Netflix's New Stephen King-Like Thriller Series Gets Official Audience Verdict

Published Oct 10, 2026, 6:47 PM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Netflix has a new thriller series that feels like Stephen King's work, and it just got an official audience verdict.

Netflix's roster of thriller shows makes up many of the streaming service's hits. This comes in the form of Netflix Original series like You, I Will Find You, The Night Agent, and many more. Foreign Netflix series like Squid Game, Money Heist, and so on also help make this corner of the streamer's library of TV shows well-rounded. Netflix's slate of TV shows has played with the mix of thriller and horror a few times, creating projects like The Boroughs, which also threw in sci-fi, and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. Now, another such show is judged by Netflix subscribers.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix's new thriller series, Below, has debuted to a decent 60% audience score. All six episodes of the Netflix limited series were released on the streaming service at the same time on October 8, with the show quickly rising to become Netflix's most-watched series worldwide and in the United States, according to data from FlixPatrol. As such, the fact that Below's Rotten Tomatoes audience score is just fine, while the new Netflix horror thriller series is taking over the streaming service's charts all over the world is curious. That said, Below does fare better with critics.

Netflix

At the time of writing, Netflix's Below stands at a high 82% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews, which is enough to grant the show the Certified Fresh label. This positive score from critics, plus the fact that Below is the latest major release when it comes to Netflix's shows, are likely behind its debut as a global hit. That said, Below's audience score could soon rise with the tide to match its critics' score. After all, the new Netflix thriller series has only been out for a few days, and its 60% audience score comes from just 50+ ratings.

As more reviews from Netflix subscribers get added, Below's audience score should fluctuate over the next week. Below stars Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a fisherman who had a harrowing encounter with a sea monster when he was a kid and must now take the lead when a mysterious iceberg comes to the gloomy town Snook's Arm, bringing with it plenty of trauma and danger. Below also stars Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton as Wade Penney, Calvin's son, and Black Mirror's Mackenzie Davis as Dr. Fonda Howander.

Netflix's new thriller series was released just a day after a former horror show creator for the streamer, Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House/The Haunting of Bly Manor), debuted Prime Video's Carrie series, an adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel. While Netflix's Below is not based on King's work, it has drawn some comparisons to the author's hit novels. That comes from its focus on an eerie small town and a protagonist who must confront his past trauma when that traumatic event appears to be repeating itself on a bigger scale. Below has earned positive scores so far.