Last week, we heard that Modern Family‘s Julie Bowen had signed on to star in the coming-of-age Satanic Panic thriller series Hysteria!, which is set up at the Peacock streaming service. Now Deadline reports that Bowen is being joined in the cast by Anna Camp, whose credits include the Pitch Perfect films, A Creepshow Holiday Special, and the horror film From Black, which will be reaching the Shudder streaming service next week.
Emjay Anthony (Physical), Chiara Aurelia (Cruel Summer), Kezii Curtis (Charm City Kings), and Nikki Hahn (Magnum P.I.) have also been cast in the show.
Written and executive produced by Matthew Scott Kane, Hysteria! will be exploring America’s dark history of mass hysteria through the shocking story of the teenage Satanic Panic. The series follows a group of 1980s high school misfits as they exploit the growing hysteria around teen occult activity. Here’s the full official synopsis: 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 is taking on the role of Linda Campbell, “the mother of a teenage outcast. Linda experiences a series of supernatural disturbances that force her to question everything she knows about her son, as well as the growing threat of Satanism in their small Midwestern town”. Camp’s characters is Tracy Whitehead, “a crusading Midwestern mother who has been the laughingstock of her community for years due to her extreme religious beliefs, but after a string of occult crimes and disturbances, she becomes a dangerous and unlikely leader of her small town.”
And some more character details from Deadline: “Dylan Campbell (Anthony), Jordy (Aurelia), and Spud (Curtis) are a trio of outcasts who use their town’s Satanic Panic to their advantage by rebranding their heavy metal band Dethkrunch into a Satanic metal group, only to find themselves caught in the middle of a witch hunt. Faith (Hahn) is a sheltered teenage girl whose life is forever changed by a shocking, traumatic crime.”
UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, is producing Hysteria! Kane serves as executive producer with Chris Bender, Jake Weiner, and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. That may lead you to believe that Daley and Goldstein are going to direct the pilot episode, but that’s not the case. The first episode of Hysteria! is going to be directed by Kong: Skull Island‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts.
Hysteria! definitely sounds like a show I would like to watch. Does this one sound interesting to you? What do you think of Anna Camp joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.