‘Hysteria!’ Review: Bruce Campbell’s New Show Makes The Satanic Panic Fun
The James Wan-produced horror series Teacup may be hogging the spotlight on Peacock this month, but don’t count the streamer’s other new horror series out just yet. The eight-episode Satanic Panic saga Hysteria! (stylized with an exclamation mark for extra excitement) is a fresh offering for horror fans, and though it’s light on genuine scares, it’s also an undeniable crowd-pleaser that gets better with each new episode.
Hysteria! takes place in the 1980s, when a real-life Satanic Panic gripped the nation, convincing the superstitiously inclined that teens who liked rock music or Dungeons & Dragons were one bad influence away from sacrificing babies to the devil. The show takes a few specific cues from history —at one point it references law enforcement guides to Satanism, a ridiculous thing that really existed—but for the most part, it just uses the hyper-religious paranoia of the era as a jumping-off point for a thoroughly unique story.
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Chaos kicks off in the fictional town of Happy Hollow with the kidnapping of one teenager and the apparent ritualistic murder of another. Instead of growing scared for their lives as one might expect, a trio of benign teen outcasts (Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia, and Kezii Curtis) decide to rebrand their failing metal band as a Satanic cult.
From here, you’d think Hysteria! might head in a predictable direction, with high schooler Dylan (Anthony) and his friends arrested for their classmate’s murder the way real outcasts like The West Memphis Three were during the Satanic Panic. But the show positions itself as a different sort of story swiftly, immediately complicating its central mystery (who killed the popular jock?) with an inexplicable earthquake, a demonic encounter, a zealous local crusader (Anna Camp), and evidence of real cult-like activities in town.
Modern Family star Julie Bowen plays a key role here as Dylan’s mom, who is plagued by a series of freaky incidents that may or may not just be in her head. Meanwhile, a local cop (Bruce Campbell, oddly billed as a special guest star despite basically being the show’s second protagonist) tries to figure out what the hell is going on, all while keeping the town from succumbing to its collective fears.
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It’s worth noting that despite the dark subject matter, Hysteria! keeps things surprisingly light for the majority of its eight episodes. After all, the series counts Game Night co-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein among its executive producers, and it plays with horror tropes just enough to feel like it could cross over into meta-comedy territory at any given moment. Hysteria isn’t especially funny, but some of its best performances, like Camp’s fire-and-brimstone-preaching single mom and Curtis’ winsome conspiracy theorist Spud, add an air of comedic irony to the whole endeavor. Hysteria! has a serious premise, but it makes sure to never take itself too seriously, especially when it comes to character motivations. Protagonist Dylan, for example, makes a series of astronomically, hilariously bad decisions solely to secure the affections of a popular, pretty girl named Judith (Jessica Treska) who is clearly hungry for Satanic action.
The show’s weakest points come early on when it attempts to couch its horror story in the corny aesthetics of ‘80s teen rom-coms. Every time Dylan sees Judith, golden lights appear, and the camera kicks into full rose-colored glasses mode. The show initially relies too much on these and other filmmaking tropes and never satisfyingly subverts them. In its first episode especially, filmmakers use the visual language of ‘80s cinema without having laid any of the groundwork required to make such subjective storytelling methods work. The result looks ugly and feels hollow. Luckily, though, the show improves steadily with every episode, ditching the crush goggles and stilted homages in favor of a fun and propulsive story about a town gone wacky with fright.
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Bowen’s performance as a terrified mom here is shot through with a real sense of pain that makes it compelling (if tough to watch), while Camp brings her own oppressive character to life slowly, starting off with a dash of campiness before pushing through to something more intense and unnerving. She’s one part Margaret White from Carrie, one part Bev Keane from Midnight Mass, and one part someone who very obviously starred in the Pitch Perfect films. All three parts are essential to her wild character, and Camp plays nicely off of talented scene partners including Nikki Hahn as her daughter and Garret Dillahunt as a culty mystery man.
Younger actors including Hahn and Curtis do great work, while Anthony’s take on Dylan is a frustratingly blank slate, by design or otherwise. Smooth-as-ever Campbell is the icing on the cake as the kind of friendly, clever small-town cop who only exists on TV.
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Hysteria! is not deep, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. The show talks about the concepts of faith, evil, and moral panic without actually getting close to the root of any of them. It gestures towards parallels between the moral panic of the ‘80s and the misinformation-fueled conspiracies of today, but doesn’t do much with them once they’re pointed out. Still, the show isn’t all glossy drama, either.
Hysteria! sidesteps much of the trope-y young adult drama that often bogs down teen-friendly horror shows, instead gradually building a silly, watchable world where students are just as likely to do blood rituals in the basement as they are to ask each other to the dance. Like a mediocre rock band rebranding in the wake of a town tragedy, Hysteria! forges its own wild and wicked path: the result is a series that’s surprisingly singular and pretty damn entertaining.
Summary
Hysteria forges its own wild and wicked path. The result is a series that’s surprisingly singular and pretty damn entertaining.
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