Bruce Campbell Teases Hysteria!: “Cool Horror With a Twist”

Bruce Campbell is an iconic actor known best for playing Ash in the Evil Dead franchise, but he’s also got many other big projects under his belt. The star recently appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as Pizza Poppa, and he’s known for projects such as Burn Notice, Sky High, Bubba Ho-Tep, and much more. Campbell also has a new project called Hysteria!, a “satanic panic” series that will premiere on Peacock next month. ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with Campbell at San Diego Comic-Con, and he teased what fans can expect from the new series. 

“I’ll get yelled at if I say too much, but I’ll say just the right amount,” Campbell teased. “It’s a cool horror with a twist. Meaning, it’s pretty interesting, psychological horror as well as demonic/satanic horror … It’s a small town in rural Michigan, my home state, set in the late ’80s and I play the chief of police, Chief Dandridge. And what I like about it, the words are what got me. These days, if someone says, ‘Hey Bruce, here’s a new horror show you could be part of.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s see how good the words are.’ Because it could be a piece of el crappo. So, the words were very good. They created a very rich character and a rich environment in this town.”

“If this happened in a big city, no one would care,” he continued. “But this is a small town, these people are not ready for this. And they don’t know where it’s gonna go and the audience will not know where it’s gonna go or how it’s going to end or how bad it’s gonna get because you don’t even know if this sh*t real or not. So, this is my favorite kind of horror where you go, ‘Did I just see that?’ Because they’ll do stuff in the show, you go, ‘What was that?’ And then they’ll cut to another scene. So, it’s a cool show.”

“And I couldn’t even get myself in trouble by telling you too much, because I don’t even know the twists and turns,” Campbell explained. “I like the setting because what’s also cool is nobody’s texting. This is like ’88. You’re picking up the phone, you make phone calls. If nobody’s there, it just keeps ringing. You can’t even leave a message in ’88. And if they’re on the phone, you’re not getting through. There’s no call waiting in the ’80s. There’s ashtrays on tables, there’s pencils and pens and pieces of paper in the police station. It’s all just paper and telephones.”

You can watch our interview with Campbell at the top of the page. Hysteria! premieres on Peacock on October 13th.