why the town of Snook’s Arm feels so precarious.

Resettlement was government led from the 1950s to the 1970s and community initiated in this century, and residents receive financial support if they agree to relocate from isolated communities considered unsustainable. The idea is central to the emotional weight of the series.

The show opens with a family on a boat towing their house behind them, an image McKeown says is key for the many families directly affected by resettlement. The real Snook’s Arm was resettled in 2018 when its last 10 residents took the deal, while the version in the series has held on for six years after that. The fictional town is therefore built on a real place and a real decision.

Come Home Year is about bringing people back to the province, and the series is set during one, with Calvin’s children Mary and Jay visiting from the mainland. It adds a second real world thread to the story of a family deciding whether to stay or go.

Jesse McKeown, the Cast and the Handmade Approach

Josh Hartnett plays Calvin, Charlie Heaton plays his youngest son Wade, Willow Kean plays Calvin’s sister Ruth, Ruby Stokes plays Mary and Rohan Campbell plays Jay. Mackenzie Davis is also among the stars.

The series was shot on location in St. John’s, and comedian Mary Walsh plays the mayor. McKeown also said the team sank a real house rather than fake the moment, because they agreed that if they did not do it for real, it would not come through on screen.

McKeown and Rhoades told What’s On Netflix that they grew up loving handcrafted films such as ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Fog’, and that those movies shaped the tone of the series. The influence shows in how much the show leans on place, local voices and practical filmmaking.

McKeown compares Calvin to an iceberg, with a great deal going on below the surface, and says the true horror of the series is that many people like the Penney family are living in very precarious situations. If the real history of resettled communities like Snook’s Arm stayed with you longer than the sea creature did, the comments are a fitting place to say why.