{ "id": "epb0sqcgsn", "slug": "hysteria-epb0sqcgsn", "title": "Hysteria!", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv", "label": "Scripted television and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres", "label": "Genre and subject-scripted series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series", "label": "Fantasy, supernatural, and horror series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series.horror-drama-and-thriller-series", "label": "Horror drama and thriller series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series.horror-drama-and-thriller-series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series.horror-drama-and-thriller-series.psychological-slasher-and-anthology-horr", "label": "Psychological, slasher, and anthology horror", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series.horror-drama-and-thriller-series.psychological-slasher-and-anthology-horr" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series", "label": "United States · 2021 and later: Fantasy, supernatural, and horror series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021", "label": "United States · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv", "label": "Scripted television and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres", "label": "Genre and subject-scripted series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series", "label": "Fantasy, supernatural, and horror series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Hysteria! is a 2024 Peacock supernatural horror series, created by Matthew Scott Kane, about a teen metal band posing as Satanists during the 1980s Satanic Panic in Happy Hollow, Michigan; eight episodes aired October 18, 2024, and it was cancelled in February 2025.", "snippet": "Hysteria! is a 2024 Peacock supernatural horror series, created by Matthew Scott Kane, about a teen metal band posing as Satanists during the 1980s Satanic Panic in Happy Hollow, Michigan; eight episodes aired October 18, 2024, and it was cancelled in February 2025.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_genres.fantasy_supernatural_series.horror-drama-and-thriller-series.psychological-slasher-and-anthology-horr", "markdown": "# Hysteria!\n\n**Hysteria!** is an American supernatural horror television series created by Matthew Scott Kane for the streaming service [Peacock](https://www.edgepedia.org/peacock-streaming-service), set in a small Michigan town during the \"Satanic Panic\" of the late 1980s. Its single season of eight episodes premiered in full on October 18, 2024, and the show was canceled the following February.[1](https://www.peacocktv.com/blog/hysteria-teaser-first-look-images-release-date) • [2](https://www.tvline.com/news/hysteria-cancelled-peacock-season-2-julie-bowen-1235405890/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Premise | After a varsity quarterback disappears, a struggling high school heavy metal band poses as Satanists to capitalize on the town's occult panic, until murders, kidnappings, and reported supernatural activity turn the panic back on them[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hysteria_2024/s01) |\n| Setting | Happy Hollow, a small Michigan town, in the late 1980s[4](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/) |\n| Format | Eight episodes, each roughly 47 to 60 minutes, rated TV-MA[5](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/hysteria/6470148172235184112/seasons/1) |\n| Creators | Matthew Scott Kane (*Stitchers*), who wrote and executive produced with David A. Goodman (*The Orville*)[2](https://www.tvline.com/news/hysteria-cancelled-peacock-season-2-julie-bowen-1235405890/) |\n| Main cast | Julie Bowen, Anna Camp, Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia, Kezii Curtis, and Nikki Hahn, with Bruce Campbell as a recurring guest star[2](https://www.tvline.com/news/hysteria-cancelled-peacock-season-2-julie-bowen-1235405890/) |\n| Reception | 92% Tomatometer from 24 critics and 86% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 62 on Metacritic; 7.0/10 on IMDb[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hysteria_2024/s01) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/hysteria%21/critic-reviews/?season=season-1) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21493708/ratings/) |\n| Fate | Cancelled at Peacock after one season, confirmed February 4, 2025[2](https://www.tvline.com/news/hysteria-cancelled-peacock-season-2-julie-bowen-1235405890/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and setting\n\nThe story opens in Happy Hollow, Michigan, in the late 1980s, when a masked assailant attacks two teenagers, Faith (Nikki Hahn) and Ryan (Brandon Butler), in a bedroom; both vanish that night, but only Ryan, the star quarterback, receives sustained news coverage, and rumor blames Satanists.