‘Hysteria!’ Makes an ideal Halloween binge

IIn the 1980s, with Reagan in power and the liberation movements of the last two decades waning, serious society lost its collective spirit. Rumors of satanic cults spreading across the country were amplified by television news personalities such as Geraldo Rivera and were deemed a serious threat by the FBI. Daycare operators have been embroiled in absurd, widely publicized lawsuits accusing them of ritual child abuse. Such harmless forms of youthful rebellion as heavy metal fandom or Dungeons & Dragons could result in a child being branded a cultist – if not a murderer. This year-long wave of mass hysteria became known as the Satanic Panic. The witch hunt had no basis in real occult violence. And yet, as Hugh Downs noted in one silly year in 1985 20/20 Segment titled “The Devil Worshippers”: “There is no doubt that something is going on out there.”

What exactly that something It turns out that this is the central concern of Hysteria!an entertaining, insightful and occasionally scary coming-of-age horror series premiering October 18 on Peacock. Set in the late ’80s in a small Michigan town called Happy Hollow – where, as one character puts it, “it’s either one or the other” – the story begins with a masked assailant bursting into a bedroom where There are two teenagers shortly before the connection. As the quiet neighborhood slumbers, Faith (Nikki Hahn) and Ryan (Brandon Butler) fight for their lives like horny kids there Halloween. While both disappear that night, only Ryan, a star quarterback, receives the breathless attention of the local news media. Rumor has it that Satanists are to blame.

Several rungs down Happy Hollow’s social ladder, three of the couple’s outcast peers struggle to gain an audience for their metal band Dethkrunch. Frontwoman Jordy (Chiara Aurelia, a standout character) hides her loyalty and level-headedness behind a gothic exterior. Spud (Kezii Curtis), the drummer, is the kind of chatty amateur cultural critic you find in meta-horror films Scream. Guitarist and bandleader Dylan (Emjay Anthony), the closest thing this ensemble show has to a protagonist, is particularly desperate for attention. For him, the excitement surrounding Ryan’s disappearance leads to a realization: “His being missing for a day has attracted more attention than me being present my whole life.” To capitalize on all the satanic chatter – and although his own knowledge of the occult on the song “Mr. Crowley” – Dylan begins promoting Dethkrunch as a real cult. Before he can reconsider this extremely bad idea, Judith (Jessica Treska), the Heather-like, popular girl he’s had a crush on for years accepts the dark rebranding and sets out to recruit new members.

Thanks to her incredibly persuasive influence, Dethkrunch is suddenly hanging out with athletes who would have otherwise made her a scapegoat, turning their basement performances into campy spectacles. Dylan carves a pentagram into his hand to impress Judith. (It works.) But you don’t pretend to run a satanic cult in a town whose favorite son goes missing under sinister circumstances without making enemies. As news of the teens’ exploits spreads, the city’s police force (led by… evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell) and official clergy resist the panic. But Tracy Whitehead (Anna Camp), Happy Hollow’s resident Jesus freak, plays a character reminiscent of her unhinged performance as… True blood Holy Roller Sarah Newlin) has finally scared the attention of parents with her diatribes about Satan corrupting the youth. Meanwhile, Dylan’s mother Linda (Modern family Matriarch Julie Bowen, like you’ve never seen her before), is repeatedly ripped from reality in increasingly disturbing episodes. Is she overwhelmed by the stress of her beloved son’s frightening new reputation, or is something truly sinister happening?

Although it’s rare these days to see a skillful combination of teenage and adult characters on television, Hysteria! finds the right balance. In addition to a show designed to entertain the widest Halloween-loving audience, creator Matthew Scott Kane (stapler) approach, reinforced by the efficient use of a large cast and multiple storylines that rarely mix, results in a portrait of a community that is surprisingly nuanced for the horror genre. There are generational conflicts, former friends with unfinished business, a cast of characters who feel misunderstood or overlooked by the people around them. The series begins with a layer of referential humor that draws on teen slasher movie tropes, satanic panic stories, and familiar faces like Campbell, Camp, and Milly Shapiro, the annoying girl from… Hereditary. But it’s the sensitive, character-driven drama they’re based on that makes the comedy and horror thrive.

About that horror: The retro aesthetic prevents the gory bits from being as inventive as they otherwise could have been. And once the real villains emerge, their backstory and motivations can seem a little unsatisfying. Kane’s reading of satanic panic is more effective as a motivation for scary actions. If, in Downs’ words, there really was “something going on out there” in Middle America, it was the contagion of misplaced fear – the same terror of youth and change and, above all, of otherness that QAnon has ignited the contemporary panic on Marjorie Taylor Green, who tweeted that “they can control the weather.” (Who are “they”?) “Frightened people do scary things,” Campbell’s chief Dandridge advises Dylan as his neighbors reach for their pitchforks. They definitely do.