Bruce Campbell has a clear formula for selecting roles as he ages in the acting profession. "As you become an older actor, all you care about is good writing," the 66-year-old Hollywood legend exclusively shared with The Post. "When you're young, you don't even know what good writing is. You get the part, you're thrilled, and you'll say any line of dialogue that anyone writes. But as you gain more experience, you start to recognize what truly constitutes well-written material."

When it came to his role in the new Peacock thriller "Hysteria!", which delves into the "Satanic Panic" of the late 1980s, Campbell knew Chief Dandridge was a character he wanted to embody. "This role caught my eye due to its excellent writing," he admitted. "Horror is a challenging genre to innovate within. So, I thought they did a commendable job. There aren't many horror shows around. There are movies that use satanic panic as a foundation. So I thought they handled it well."

Despite his involvement in "Hysteria!" and the "Evil Dead" series, Campbell isn't a die-hard horror enthusiast. "I'm not a huge fan of horror myself," he confessed. "But what I appreciate is that it's one of the few genres that elicits a visceral reaction from the audience. People watch a drama, they're eating popcorn, their expressions don't change – maybe a few tears. Horror movies make them jump out of their seats. You want the popcorn to fly, right?"

"The same goes for comedies," Campbell continued. "So, comedies and horror are the only genres where the audience really gets excited. And as a performer, actor, or filmmaker, that's what you aim for. You want to engage the audience. That's the fun of horror. I'm also glad that horror has become more mainstream now. When I started, horror was a bit taboo."

"Hysteria!" recaptured the essence of the '80s, including big hair and Walkmans, but in 2024, the "Knots Landing" alum isn't keen on revisiting that era. "You can keep the '80s as far as I'm concerned," Campbell joked. "I thought it was a rather strange, repressed decade. You can have the hairstyles. The '70s were way better. Music in the '70s was way better. Music in the '60s was way better. People can argue with me all day. I don't mind. It's just your opinion."

He added, "I thought the '80s were somewhat soulless. It was a big cocaine decade, and cocaine is a soulless drug. So it was a peculiar decade, full of repression and then rebellion, which might have fueled the satanic panic. Whenever you have a very closed-off society, you're going to have your rebels."

Campbell also believes that something else has improved significantly. "I now realize that TV is fundamentally different from what it used to be," he said. "My first TV role was on 'Knots Landing' around '87, and it wasn't well-photographed. They didn't really care about quality." He recalled, "They didn't do more than one or two takes. So they were rushing through it, and no one seemed to mind. It was really odd. I did one TV job, then didn't do TV for five more years, and it's been fascinating to see how TV has evolved and become what it is now."

Campbell concluded, "It's great to see because TV used to be where actors went when their careers were over. You went to 'Love Boat' or 'Falcon Crest' back in those days. It's nice to see TV in a positive light."

All eight episodes of "Hysteria!" will be available on Peacock starting October 18.