[4](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/)\n\nThree outcast classmates in the metal band Dethkrunch, frontwoman Jordy (Chiara Aurelia), drummer Spud (Kezii Curtis), and guitarist and bandleader Dylan (Emjay Anthony), see an opportunity in the panic. Dylan, whose knowledge of the occult extends mainly to the [Ozzy Osbourne](https://www.edgepedia.org/ozzy-osbourne) song \"Mr. Crowley,\" begins promoting the band as a real Satanic cult to draw attention; the popular Judith (Jessica Treska) embraces the rebrand and recruits new members.[4](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/) As the band's notoriety grows, murders, kidnappings, and reported supernatural activity trigger what one synopsis calls a \"leather-studded witch hunt\" that leads back to the teenagers themselves.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hysteria_2024/s01)\n\nThe adult cast anchors the town's response. [Julie Bowen](https://www.edgepedia.org/julie-bowen) plays Linda Campbell, Dylan's mother, who suffers increasingly alarming episodes in which she is pulled out of reality, leaving open whether stress or something sinister is at work. [Anna Camp](https://www.edgepedia.org/anna-camp) plays Tracy Whitehead, a fervent local religious figure whose diatribes about Satan corrupting the youth finally find a terrified audience, and [Bruce Campbell](https://www.edgepedia.org/bruce-campbell) plays the town's police chief.[4](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/)\n\n## Production and release\n\nPeacock gave the series the green light in August 2022, with production beginning the following year. The 2023 Hollywood strikes paused filming, which resumed in late 2023, and the completed season aired on Peacock on October 18, 2024, with all eight episodes released at once for a Halloween-season audience.[8](https://www.avclub.com/peacock-cancels-hysteria) • [1](https://www.peacocktv.com/blog/hysteria-teaser-first-look-images-release-date)\n\nKane has described the show's origin in personal terms: the idea reached back two decades to a Kiss and [Aerosmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/aerosmith) concert at Detroit's Comerica Park that made an impression on him as a Michigan native, and he saw \"really clear connective tissue between where we are right now as a culture and where we were then as a culture.\"[9](https://www.usanetwork.com/usa-insider/hysteria-creators-reveal-origin-of-peacock-satanic-panic-series) • [10](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/peacocks-creepy-series-hysteria-pays-100732747.html) Goodman, a veteran producer of shows including *Family Guy* and *[Futurama](https://www.edgepedia.org/futurama)*, joined after the first teleplay was written and called it \"one of the best pilot scripts I'd ever read.\"[9](https://www.usanetwork.com/usa-insider/hysteria-creators-reveal-origin-of-peacock-satanic-panic-series)\n\nThe eight episode titles borrow from heavy metal and rock songs, including \"Die Young,\" \"Can I Play With Madness,\" \"Dance Macabre,\" \"Speaking in Tongues,\" \"It's Late,\" and \"Heaven's on Fire.\"[5](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/hysteria/6470148172235184112/seasons/1)\n\n## Historical backdrop\n\nThe series is built on the Satanic Panic, a yearslong wave of moral panic in 1980s America in which rumors of Satanic cults were amplified by television news, daycare providers were prosecuted in widely publicized ritual-abuse cases, and ordinary teenage interests such as heavy metal fandom and *Dungeons & Dragons* could get a young person branded a cultist.[4](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/) The panic produced real court cases, including a 1990 lawsuit by two families against the band [Judas Priest](https://www.edgepedia.org/judas-priest) and CBS Records alleging subliminal messages had driven their sons to suicide; the judge ruled the families could not prove the claim.[11](https://www.history.com/articles/what-was-satanic-panic-1980s) Sociologists classify the episode as a moral panic, a period of social change in which a \"folk devil\" is blamed for perceived decline; in this case the folk devil was the literal devil and alleged Satan worshipers said to be corrupting youth, and the panic uncovered no actual Satanic cults.[11](https://www.history.com/articles/what-was-satanic-panic-1980s)\n\n## Reception\n\nCritical response was generally favorable. On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 92% Tomatometer from 24 reviews and an 86% Popcornmeter score from audiences.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hysteria_2024/s01) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 62, based on four positive and three mixed reviews from the seven critics counted.