[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Hysteria!]

The Big Picture

Set during the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the 1980s, the Peacock series ‘Hysteria!’ follows a high school metal band caught in a dangerous witch hunt.
Julie Bowen plays Linda, a mother questioning her sanity, in a departure from her ‘Modern Family’ role.
Bowen, terrified of horror, finds the psychological thriller aspect of ‘Hysteria!’ appealing for its uncertainty and family conflict.

The Peacock horror series Hysteria! is a wild tale set during the Satanic Panic of the late 1980s, where a small town suddenly believes current events are being caused by supernatural activity. When a struggling high school heavy metal band decides to play up the fear spreading through their community and use that Satanic gimmick for attention, it works so well that folks actually start to point the finger directly at them.

As one of the residents of Happy Hollow, Linda (Julie Bowen) discovers that her introverted teenage son, Dylan Campbell (Emjay Anthony), has started a heavy metal band called Dethkrunch with his best friends. Even though creating drama to shine an even brighter spotlight on yourself is nothing new, the consequences can be unpredictable.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Bowen talked about the great opportunity to play someone so unhinged, the fun of eighties shoulder pads, being terrified of the horror genre, loving the physicality of the stunts, and how her Modern Family character would have handled things differently. She also discussed the surprise of making a Happy Gilmore sequel nearly 30 years after the first film, but how easy it was to find that character again.

Collider: This series seems like its own blend of unhinged, and at the same time, you get to wear this incredible wardrobe and hair.

JULIE BOWEN: It was definitely a trip back in time. Those clothes, with the shoulder pads alone, were giving me eighties flashbacks. Playing Linda, it was just such a fun departure to get to wear those clothes and that hair and everything. It felt very not Claire Dunphy (from Modern Family).

Related Emjay Anthony Is in Big Trouble With Julie Bowen in ‘Hysteria!’ Sneak Peek [Exclusive] Bruce Campbell and Anna Camp also star in the satanic panic series hitting Peacock tomorrow.

When this came your way, what was the thing that enticed you? What did they tell you? How much did you know?

BOWEN: I knew that, after playing a sitcom mom for 11 years, I needed to move away from that. I would happily play Claire Dunphy forever, but I didn’t want to do that on another show. When they said, “It’s the mom,” I thought, “Oh, the mom?” And then, I read the pilot and I was like, “Oh, the mom might be bananas.” I think we’re all little bananas. I’ve been placed in this box of being America’s mom and that I have answers. I don’t have any answers. I don’t know what’s going on more than anybody else. And this seemed like a great opportunity to be unhinged. I didn’t know anything past the pilot when I signed on, but I did know that we were going to question Linda’s sanity, over and over.

‘Hysteria!’s Julie Bowen Has a “Dirty Secret” – Being Terrified of Anything Horror

There are so many fun elements to this. There’s the family aspect, the horror aspect, and the time period. Was it all those things together that made this appealing?

BOWEN: The dirty secret is that I cannot watch anything horror, so I don’t know anything about horror. Here I am working with Bruce Campbell, and I have to admit, “I can’t actually watch your movies.” One time, I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street with no sound on, when I was a teenager, and I slept with the lights on for a month. I am very terrified of everything. So, it wasn’t necessarily the horror of it. It was the thriller aspect and the psychological aspect that really appealed to me. It’s this idea of, how do we know if we’re crazy or if we’re not crazy? We don’t know. You could be crazy right now.

Related From ‘True Blood’ to ‘Hysteria!’ to ‘You,’ Anna Camp Is All-In With Her Villainy Camp also talks about how the wardrobe, jewelry and wig helped her define who Tracy Whitehead is.

You have this bit of demonic and satanic horror, but it’s the psychological horror that I always find so interesting and so appealing because it’s the thing that keeps you wondering what’s real and what isn’t. Why do you think that works so well with a story like this? Especially when it’s something that threatens family, is that even scarier?

BOWEN: To me, it was interesting to play somebody where we don’t have a bad guy and a good guy, and you would think that you would. When you hear, “Satanic Panic,” you’re like, “Oh, it’s Satan.” This is not a religious story, at all, or a satanic story. It’s about Satanic Panic and the fact that people internalize that so much that they can make themselves crazy. We’re left with a lot of questions about Linda’s state of mind and whether or not any of this is actually real. That, to me, is really interesting.

