Peacock

The Peacock horror comedy finds timeliness in a dark chapter of American history. “Satan was always an existential threat,” the actor said.In 1981, Bruce Campbell knocked horror fandom’s socks off as Ash Williams, the iron-jawed demon fighter in “The Evil Dead,” Sam Raimi’s outré and now-beloved film about friends who battle unholy hell at a cabin in the woods. It was, it seems fair to say, a defining role.Now at 66, after decades of swashbuckling, bone-crunching roles in cult horror films and on TV, Campbell’s life seems a bit more Mayberry. He is a grandfather who still uses AOL Mail. Later this month, he’ll host what he called a “casino-ween” party at an Elks Lodge in Ashland, Ore., the mountain town where he lives with his wife, Ida. His taste in music, he said, is “way more Lawrence Welk than you might imagine.”In some ways, his role in the Peacock series “Hysteria!,” which debuted on Friday, reflects something of this kinder, gentler new reality. As the aw-shucks police chief Dandridge, his domain is a sleepy Michigan suburb in the 1980s, a place where boring is beautiful. But this is Bruce Campbell, so of course the peace is shattered as local holy rollers blame a high school heavy metal band for inviting Satan to their town and unleashing a series of deathly evil deeds. But the devil rarely needs an invitation.“Hysteria!” is a supernatural horror-comedy, but it takes its cue from a very real and unfunny chapter in American history: the so-called satanic panic, when a flood of unwarranted accusations about cults committing ritualistic child abuse swept the country. That abuse was abetted, according to many leaders on the religious right, by satanic messaging in popular culture.Campbell stars in “Hysteria!” as the humble police chief of a town consumed by fears about Satan.PeacockBut for a series set in the ’80s, “Hysteria!” is in some ways timely. It is the latest of several popular treatments of the satanic panic in recent years — including the documentary “Satan Wants You,” the novel “Rainbow Black” and the most recent season of “Stranger Things” — as culture wars, new technologies and misinformation have helped incite a fresh wave of conspiracy theories and conservative book bans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More