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/hysteria%21/critic-reviews/?season=season-1) IMDb users gave the series 7.0 out of 10 from about 6,700 ratings, with individual episodes scoring between 7.0 and 7.6.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21493708/ratings/)\n\nReviewers singled out different strengths. *Time*'s Judy Berman called it \"a fun, insightful, and occasionally scary coming-of-age horror series\" and praised its balance of teen and adult storylines.[4](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/) [The A.V. Club](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-a-v-club)'s Saloni Gajjar gave it a B, writing that the early episodes build intrigue and scares but that the show \"loses steam as it progresses\" toward a generic explanation of its mysteries.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/hysteria%21/critic-reviews/?season=season-1) More negative reviews included RogerEbert.com's judgment that the series was neither frightening enough as horror nor wacky enough as comedy, and [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter)'s Daniel Fienberg calling it \"a mess, but it isn't without audacity.\"[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/hysteria%21/critic-reviews/?season=season-1)\n\n## Cancellation\n\nPeacock canceled the series after one season, a decision confirmed on February 4, 2025, nearly four months after the season's release; Variety first reported the news.[2](https://www.tvline.com/news/hysteria-cancelled-peacock-season-2-julie-bowen-1235405890/) The A.V. Club noted the arc from green light to cancellation: two years from order to air, and cancellation about three and a half months after the premiere.[8](https://www.avclub.com/peacock-cancels-hysteria) IndieWire's Proma Khosla observed that the season's storylines \"wrap up in some fashion, with potential for future seasons, but with varying degrees of fulfillment,\" so the single season reads as a largely complete narrative.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/hysteria%21/critic-reviews/?season=season-1)\n\n## Availability\n\nThe series streams on Peacock Premium and Peacock Premium Plus in the United States, and can be purchased digitally on Amazon Video, the Apple TV Store, and Fandango At Home, or on DVD.[12](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/hysteria-2024)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Watch the Teaser for the Peacock Original Hysteria!, Peacock](https://www.peacocktv.com/blog/hysteria-teaser-first-look-images-release-date)\n2. [Julie Bowen's Hysteria! Cancelled At Peacock After 1 Season, TVLine](https://www.tvline.com/news/hysteria-cancelled-peacock-season-2-julie-bowen-1235405890/)\n3. [Hysteria!: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hysteria_2024/s01)\n4. [Satanic Panic Horror Series Hysteria! Makes an Ideal Halloween Binge, Time](https://time.com/7093672/hysteria-review-peacock/)\n5. [Watch Hysteria! Season 1 Streaming Online, Peacock](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/hysteria/6470148172235184112/seasons/1)\n6. [Hysteria! Season 1 Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/hysteria%21/critic-reviews/?season=season-1)\n7. [Hysteria! Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21493708/ratings/)\n8. [Peacock panic cancels Hysteria! after one season, The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/peacock-cancels-hysteria)\n9. [Hysteria Showrunner Matthew Scott Kane on Origin of Peacock Series, USA Network](https://www.usanetwork.com/usa-insider/hysteria-creators-reveal-origin-of-peacock-satanic-panic-series)\n10. [Peacock's scary new series 'Hysteria!' pays tribute to creator's Michigan roots, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/peacocks-creepy-series-hysteria-pays-100732747.html)\n11. [What Sparked the Satanic Panic of the 1980s?, History.com](https://www.history.com/articles/what-was-satanic-panic-1980s)\n12. [Hysteria! - watch tv show streaming online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/hysteria-2024)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Genre and subject-scripted series › Fantasy, supernatural, and horror series › Horror drama and thriller series › Psychological, slasher, and anthology horror*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Hysteria!\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Hysteria!](https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn](https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Hysteria!\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/hysteria-epb0sqcgsn. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Hysteria! is a 2024 Peacock supernatural horror series, created by Matthew Scott Kane, about a teen metal band posing as Satanists during the 1980s Satanic Panic in Happy Hollow, Michigan; eight episodes aired October 18, 2024, and it was cancelled in February 2025." }