Julie Bowen Says Her ‘Modern Family’ Character Would Have Handled the Events of ‘Hysteria!’ Very Differently
Image via ABC

Do you think Claire Dunphy would have dealt with the situation Linda is in any differently?

BOWEN: I don’t think Claire Dunphy would have let this get under her skin. She would have been like, “This stops here, honey. No to the pentagrams.” She would have cut it off really fast. There’s something delightful about setting things pre-cell phone and pre-internet because you don’t have access to any information. And parents practiced benign neglect, so we were like, “What’s happening in the basement?” Nobody was paying attention. Stories that are set in the eighties can really take those turns. If you want a really good kids’ story, you need checked out parents. This is an interesting case where there’s benign neglect, but she’s also getting drawn in.

I’m guessing that you getting pulled up the stairs and thrown around the house wasn’t entirely you. How much of that did you do yourself?

BOWEN: The only part that wasn’t me was getting pulled up the stairs. Everything else was me.

Related ‘Hysteria!’ Stars Discuss Anna Camp’s Crazy ‘True Blood’-like Character [Exclusive] Camp co-stars with Julie Bowen and Bruce Campbell in the Peacock Satanic panic thriller.

Do you enjoy doing that sort of thing?

BOWEN: We did a lot of stunt rehearsal, so I had a good idea of what was gonna happen. The stunt sequence originally, of course, is always three times longer and they’ve got to cut it down for time. It took a couple days to shoot. Our director on the pilot was Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who comes from feature films. He was very detailed and showed me storyboards, shot by shot, so I really felt like we were collaborating on it. It actually ended up being a lot of fun. It wasn’t just, “What’s gonna happen to me now? What are you gonna do now?” I knew every single bit of it, so it was really fun. I liked it.

Between the wardrobe and the things you get to do in this, how can you not have fun?

BOWEN: It was a total departure and it was really physical. I’m not an athlete, but you can beat me up real good. I’m fine with it. It seemed like it was really in my wheelhouse.

Julie Bowen Was Surprised To Find Out How Excited People Are for a ‘Happy Gilmore’ Sequel
Image via Peacock

Could you ever have imagined that you’d be making a sequel for Happy Gilmore, nearly 30 years after that movie came out?

BOWEN: I didn’t. I didn’t realize how many people were happy about it. We’re shooting, obviously, on golf courses. I can’t spoil anything. I can’t spoil all the guest stars or cameos in it. I can say that we’re shooting on golf courses with hundreds of extras, and they’re all so excited. I thought, “Oh, wow, I didn’t know everybody was waiting for this.” But I’m getting a sense of that now.

What’s it like to revisit your first movie, all these years later, at this point in your life?

BOWEN: It is really weird. This is not a spoiler, but because there are flashbacks, they have to put me in the hair and the clothes from then, which are not my faves. It’s fun because they also get to de-age me, which I’ve never gotten done. I’m like, “Cool, I can’t wait to see what that is.” There’s a lot of really fun stuff. And seeing Adam [Sandler] and Chris [McDonald], and even some of the crew was the same. Adam is such a loyal, lovely person to work with, and he loves to take the people along with him from the get-go. Perry [Andelin Blake], our production designer, has been with him since Happy Gilmore, and he looks exactly the same.

Did you have to go back and watch the original film because it had been so long since you’d played that character, or does everything fall back into place when you get on set with Adam Sandler?

BOWEN: I haven’t been on a whole lot of golf courses, and I certainly haven’t since Happy Gilmore, and I’ve been on none where I’m standing at the side with hundreds of extras, as everyone’s leaning in and wondering, “Is he gonna make the putt?” The minute they put me there, I was like, “Oh, yeah, I remember this. I got this.” No, watching it again would not have been good for my head. I’m not great at watching myself. I’m one of those.

Hysteria! is set during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s, follows a struggling high school heavy metal band that capitalizes on the town’s sudden interest in the occult. This leads to a series of strange events, including murders and kidnappings, resulting in a witch hunt that targets the band. Release Date October 18, 2024 Cast Chiara Aurelia , Nikki Hahn , Jessica Luza , Eric Tiede , Jennie Page , Emjay Anthony , Allison Scagliotti , Brogan Hall , Anna Camp , Julie Bowen , Bruce Campbell Seasons 1

Hysteria! is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Peacock