Julie Bowen and Bruce Campbell star as, respectively, a suburban mom and a seen-it-all cop in Peacock’s “Hysteria!,” which turns the very real Satanic Panic of the ’80s into a rollicking, heavy-metal flavored comedy about demons.
The two actors, who already lived through the 1980s, had very different experiences during the era. Bowen told TheWrap she grew up in a conservative family and was afraid of supposedly Satanic things like hard rock and Dungeons and Dragons. Interestingly, Campbell, who became a chainsaw-wielding horror icon in Sam Raimi’s 1981 indie “Evil Dead,” didn’t like heavy metal music either — or most of the decade, for that matter.
TheWrap spoke with both stars about revisiting the time period and how they’ve been pitching the show to their friends and family.
TheWrap: What was the ’80s like for you?
Bruce Campbell: I didn’t care for the ’80s. I was struggling as an actor, you know? It was the Reagan era. It was a really weird reactionary time to the ’70s. Everyone was sort of reacting to how unbuttoned the ’70s was. So everything got buttoned down and junior executives started wearing pins through their ties again.
I didn’t care for the hairstyles, I didn’t care for the music of the ’80s. I was an actor doing training films to sell, like, the Chrysler K car, which was crappy when it was brand new. So yeah, it was a reminder of a decade that I could have done without.
Julie Bowen: Oh, I wasn’t born. [Laughs] Yeah, I was definitely born. I was a teenager and I lived in a very conservative neighborhood. I remember we all looked very askance at the kids who played Dungeons and Dragons, because we’d all heard these rumors that it would make you crazy if you invited the occult into your life, you’d become suicidal if your character died.
This was all nonsense, of course, but that was the beauty and the horror that was the ’80s. There were very few news sources, and you either got the evening news or the morning paper and gossip, so we all believed what we were told. Also, I remember album covers being terrifying.
So you weren’t a Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden fan?
BC: No, never. I listened to The Carpenters, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens.
JB: No, I never was. I was worried about that going into this project, because in “Hysteria!,” Linda’s son, Dylan, is in a heavy metal band. I said, “I don’t know anything about it. I was too scared of it as a kid.” And they said, “It doesn’t matter, because Linda doesn’t know anything about it either.” She doesn’t. So I leaned into that.
That’s perfect casting, then. So in terms of your character, Julie, do you get to have a discussion about what her hair looks like or what kind of sweaters she’s wearing?
JB: I always look at the makeup, hair, wardrobe, props, as the experts and I would never wholesale say, “No, that’s awful,” because they have done way more research than I have. But I will veto certain looks. I think I might have vetoed some pajamas that had shoulder pads in them. That was a bridge too far, but my mother has a bathrobe with shoulder pads in it to this day, so maybe it’s not a bridge too far. But for me, [Linda’s] hair was wish fulfillment, because I never got to have big hair in the ’80s, and that was super fun.
How have you been describing the show to your friends and family?
JB: It depends on who I’m talking to, because it is a show for a lot of different groups. It’s not really horror, straight up. It certainly isn’t slasher or gore, but it’s more of a pop horror thriller, psychological thriller, and it definitely has some of that fun ’80s to it. But it really also asks questions about mental health and what it means when you live in a bubble and are being fed or only hear certain information, and how that makes groupthink take over.
BC: It’s creepy and weird. They’ve done a good spin on it. It’s tough to do horror fresh, and there’s just not a lot of Satanic Panic shows out there.
The time period is cool. I’m OK with writers intentionally setting something in the analog time period, because there’s something cool about, ‘You have to have a quarter or you’re not making that call at that pay phone.’ And if you call the guys out there, it’s going to ring and ring and ring and ring and you’re not leaving a message. And if the person’s there, they’re on the phone, you’re not getting through. There’s not even call waiting, you know? It’s good to set it in a world where things are not that easy.
Are you a horror fan, Julie?
JB: I’m not a horror fan, because I’m the perfect horror audience. I’m terrified. I’m terrified by the littlest jump scare, which I said to Bruce, very respectfully. I think what people do in horror is amazing and I find it very overwhelming. I can watch through my fingers, but he almost created a genre all on his own. I mean, he’s like a little mini-industry and I loved hearing all of his stories. And you know how he is, “Get ‘er done, let’s put on a show, we’ve got $5 in the camera, let’s make it up.” And I really love that.
All episodes of “Hysteria!” are now streaming on Peacock.
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