Satanic Panic got a subplot on the most recent season of Stranger Things, but it takes center stage in Peacock’s new series Hysteria! When teenage metal heads decide to exploit devil-worship paranoia to raise their band’s profile, parents start to believe an actual cult is operating in their midst—a notion bolstered by the fact that an awful lot of strange and unexplainable things have started happening.
It starts, though, with a peculiar disappearance, which you can see in the brand-new trailer for the show:
Anytime there’s a new Bruce Campbell project, you know we’re automatically tuning in; here, he’s the skeptical sheriff of Happy Hollow, a sleepy community whose residents are suddenly caught up in freaky ’80s culture wars. The rest of the cast of Hysteria! is also excellent, including Julie Bowen (Modern Family), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), and Chiara Aurelia (Cruel Summer).
Here’s the official synopsis: “When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the late 1980s, Hysteria! follows a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts who realize that they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band. This is until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported ‘supernatural activity’ triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.”
Hysteria! drops all eight episodes October 18 on Peacock; USA Network and Syfy will simulcast the first episode on October 18. If binging isn’t your thing, you can catch new episodes each Friday on the USA Network.
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