From the trailer, Hysteria! looked like it was going to be good, campy, 80s-tastic, Satanic Panic, heavy metal fun.
And it was.
It was also chock full of some great camera work, creative effects, and some genuine horror film moments all stuffed into a pretty good story.
And if you bother to think about things past the surface level, it has some very useful things to say about more than a couple of things.
Also, for some reason, I thought it was going to be a movie, not a full 8 episode series on Peacock. While that disrupted my planned viewing schedule a little (and my hours of sleep a bit more), it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
The overall plot is pretty light and fun (as things go): It’s 1988 in a small Michigan Town, and three high school losers have a metal band. What they don’t have is anyone interested in coming out to their show. Inspiration strikes via news reports of the prevalence of secret Satanic Cults raising hell all over the nation. And so they re-brand a little, adding over-the-top theatrics and some pentagrams to their show and the flyer for it.
Roughly half the school shows up for their show and everyone totally rocks out.
Of course, at about that same time, the star quarterback of the football team goes missing and then turns up dead at a scene that looks an awful lot like a Satanic ritual.
Oh, and the leader of the band’s mom gets thrown around the house by an invisible entity.
Needless to say, from that point forward, things get a little out of control.
The main cast all turn in great performances. Of special note are Julie Bowen and Emjay Anthony, the main mother and son in this story. Bowen runs the gamut from concerned and caring mother to demon-possessed hellbeast. Anthony goes from nerd to rockstar to clueless cult leader and a few other places. They both fully understood the tone of the show and nailed the perfect balance of over-the-top campiness and some genuine pathos.
Anna Camp is another key player, once again showing up in something as a Bible-toting goody-two-shoes (I swear I’ve seen her play that kind of character at least a half dozen times now… and she’s always great). Except this time, she’s also got a few really dark secrets. Anyone who’s seen her in a range of other things knows that Camp can deliver pretty much anything, and here she gets the chance to do that. She gets to chew more scenery than anyone else and it looks delicious… but she also gives it all enough depth that you can actually feel bad for her sometimes.
Of course, there’s also good ol’ Bruce Campbell, playing a relatively straight role–an actual voice of sanity among the chaos–as the local chief of police. He does get some good banter and snarky responses in, though. Why waste the talent you’ve hired, right?
Barbara Crampton also makes a brief appearance and, despite him not being listed in the IMDB entry, Jeffery Combs was in the same episode… upping the horror cred of the run by another notch. I’ll watch either of them in anything and always love it when they show up together.
The soundtrack rocks–literally. Some really solid 80s tracks of a few different genres. Of course the main thrust is metal. The covers performed by the band are pretty amazing. I don’t know if it’s actually the actors singing, but if it is, Chiara Aurelia absolutely rocks the house. Hopefully the IMDB entries will get updated with that information… and I would 100% buy a soundtrack to this show if it was available.
There’s a lot that can be unpacked from the overall plot. The fact that the adults in the town are so easily swept up in conspiracy and panic. The fact that the kids get into all this Satanic stuff because they don’t feel like their parents and peers really notice them. All the over and under reactions to various things are a pretty heavy commentary on the culture–not just of the 80s, but also in a much more (sadly) timeless way.
The actual supernatural bits of things that go on are very well done and some of the more straight-up horror bits you’ll find. Contrasting the campy stuff, the only thing that’s more terrifying in the show is the fact that the Satanic Panic was real and what goes on in this fictional town isn’t as far fetched as I wish it was.
Definitely check it out during spooky season (or any other time). I’d love to see what they’d do with a second season. It’s got laughs, scares, heart, and depths that can be plumbed if you’re into that sort of thing. Or you can just rock out and enjoy the ride.
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