‘Hysteria!’: Peacock Orders Satanic Panic Thriller Straight to Series
What do you get if you mix mass hysteria from the late ’80s and a heavy metal band looking to become popular? An upcoming series on Peacock.
The streaming service has ordered Hysteria!, a coming-of-age thriller, straight to series. The drama, which explores America’s dark history of mass hysteria through the shocking story of the teenage Satanic Panic, comes from executive producers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Dungeons and Dragons).
In Hysteria!, Peacock teases, a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s. A struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts decide to capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, but then a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported “supernatural activity” triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.
“Our upcoming thriller series Hysteria! will explore the complex world of the Satanic Panic, set amidst ‘80s nostalgia, mystery, heavy metal, and an all-American setting,” said Lisa Katz, President Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming in a statement. “We’re excited to partner on this fresh, coming-of-age story led by writer Matthew Scott Kane, executive producers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, Good Fear, and our partners at UCP, for what is sure to be a compelling original series for Peacock viewers.”
Added Beatrice Springborn, President, UCP, “this nail-biting thriller dives into a mass moral panic and all the fears, desires, anger and dread that led to these dark days. Matthew’s script is original, intriguing and perfectly captures the frenetic energy of the Satanic Panic. We can’t wait for audiences to experience the show on Peacock.”
In addition to Daley and Goldstein executive producing and directing, Matthew Scott Kane serves as writer and executive producer and Chris Bender and Jake Weiner executive produce for Good Fear. Scott Stoops is supervising producer. Hysteria! is produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.
