Peacock, fresh off its huge Olympics surge, is transitioning back to its regular offerings — including a 1980s-set thriller revolving around the Satanic Panic of the era.
The streamer has released a teaser and set an Oct. 18 premiere date for Hysteria!, a drama in which a high-school heavy metal band decides to capitalize on the panic — then find themselves in deeper than they meant to be. In addition to streaming on Peacock, the series premiere will simulcast on USA Network and Syfy; USA will also air subsequent episodes on Friday nights.
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The teaser (watch it below) shows suburban mom Julie Bowen (Modern Family) dancing around her kitchen to Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” when an apparent earthquake disrupts her reverie. A demonic face staring out from the microwave further darkens the mood.
“Hysteria! is about both sides of that generational fear” that kids are up to something nefarious when left to their own devices, writers and executive producers Matthew Scott Kane and David A. Goodman said in a statement. “It’s about the thrills of being young, rebellious in spirit and aspirational at heart — and the horrors of growing up and realizing that the world you thought you knew has shifted beneath your feet. Our hope is that parents and children (of the appropriate age, of course) can enjoy the chills, the laughs, the music, and the heart of Hysteria! together. Growing up is scary. So is parenting.”
The logline for the show reads, “When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported ‘supernatural activity’ triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.”
Bowen stars in Hysteria! with Anna Camp, Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia, Kezii Curtis and Nikki Hahn. Bruce Campbell, Garret Dillahunt, Nolan North, Elijah Richardson, Milly Shapiro, Allison Scagliotti and Jessica Treska have guest roles.
Universal Studio Group’s UCP produces Hysteria! Kane and Goodman executive produce with John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Chris Bender and Jake Weiner of Good Fear Content and Jonathan Vogt-Roberts, who directed the first and last installments of the eight-episode season. Good Fear’s Scott Stoops is supervising producer.
