“Scared people do scary things.”
Welcome to the era of Satanic Panic: The dark days of the 1980s when parents everywhere were terrified their kids were being sucked into cults, fueled by their teenage love of heavy metal music and sneaking out after dark. Hysteria! takes that paranoia to chilling new depths, leaning heavily into the occult for an intense but enjoyable Halloween watch that puts the thrill in thriller.
The series opens with a teenage couple—the good Christian daughter and the popular quarterback—hooking up when they shouldn’t be. It’s a tale as old as time that doesn’t take long to take a turn for the worse. A sinister masked figure breaks down the door. Next thing we know, the girl is missing, and the boy is dead with an APB on his organs.
With the small town steeped in the shock of grief and rumors of satanic powers growing stronger, some local teenagers soon figure out the occult is a dangerous thing to flirt with…which only makes them want to do it more. And a high school heavy metal band decides to take advantage and turn their shows into cult gatherings—who cares if some parents think they’re responsible for the supernatural mysteries around town?
Deth Krunch, the band formed by Dylan (Emjay Anthony), Spud (Kezii Curtis), and Jordy (Chiara Aurelia), is surprisingly magnetic and commands the stage every time—but it’s the individuals within that keep this show compelling. Dylan is the misfit who wants so badly to fit in but finds himself embracing the darkness when the popular girl, Judith (Jessica Treska) takes an interest in it (and him). Spud is the rational one who knows how to walk the line between troublemaker and staying clean. And Jordy is the true creative force behind the band, a misunderstood girl who just wants to be heard. Jordy and Judith are two sides of the same coin; their decisions and motivations made me think of the Jennifer’s Body quote, “Hell is a teenage girl.”
The adults are equally enthralling, providing a spectrum of hard lines and wild reactions to the panic-du-jour. Anna Camp is excellent as the repressed, buttoned-up mother Tracy who has more secrets than Bible verses; you’ve met her in every small town. And Julie Bowen is her parallel as Dylan’s concerned mother Linda, who becomes target practice for the whole town, even when the audience can see she’s the real victim here. Bruce Campbell is the go-between as Chief Dandrige; he’s a good guy at heart who wants to keep the kids safe…but who is he really protecting?
Hysteria! uses old-school jumpscares, simple lighting & sound switch-ups, and practical effects to really hammer home the 1980s horror feel. It relies on a tense score and the viewer’s imagination to keep things on edge for most of the screen time. The music, a mix of 80s mainstream pop and heavy metal, speeds up the storytelling and cements the show’s setting alongside the big hair and bigger opinions. You don’t often see such simple filmmaking touches anymore and you’ll appreciate Hysteria! all the more for it. A lot of other TV shows with TV budgets should take notes—you don’t always need CGI and expensive special effects to have a good time.
The series has some gruesome horror-fueled moments but it mostly sticks within the thriller genre’s confines; this is a decent introduction for older kids to the history of classic occult thrillers. Keeping high schoolers at the center of the story also allows for any bad decisions to remain somewhat realistic. The way the adults are the ones to point fingers, even when they’re pulling the strings, is the most frightening part. Hysteria! is very good at showing how easily witch hunts and mobs have arisen throughout history; it doesn’t take much to whip up a frenzy, especially when some people are simply looking for an out. And ain’t that just the most terrifying thing of all?
