The Showrunners and cast of HYSTERIA! discuss the new Peacock series

At New York Comic Con 2024, I sat down with the showrunners and cast of Peacock’s latest horror show HYSTERIA! A series set during the times of the Satanic Panic, we spoke with showrunners Matthew Scott Kane and David Goodman, along with cast members Julie Bowen and Anna Camp.

Showrunners Matthew Scott Kane and David Goodman

Q: Can you talk about the satanic panic’s influence on the show?

MATTHEW SCOTT KANE: When I first wrote this, it was 2019, and back then, it felt like something was changing. Fake news was proliferating all over the place. Facts were no longer as sturdy as they used to be. They were very malleable. When that goes out and gets disseminated it has negative impacts on people perceiving them. It starts to change the way they see the world. So when you hear someone in 1989 say hey i think the Smurfs are trying to turn our children into Satanists now people see this person differently because it’s completely untrue.

So I wanted that kind of thesis statement and look at how that stuff is operating today and apply it back to the satanic panic when it was already happening.

Q: There is a line Julie Bowen’s character says “It’s being known rather than seen.” Can you expand on that?

KANE: To be seen is what Dylan wants more than anything. He wants everyone in town to see him for this rockstar that he is. But no one will understand that truly so long as he keeps this satanic shtick. Also, if you take the time to understand him, you would pretty much snuff out this fear in them. Many people would freak out if they understood the person they were afraid of and there’s a good chance this all could have ended in a very different way. 

Q: The show’s a cult classic, it’s got an amazing 80’s feel. Were there any shows you took inspiration from?

KANE: When I was pitching the show it was freaks and geeks and Satanists. So it was supposed to be teen kids plus this horror element. I’m a huge fan of 80s horror. Reanimator, Evil Dead, Fright Night, anything in that ballpark. I love how studio horror movies moved like a bullet with so much forward momentum. We wanted to bring it to the structure of the show. Once you hit the midpoint of the series that ball is rolling down the hill and it doesn’t stop until the end.

DAVID GOODMAN: Also Scream as an influence. We prepared for the staff when we got together a list of all those things, along with a long reading list, and documentaries on the satanic panic and books about that. All of that was there for the pilot but as we developed the show all of us were drawing from that same inspiration, atop of the writing staff already being steeped in this stuff.

Q: The midpoint of the season the show takes a dynamic shift in terms of its emotionality. Can you elaborate on more what the writing was like for that?

KANE: We also knew what that midpoint episode was going to be. We essentially saw that as the second pilot. So episode one follows Dylan but we knew that there was going to be one episode with Faith and what happened to her in that chunk of time time. Essentially, we knew we were rebooting the show mid-season and that would take us to the end. What we learn about Tracy there, Faith, the reverend, and all these characters changes everything we knew about them in those first four episodes. There’s a tongue-in-cheek the rest of the show. Jokes that are keeping the levity there. It was really exciting for us to have that moment fall where it did and put it on the rails till the end of the season.

GOODMAN: All that high school stuff, the prom and dating the girl, had to go in the first few episodes. So you end up with this bifurcated show is still horror but there is this coming of age, as Matt would say in the writer’s room, we have to get this stuff done in the first half because the midpoint we’re on a train.

KANE: We always used to say it’s fun till it’s not. Hopefully, it still is in a different kind of way.

Q: What do you remember about that time in the 80’s?

GOODMAN: I remember Tipper Gore getting upset about Easy Williams thinking that was ridiculous. I was an adult in the 80s, but understanding this is what every generation is and some version of the satanic panic existed for every generation. You have parents scared, what are my kids up to, are going to blame something?

Actresses Julie Bowen and Anna Camp

Q: Tell us about the characters you’re playing.

JULIE BOWEN: I play Linda Campbell. She is a mom from a small town in Michigan with one son. She is a nice normal person who doesn’t know anything about heavy metal and is worried her son is possessed by the devil. It turns out, she’s also either crazy or possessed.

ANNA CAMP: And I play Tracy Whitehead a religious fundamentalist in the town of Happy Hollow. She’s fate mother and is a very loving and protective mother who’ll do anything it takes.

BOWEN: Eww. You said that so dirtily.

CAMP: And she might have some secrets.

Q: Is horror easy to fall into as a headspace?

BOWEN: You play it for real as you can. Thank God Anna’s the best because you do it as real as you can even if what’s happening in the scene is next-level bananas.

CAMP: The most extraordinary circumstances are hard. That’s why it’s so exciting people keep watching and wanting it because the fantasy limit is limitless. As an actor, you have to find the reality in the truth of it. Which makes it exciting to do but it’s not that easy.

Q: Any techniques on how to do that?

CAMP: Being connected to your breath. 

BOWEN: She (Anna Camp) had this speech that went on for 1170 minutes and my character’s eyes are closed for a lot of it, I listen to her, and I was like holy crap can she control her breath. It was like a Broadway tour of it. 

CAMP:  But also, when you’re in a scary scene, it’s like how do you breathe? Not well or it’s up here. The body doesn’t know the difference when you’re acting. The chemical doesn’t know. So if you’re breathing here the body will start to tense and react as if you’re truly scared. This is what I try to do in horror situations – know what the breath feels like. 

Q: So the two of you have a very anti-thetical relationship in the show can you delve into that?

CAMP: The opposite in real life!

BOWEN: We’re so different than our characters too. It’s kind of like we circle around each other for the first season. There’s a couple of face-offs but the finale is when we get the full fireworks.

CAMP: I’ll stop at nothing to destroy you basically and to save myself is what I’m doing. But it’s nice to work with an actress you trust and get along with because I think you can get further with those horrible hard horrific moments when you’re with someone that you respect and that you love as a person and as an actor, that it gives you spaces to play that you don’t get on every job – so I like trust and love and respect her. So we’re game and then we go.

BOWEN: I agree. There are times when you feel this could be dumb but you gotta commit all the way because we’ve all been in scenes where you’re with someone that it could be – oh boy. 

But it’s great.

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