Hysteria! mines the Satanic panic for a devil of a good time

Picture a small, beautiful American town with well-tended lawns, white-picket fences, a water tower, and all the rest of it. Of course, it’s also filled with friendly faces helping each other out in a crisis—that is, until a potential demonic infestation takes over, threatening to plunge everyone into a pit of hell and turning neighbors into foes. In Hysteria!, the residents of the quaint Happy Hollow suffer this fate. And after multiple violent events, they get swept up in the Satanic panic plaguing other slices of the country in 1987.    

Peacock’s adequately creepy series is mostly a delight, tapping into the period with its Bush/Quayle signs, musical cues (beginning with Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”), and outfits (fishnets, shoulder pads, knit sweaters). Its attempt to balance genres—supernatural suspense, psychological thriller, whodunit, YA—has highs and lows, but Hysteria! basically hits the spot (and arrives just in time for Halloween, no less).

The excellent premiere opens as a slasher. Two high schoolers on the verge of hooking up are brutally abducted by masked men, with the boy ending up dead and the girl returning home with no recollection of what happened during the days she was missing. Mass panic ensues when a pentagram sigil starts popping up in places, with rumors of other ritualistic activities bubbling up around town. And things only get worse when one well-meaning but idiotic adolescent decides to take advantage of the chaos. 

An otherwise quiet kid, Dylan Campbell (Emjay Anthony) convinces his two best friends to rebrand their heavy-metal band as a Satanic cult to attract more fans. Jordy (Chiara Aurelia) and Spud (Kezii Curtiis) aren’t convinced right away, but they go along with the plan and subsequent goth makeover when even the popular kids become enamored with the outcast trio. Slowly but surely, the three misfits hold power at school, with Dylan dating the hot cheerleader and peers crowding their basement shows for original songs like “666,” chants of “Hail Satan,” bloody pranks, and demands for sacrifices.  

But this gimmick brings scrutiny from the adults worried about the band’s negative influence on their children. Gossip quickly spreads that Dylan, Jordy, and Spud are evil when, in reality, they’re distressed students who fabricated a story that has spiraled out of their control. Through this turmoil, Hysteria! vividly depicts how a Satanic panic situation can—and did—form as vulnerable, fearful minds hear and see what they want to, refusing to open their eyes to the truth and casting out those who disagree with them. All it takes is a spark to light such a fire, and this one comes from overzealous religious fundamentalist Tracy Whitehead (Anna Camp). 

If Tracy had a say in the matter, no one would have premarital sex in Happy Hollow, especially not her daughter, Faith (Nikki Hahn), the kidnapped girl mentioned above. Hysteria!’s examination of their complicated dynamic is its strength. The writers deserve props for how Faith processes her trauma and proves teens in horror projects can be wise. Meanwhile, Camp’s performance is unlike anything she’s done before. She’s effectively grating like the character demands, sincerely delivering lines about Thundercats promoting bestiality. Tracy is usually unbearable, but Hysteria! gives her a basic backstory so she isn’t one-note. Sporting the widest fake grin, Camp is effectively the villain in a TV show with supposed winged creatures, hauntings, and possessions. 

Julie Bowen also chews up the scenery as Dylan’s protective mom Linda, who goes through a rollercoaster of emotions, wondering if her son is a harbinger of doom and where she went wrong as a parent. As Linda becomes irrationally anxious, Bowen gives a jarring, vulnerable performance. It’s also nice to see The Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell as a concerned police chief, forever sporting a creased forehead and doling out snarky remarks while dealing with the town’s histrionics. But it’s too bad Garret Dillahunt is stuck as an egregiously stereotypical reverend, with Hysteria! using none of the actor’s range. 

The show also disappointingly paints its three teen protagonists with broad strokes. There isn’t much to glean from them, except for Dylan’s obvious motivations to be “seen” and desired by the queen bee he’s crushed on for years, Judith (Jessica Treska, visibly enjoying playing a psycho whose true love is the devil himself). 

While the early episodes instill intrigue and build up the scares, Hysteria! loses steam as it progresses, succumbing to a generic narrative to explain its many mysteries (some of which don’t wrap up so satisfactorily). Still, don’t let that knock that stop you from wolfing down this fun spooky-season treat.      

Hysteria! premieres October 18 on Peacock