Original-Cin Chat: How 'Below' Boss Jesse McKeown Found His Horror Heart in Newfoundland

By John Kirk

Writer-producer Jesse McKeown’s immersion in Newfoundland culture is the secret to crafting the richly-layered horror series, Below. It’s a sleeper hit on Netflix, and I’m told our review has been the most-read on this all-Canadian site all month.

As a horror fan, I love that Jesse found his story there. I used to live on the East Coast and there is something about the mix of culture and superstition that you can only find blowing in off the cold North Atlantic.

Josh Hartnett and Jesse McKeown onset

But Newfoundland is a realm unto itself. There are layers to its culture, and McKeown found a universality in its notion of homegrown, sea-borne horror. It was these layers that caught my eye.

I am a massive fan of the horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft (we share the same birthday). His coastal township focus, his love of lore and superstition and occurrence of cult-like behaviour are a hallmark of his stories. We see that in Below.

McKeown has referenced John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg as influences. We began by talking about that.

“There’re obviously the movies that I grew up on like Jaws and (the films of) John Carpenter. I remember seeing Prince of Darkness at a sleep-over when I was a little kid and it scared the living shit out of me. The images were so terrifying. It was that mix of different ideas – science and religion, going to another dimension and it was so rich that the name John Carpenter always stuck with me as an artist.”

Carpenter’s films also have a distinct legacy to Lovecraftian horror.  Just look at In the Mouth of Madness, after all. But Below isn’t all just lore and mystery. There’s also the actual monster side to the story. He mentioned those influences too.

Charlie Heaton sees a monster.

“I went back to movies I had encountered, like the classic low-budget ‘50s films. They were considered B-movies, but they really had to use their imaginations with the limitations that they had to make an effective horror movie.”

Other than Carpenter and Spielberg, there were other directors who made McKoewn’s pantheon of movie Gods.

“I think Jacques Tourneur is the one who stands out to me the most, with I walked with a Zombie or Cat People It’s all about what you don’t see, right? I feel like that sense of dread, that he was ableto conjure, out of very few ingredients, made a big impression on me. I knew that this is was only going to be six episodes, so we would have to use some of those techniques and really be careful how we pace this and dole out information.”

There were other inspirations as well.

“I would also say that my guy, Larry Cohen; those types of independent, exploitation horror movies, B-movies like Q the Winged Serpent is one of my favourite movies of all time. It’s better than it should be, you know? Ridiculous, but really well-written, the characters are great and they have a tone unto themselves! I’m inspired by film-makers like that.”

For Jesse, the monsters took on a level of character importance. Perhaps that’s what allows us to see ‘Mudder’ as an understandable personality in her own right. We asked about the monster as a character.

“On a very basic level, thinking about monsters, the shark in Jaws, King Kong – I said to everybody, whatever this creature is – ‘Mudder’, for lack of a better name, we are trying to swim with the best. We want to swim with the big boys here and she has to be up there with the best, like Jaws and King Kong, you know?

That was the bar that we set for ourselves. The Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange version of King Kong was the one I grew up with and the ending of that movie is so emotional. You hear the beating of the heart and it stops? That had a real effect on me.”

Our conversation inevitably took us to the actors who helped bring this horror to life. We asked what qualities did they possess to help communicate the horror story Jesse had envisioned.

“Josh (Hartnett) brought so much that I couldn’t imagine. I was always a big fan. But I learned more about him: he grew up in Minnesota, very salt of the earth, and that he was a father of four and lived on a farm. He’s a dad now and I thought that was an interesting feature. But above all, he’s just a phenomenal actor and I knew he could play a character like Calvin.”

And we asked about Mackenzie Davis.

“Mackenzie was just like a dream. I was a fan for a long time. It’s not explicitly said in the show but her character is supposed to be from B.C., not from Newfoundland. That’s why she’s kind of walled off in her laboratory from other people. But Mackenzie is from BC and I knew she could play this character. I think of people who went to UBC, studied forestry, listened to (singer-songwriter) Ben Harper - that type of scientist. She brought so much of that and brings things to life in wonderful and surprising ways. It was so much fun to see her work with everyone.”

Finally, we had to talk about Charlie Heaton, another veteran of a smash Netflix Horror series, Stranger Things.

“Well, everybody knows he’s a really good actor. After talking, even though he’d never been to Newfoundland, I knew he could play Wade. He grew up in a working-class British town, and I think every culture has a character like Wade. He got it right away and I just love the physicality and energy he brought to the part. He’s a fun guy to be around but he really understood the pathos and sense of loneliness and aimlessness. It was sweet and heartbreaking.”

There are levels to this show; layers of horror, to be sure that range from the supernatural to the monstrous ‘creature feature’ and then finally to one of science and survival. It shone the attention on a rich Canadian culture. It highlighted Canadian film-making and storytelling and it was a successful and rich horror story. We asked Jesse if he could have anticipated its success?

“It’s so bizarre. On one level, yes. It’s like you set out to make the best thing possible and that everyone’s going to watch this, and you think that it’s going to blow everyone’s minds.

“Then, there’s when you think no one is ever going to see this. That’s the way that it usually goes. I kind of hold both possibilities in my head. But I was just encouraged in the making of it. The actors, the crew, everyone who was involved gave me such positive feedback that kept me going. The making of it was so much fun and there was such a magical quality in the making of this that it felt like we were really on to something.”

You look at all the elements in this series: the small, fishing village, the depressed population hoping for a miracle, the lore and superstition that permeates small communities. That’s the base of this story. Then it gravitates towards the sense of unknown terror that lies within the deep waters – a monster, to be sure. Finally, the science over-rides the superstition, giving way to understanding and we see what the monster really is.

We asked Jesse what his favourite moment was:

“It’s the underdog moments. Not the expected ones. Like the two guys staying with the old lady, watching Coronation Street together. It’s the unexpected, quiet moments like when Josh has that quiet time, staring at Mudder, not saying anything. They just look back and forth at each other. I loved that.”

While he had other favourites, I think this is the one that underscores the essence of the series. Newfoundland has always been an underdog community. It persists and survives, even surrounded by the ocean around it, with monstrous strength the people continue their way of life.

Most importantly, they continue their stories.

Below is streaming on Netflix.