31 Days of Halloween: Revisiting American Gothic with Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell appeared in a disturbing episode of Sam Raimi and Shaun Cassidy’s series, American Gothic in the 90’s. For 31 Days of Halloween, we look back at “Meet the Beetles.”

Bruce Campbell was a constant presence on television during the 1990’s. From The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. to Homicide: Life on the Streets and The X-Files, he went beyond his horror film roots into other genres.

Meanwhile, Sam Raimi was executive producing a dark, disturbing series created by former Hardy Boy and teen idol, Shaun Cassidy for CBS. American Gothic centered around demonic sheriff, Lucas Buck (played with evil glee by Gary Cole) who used his supernatural “gifts” to control the residents of Trinity, South Carolina.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before Raimi reached out to his good friend, Bruce to be a guest star. So, on episode 7 of the first season, the actor appeared in “Meet the Beetles” as Lt. Drey.

When his lecherous brother-in-law is killed under mysterious circumstances, Drey shows up to investigate. Through doing his due diligence on the murder, he falls under the spell of Trinity’s resident femme fatale, Selena Coombs (Brenda Bakke).

Since Selena was the object of so many men’s lustful intentions, Drey’s brother-in-law wasn’t her only admirer. Unfortunately, another rival perceives the Lieutenant as a threat.

The consequences for spending time with Selena are dire as Drey is about to find out. As it just so happens, Ms. Coombs’ admirer works in the local natural history museum as an entomologist.

As everyone knows no one dies quite like Bruce Campbell and this particular one is gruesome and terrifying especially if you are claustrophobic and have a deep-rooted fear of bugs. Click on this link to see what happens to the actor’s character.

If you want to check out this very eerie series for Halloween, American Gothic is available on Hulu, PlutoTV and NBC.

Have you seen American Gothic? Let us know in the comments.