Hysteria!

It’s hard not to think of Stranger Things after seeing the first few minutes of Hysteria! Like the hit Netflix show, Hysteria! is set in a suburb in the ‘80s and appears to be an ode to the slashers and supernatural movies of that era. But unlike it, Hysteria! doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a comedy as much as it is a horror, and it revels in its campy treatment of things like the Satanic panic scare and extreme conservatism. In removing that excess, the series gets to hone in on its characters. It’s ultimately their fear—of their future, their children, their selves—that drives the show. The metaphors and their poignancy aren’t buried in layers of CGI; they’re apparent and welcome, even if they do come with jump scares and chilling screeches.

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.