Almost eleven months have gone by since we heard that Julie Bowen – who played the character Claire Dunphy on 250 episodes of the ABC sitcom Modern Family – had signed on to star in the coming-of-age Satanic Panic thriller series Hysteria!, which is set up at the Peacock streaming service. Emjay Anthony (Physical), Chiara Aurelia (Cruel Summer), Kezii Curtis (Charm City Kings), Nikki Hahn (Magnum P.I.), and Anna Camp of the Pitch Perfect films joined the show soon after Bowen. Then genre icon Bruce Campbell signed on to play small town police chief Dandridge. Things have been quiet for a while, but now Deadline has revealed the names of several more Hysteria! cast members. They are Garret Dillahunt (The Last House on the Left remake), Nolan North (Pretty Little Liars), Elijah Richardson (Fantasy Football), Milly Shapiro (Hereditary), Allison Scagliotti (Warehouse 13), and Jessica Treska (Alex & Me). All of the newly announced cast members have recurring roles on the show.
If you want to know names: Dillahunt plays The Reverend, North portrays Gene, Richardson is Cliff, Shapiro plays Ingrid, Scagliotti is Officer Olsen, and Treska portrays Judith.
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’s character is 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 character 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.” Campbell’s Chief Dandridge is “a small-town police chief whose understanding of his community is put to the test after a disturbing series of murders, disappearances, and unexplained phenomena.”
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 directed by Kong: Skull Island‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts.
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