Bruce Campbell: 'Hysteria!' hero is no cliche cop

NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Evil Dead legend Bruce Campbell says he was excited to play a good cop who truly cares about his neighbors in Peacock's new horror dramedy, Hysteria!

"I thought it was well-written and the characters were not cliches. My character's not the cliche cop. He's not dumb. He's not one-note," Campbell, 66, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"He actually respects teenagers. So, those things caught my attention because most police characters are not written that well."

Premiering Friday, the eight-episode series is about the frenzy that occurs when a small town's high-school quarterback disappears in the 1980s.

While some community leaders blame the teen members of a local heavy metal band for killing the boy as part of a devil-worshiping ritual, Campbell's Police Chief Dandridge tries to calmly unravel the mystery without jumping to conclusions.

"He's the rational one," Campbell said.

"Like me, he doesn't really believe in all this stuff, so he's trying to figure it out from police proof, a logical perspective," he added. "The fun with this show starts when he might not have all the answers."

Unlike many of the adults in town, the chief reserves judgement when some of the teens come under suspicion.

"That's why you like him as a character-- because he's sort of like your favorite uncle, [someone] where you can go, 'Hey, I'm not gonna tell my dad this, but I'll tell you this,'" Campbell said.

"That says a lot for the character as a human being because we kind of dehumanize authority figures, and a lot of them have not gotten a good rap, particularly police. So, I'm always delighted when I can portray our police force in a slightly better light."

The show's teenagers are also thoughtfully written and portrayed, prompting the chief to treat them like adults, Campbell said.

"He's got a granddaughter who's gonna wind up getting involved in this, so it gets personal for him," he added.

"He has to try and rise above his instincts to just arrest everybody and try and really figure this out. And it's a good mystery on top of it.

"And I'm a grandfather [in real life] now. So, it's easy to have those moments where you go, 'Oh, that would not be good if your granddaughter was involved in some satanic ritual.'"

After starring in horror-supernatural films and TV shows since the 1970s, Campbell said he knew when he read the screenplays for Hysteria! that the series was a fresh, smart take on the genre.

"I set a very high bar when it comes to horror because I've been in a lot of horror," the actor said. "So, I really take a hard look at any scripts that come in that are horror, and this was a good one," he added.

"There's lots of horror that I've passed on, but this had a pretty good pedigree with the people involved. Julie Bowen [as a co-star] never hurts, and doing stuff for Peacock? These are my Burn Notice and Hercules buddies."

The cast of Hysteria! includes Anna Camp, Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia, Kezii Curtis and Nikki Hahn.