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Scare Tactics Is a "Laboratory of Terrifying Moments" for Audiences & Creators Alike
The team at Monkeypaw Productions loves the original Scare Tactics series as much as you.
Finding new and innovative ways to terrify audiences is what the team behind Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions is all about. When USA Insider got on a call with Monkeypaw President Win Rosenfeld to talk all things Scare Tactics — the reboot of the classic 2000s prank series on which he's serving as executive producer alongside Peele — we needed to know more about the connection between Monkeypaw and Scare Tactics.
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It turns out the Monkeypaw team is just as big a fans as the rest of us; they "adore" the original series and felt that now was the perfect time to revive it for the social media age.
Monkeypaw understands what's special about Scare Tactics
"We’re not unscripted experts by any stretch of the imagination," Rosenfeld said. "We’ve watched all of those [classic] episodes. I mean Jordan himself has probably crushed that series and it’s like a hundred and something episodes long. [He’s] probably [watched it all the way through] a few times. And then not even to mention the exposure to it as it just pops up randomly on our TikToks and our YouTubes and places. So there’s just a deep, deep love for it, for the history of Scare Tactics."
This reboot, coming to USA Network starting on October 4, is Monkeypaw's first foray into unscripted television. Audiences know Monkeypaw best as the team behind such lauded recent horror classics as Get Out, Lovecraft Country, Us, Candyman, Nope, Monkey Man, and more.
Sure, Scare Tactics is a reboot, but it's a totally new experience for everyone involved.
The team, Rosenfeld explained, is "fascinated" with fear. They make horror movies, after all! And the question of "How do people react when they’re scared?" is the basis of their fascination.
"If our daily business has been, for the last 10 years, trying to ... put characters in scary situations, it helps us sort of get under the hood of those characters," Rosenfeld said. "Like, 'How do people react to this kind of fear or that kind of fear? What kind of person acts this way? What kind of person acts that way?'"
But it's not just about scaring the characters onscreen. They also need to understand how to best translate that fear to the audience.
Every Type of Fear on Display
"So ... Scare Tactics I think is so appealing to us [because] it’s like a little laboratory of terrifying moments and watching people be scared," he said. "Scare Tactics has plenty of people screaming and running out of the room but, by the way, it’s also got nervous laughter, it’s got people freezing, it’s got bargaining, it’s got the disbelief.
RELATED: Scare Tactics' Jordan Peele Explains the Surprisingly Thin Line Between Horror & Comedy
"And just seeing this range for us is something that is just an exciting thing to explore," he continued.
So, why now? What made this the perfect time to reintroduce Scare Tactics?
"It’s timeless," Rosenfeld said of the concept. "The other answer is just we observed a reemergence of prank culture on social media, which is where we live. So you see so much: So many YouTubers and TikTokers have found this new way into these very dynamic and imaginative pranks."
Scare Tactics creator Scott Hallock on set
And to help bring this revival to life, Rosenfeld and the team at Monkeypaw turned to the experts. They had "literally the expert" on all things Scare Tactics, the original series' co-creator Scott Hallock, on set "for every episode."
RELATED: Everything to Know About SYFY's Original, Early-2000s Scare Tactics Prank Series
They also had Elan Gale, a TV writer and producer who created FBOY Island and was an executive producer on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and more. Gale, Rosenfeld said, "probably understands the unscripted world better than anybody in the world."
"And UTAs, who are best-in-class experts at doing unscripted," he said. "We felt pretty safe and felt like that was a really good partnership and a really good team who helped us move together seamlessly."
Scare Tactics is scheduled to premiere on USA Network on Friday, October 4 at 10 p.m. ET. The debut episode will also air simultaneously across Bravo, SYFY and E!
