10 TV Shows Like Below You Should Watch Next.
If horror movies have taught me anything, it’s that nothing good ever comes out of the fog, but the fog-filled thriller Down Under has certainly earned record ratings and a rapturous audience on Netflix—in fact, it’s the best Canadian series debut in the streaming service’s history. Following on from it, check out these 10 other series that will transport you to secluded and eerie landscapes brimming with horrors, both human and monstrous.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Claustrophobic, mysterious, and perpetually shrouded in fog (seriously, you can’t see a thing in these towns), Midnight Mass is largely about how the monsters within are just as terrifying as the ones without. It may not be Mike Flanagan’s best work on Netflix, but it’s certainly his most emotionally devastating. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to the tiny, isolated community of Crockett Island, his arrival coinciding with that of Catholic priest Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater). Riley struggles with his justifiable guilt over the drunk-driving death he’s responsible for, while the charismatic priest reignites the town’s once-dim religious fervor while simultaneously escalating local tensions. The brewing conflict, tangling the boundaries of faith and guilt, is captivating, and the inherently horrific elements are terrifying.Watch Midnight Mass on Netflix .
Katla (2021)
The often-emotionally charged, dark series “Katla” unfolds slowly, gradually building momentum as it approaches an emotional climax. Set in Iceland, a year after the eruption of the real-life Katla volcano, it blankets the nearby town of Vik in suffocating ash. The few remaining residents are, to say the least, surprised when soot-covered figures from the past begin arriving, including the deceased son of a volcanologist studying a meteorite in a nearby glacier.Watch “Katla” on Netflix.
Terror (2018 – )
Each season of The Terror is unique, but they all share the idea that real life is far, far more terrifying than the supernatural events unfolding in the background. The first season, based on Dan Simmons’ novel, is our subject. It tells the true story of two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, searching for the Northwest Passage before becoming stranded in an ice field. Famine, madness, and monsters await them. Set in the 1840s (and on an ice field), the atmosphere isn’t much different from Down Under . Watch The Terror on AMC+ and Shudder .
Day Three (2020)
In this strange, ambitious take on folk horror, Jude Law’s Sam arrives on the island of Osea mourning his murdered son and trying to save his failing business. After he intervenes when he sees a young woman attempting to hang herself, Sam finds himself drawn into the town’s incredibly eerie atmosphere. Later, Naomie Harris’s Helen arrives on the island with her daughters to find everything in ruins, and the causeway connecting the island to the mainland gone. Between the two parts of the miniseries, the creators released a gripping 12-hour single-camera broadcast capturing a single day in the life of the island—a bold innovation. Admittedly, it feels more like atmosphere than plot, but the atmosphere is truly unsettling. Watch The Third Day on HBO Max .
True Detective: Night Country (2024)
One of the best series in recent years, this terrifying series explores terrifying events in an isolated location, departing from the lighthearted “bro-girl” atmosphere of previous seasons in favor of a darker (literally) and more icy mystery involving missing scientists at a research station near a tiny and inevitably remote Alaskan town, where the darkness and cold are practically characters in themselves. The investigation brings together seasoned police chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Private Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reyes), two women with complicated pasts and tangled family lives in the present. Watch True Detective: Night Country on HBO Max .
The Creature from Gyeongseong (2023–)
The series is set in 1945 in Gyeongseong (present-day Seoul) during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The titular monster is the result of secret human experiments conducted by the Japanese army. The aftermath of the occupation has become fertile ground for storytelling in recent years (see also Apple’s Pachinko ), and Gyeongseong adds elements of science fiction to the mix. The second season moves the action to the present day, and a third season renewal seems likely. If the monster from “Below ” is the series’ main draw, then South Korea’s Gyeongseong Creature is perhaps the best sequel you can find.Watch “Gyeongseong Creature” on Netflix.
Kuron (2020)
The series is set near the real-life Lake Resia in northern Italy. It was inspired by the lake’s unique appearance: the bell tower of a 14th-century chapel rises above the water, the only visible remains of a village dammed in the 1950s. This eerie place is home to Anna Raina (Valeria Bilello); at least, it was until she fled, pregnant with her twin daughters, after the tragic and mysterious death of her mother. The twins are now teenagers, and all three have returned—except no one seems to want them. They discover that Anna has been having dreams about her mother’s death, in which she herself was the killer and then disappeared. It all ties together with the lake and the eerie bell tower—more about a family secret and a vague supernatural threat than about monsters, but this evocative setting links the series to Down Under .Watch Curon on Netflix.
Widow’s Bay (2026 – )
Another recent addition to the atlas of unfortunate vacation spots is Widow’s Bay, an isolated New England island trying to shed its literally cursed reputation and become a Martha’s Vineyard-like tourist destination—but, alas, the timing is unfortunate. Cozy and idyllic at first glance, Widow’s Bay, according to some more observant locals, is “waking up.” Mayor Tom Loftus (Matthew Rhys), a relative newcomer, isn’t going to stand for it—at least until a killer clown and a soaking wet woman come for him, convincing him to join forces with local eccentric Wick (Stephen Root), whose delusional theories seem to have some merit. The series is often funny, but also genuinely scary, using everything in the horror genre. Watch Widow’s Bay on Apple TV.
Drilling rig (2023–2025)
As we all know in the real world, monsters can be both tiny and enormous. In this film, we find ourselves on a Scottish oil rig (of course) in the North Sea, suddenly cut off by a mysterious fog (which never bodes well) just as the facility begins to experience catastrophic systemic and structural failures. However, the mysterious fog is more than just a weather phenomenon, as it appears to contain a microorganism causing drastic behavioral changes, which may be linked to all the mass extinctions in Earth’s history. But hey, whatever keeps the price of oil down, right? Watch “The Rig” on Prime Video.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023 – )
The tone of the series is quite different, but many of the shows featured here are included for their claustrophobic, fog-shrouded settings and equally vague human motivations, so it’s only fair to introduce you to actual monsters, and no series features more creatures than this Godzilla spinoff. Monarch surprisingly effectively tells its own story within the universe of all those American Godzilla films of the past decade, bringing the narrative back down to earth while simultaneously establishing an entire mythology of the monster universe. Anna Saway plays a young teacher searching for her father, missing since Godzilla’s attack on San Francisco (shown in the 2014 film), and becomes embroiled in the past and present of a secret government agency. Wyatt and Kurt Russell play the past and present incarnations of the Army colonel who helped set the whole thing in motion. Kong and Godzilla appear alongside the entire Toho monster stable. Watch Monarch on Apple TV .