Matthew Scott Kane and David A. Goodman are taking audiences back to the Satanic Panic for a hilarious and twisty ride withHysteria!. The TV show serves as Kane’s biggest project to date as a writer, having primarily worked as a production assistant on everything fromAmerican Horror StorytoIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, while having also penned one episode of the ABC Family sci-fi crime dramaStitchers. Goodman, on the other hand, has six Emmy nominations under his belt for his work onFuturamaandFamily Guy, while also having worked onSeth MacFarlane’sThe Orville.
Created by Kane and showrun by him and Goodman,Hysteria!is set in a fictional small Michigan town in the ’80s that is rocked by the disappearance of a local varsity quarterback, which seemingly points to a potential Satanic cult in the area. As the investigation continues, a trio of teenage outcasts rebrands their heavy metal band into a Satanic metal band to capitalize. But when one of their parents is seemingly exposed to genuine evil, the town begins to wonder who may have unleashed the evil upon them, and whether they can trust their neighbors.
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Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia and Kezii Curtis lead the ensembleHysteria!cast alongsideEvil Deadvet Bruce Campbell,Modern Family’s Julie Bowen, Nikki Hahn,Pitch Perfect’s Anna Camp, iconic voice actor Nolan North and Garret Dillahunt. In addition to Kane and Goodman, the show is executive produced byDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesduo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, as well asKong: Skull Island’s Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who directed the pilot and finale.
Ahead of the show’s premiere,Screen Rantinterviewed Matthew Scott Kane and David A. Goodman to discussHysteria!, how the former’s pilot script drew the latter in to be the co-showrunner, how the duo went about balancing the various tones of its story, and the thrill of getting to work with Goldstein, Daley and Vogt-Roberts to really shape the show’s tone and pacing.
Hysteria!Was Rooted In A Very Modern Theme For Kane
“… it would be a lot of fun to take it back to the last time that I felt something like that was happening…”
Screen Rant: It’s great to chat with youboth forHysteria!, I watched the first six episodes, and I am hooked. It is a great mix of horror-comedy and teen drama. Matthew, I’ll start with you, since you’re sort of the mind behind the base story, how did you come up with the concept for this show?
Matthew Scott Kane: Yeah, so when I first started writing this, it was back in 2019, and much like it is today, I was feeling anxieties about this idea that, these days, facts and objective reality have started to get mushier and more malleable, and a fact is no longer an across-the-board fact, you know, everyone’s got their own version of the truth right now.
So, I wanted to explore that concept, but rather than keeping it in today’s world, I thought it would be a lot of fun to take it back to the last time that I felt something like that was happening, which was the Satanic Panic in the 1980s. It’s a lot more fun for me to create a show about heavy metal and horror films and John Hughes and all that kind of stuff. It’s set in small town Michigan, I grew up in small town Michigan, it was just really my way of making sense of all of this stuff.
“…it was a very exciting project for me to be involved in.”
David, I’ll turn to you next. Coming on to the show, what was it about Matthew’s original vision that really drew you to want to help be co-showrunner for this?
David A. Goodman: Yeah, it was very exciting. I read Matt’s pilot script, and it was one of the best pilot scripts I’ve ever read, the show was there in that script. But, I think probably the thing that I hooked into the most, I had just done a high school movie, Honor Society, that Matt had read, and that actually is one of the reasons that he wanted to meet me. I think that one of the things that I hooked into in his script was this high school kid making some bad decisions. You’re watching Dylan make one bad decision after the next, and yet for the most relatable of reasons. And then you’re also seeing his parents, and the other adults in this town, also making some really bad decisions for the most relatable of reasons.
That ends up being the grounded nature of this show was about the fear of being a parent, the fear of being a kid, and that strange communication that breaks down when your kid becomes a teenager. It’s certainly something I’ve experienced both that both ends and that most parents have, and most people have in some form or another. And I just found that really compelling, along with everything else that Matt put in that script, the horror, the comedy and his view of the world. So it was a very exciting project for me to be involved in.
The Show’s Tonal Mix Required Input From “A Village Of People”
“…it’s as much in the writing as it is in the directing, as it is in the editing.”
Since you mentioned the grounded nature of it, I love how this show mixes a very grounded feel with an absurdist sense of humor and horror. What is it like finding that balance for you both in the writing process throughout this show?
Matthew Scott Kane: You know, it’s as much in the writing as it is in the directing, as it is in the editing. Something can feel perfectly right on a page, and then you see what it looks like on screen in the edit bay, and you say, “Well, we’ve got to reign this way, way in.” There are so many moments that took so many iterations, but since it is a season 1 show, since we’re all, it’s not just David and I making these decisions.
It’s a cast and crew, it’s a village of people. We’re all still finding it together, and we’re all still trying to get there together. So, it really is a process of, every step of the way, doing your best to land what’s in your head, and if that’s not working, then finding a way to pivot into something that will
David A. Goodman: I would just agree with everything Matt said. It’s a process, and at some point, you just have to stop working on it and put it out to the world. But you’re always working on it. You’re always doing your damndest to make sure that you’re threading that needle, that you’re getting the laughs you want to get, but that they’re not undermining the scares.
And that you’re making sure that your characters are feeling real, and that the audience is going to connect to them. It’s a constant process. It’s very exciting to now see what the world thinks about the work we’ve done.
Goldstein, Daley & Vogt-Roberts Were Fantastic Collaborators For The Duo
TheDnDDuo Were Even Meant To Direct The Show At One Point
I wanted to ask, as well, I saw Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley and Jordan Vogt-Roberts were all involved as executive producers. I’d love to hear from you both what their involvement was on the show, whether they gave notes on scripts, whether they were on set to just have fun?
Matthew Scott Kane: I can speak to Goldstein and Daley, they were actually originally attached to direct this long ago, when we first took the script out. Unfortunately, due to scheduling, they were no longer able to, which is how we ended up with Jordan, and we’re very grateful to have landed with Jordan. Goldstein and Daley remained a presence throughout, they would give us their feedback.
But also, they were very trusting in David and I to make the show that we wanted to make. It was only if they had major qualms with something that we were doing that they would ever really run those notes by us. And for Jordan, essentially, Jordan was the director on the pilot and the finale. So, Jordan did a lot of heavy lifting in episode 1 to help us build this world, to help this world feel lived in.
And, to that tone you were just speaking of a moment ago, he really did help us find that show there. He helped us find the materials and the tones and everything that we needed to make this click for the next seven episodes. So, he was very vital, along with some help from Goldstein and Daley, as well, in terms of getting it up and running.
David A. Goodman: When you’re working with Goldstein and Daley, understanding the threading of the needle of the comedy and the drama and the horror, and their input all the way through. And they developed the project with Matt before it was sold, and then once it was sold, having those two involved was always helpful. And then, again, Jordan is a force of nature, and brought so many ideas to the pilot and then to the finale. He pushed things right to the edge, and that made for two great episodes.
AboutHysteria!
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.
Hysteria!
Cast
A group of high school outcasts rebrands as a Satanic metal band during the 1980s “Satanic Panic” after a quarterback vanishes. However, a series of violent incidents and paranormal reports lead to a town-wide witch hunt, which eventually points to the band.
