The legendary Bruce Campbell may be best known for his time on the big screen as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, but he has also left a sizable footprint on the world of television as well. Campbell made more than an impression on the TV space with fan-favorite roles in cult classic series like Xena: Warrior Princess, Jack of All Trades, Burn Notice, Invincible, and he even revisited Ashley J. Williams in televised form with Ash vs. Evil Dead. Following Ash’s post-apocalyptic conclusion in the Evil Dead spin-off series, Campbell recently clarified that he has officially retired as Ash Williams, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t another role in his vast library of icons that he’d like to revisit.

I recently had the extraordinary opportunity to chat with Campbell ahead of his new film, Ernie & Emma (which is a feel-good delight that fans of the actor should absolutely check out). Naturally, the subject of Campbell’s career eventually came up, and when asked if there were any other characters besides Ash Williams he’d be open to revisiting, Campbell did have one character come to mind. While Campbell clarified he doesn’t have to revisit any of them, he did have a pretty compelling pitch for a reboot of the ’90s Western cult classic, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
“I don’t really need to revisit any of them, but Brisco would be fun as an older cowboy. He might be, he’s just a lawyer now. You know cause he was a lawyer in the show, he was a Harvard-educated lawyer. So he would just have his own practice in San Francisco. Lord Bowler would be killed cause Julius Carry is no longer with us, so I would have it start with “Who killed Lord Bowler?” I’d start at his grave marker, and Brisco is a successful lawyer in San Francisco now, and Socrates [Christian Clemson] has his own law firm now, and everyone’s rich and comfortable. There are a lot of bad guys beyond Bly [Billy Drago]. We killed Bly, but there’s a whole thread that they gotta mount up again. And you would have Brisco’s son, and maybe he’s the child of Brisco and Dixie that we didn’t meet before, and maybe there’s Bowler’s angry son who’s also a bounty hunter, so you get the young generation involved. There’s a lot you could do with it.”
Released in 1993, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. follows the titular gunslinging hero as he leaves his prospective lawyer career behind to pursue a life in the Wild West. Naturally, his new career as a bounty hunter leads to more than a few run-ins with the roughest and toughest outlaws the West has to offer. It gets especially difficult when some of those toughest enemies also have some strange and futuristic weapons at their disposal.

Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz
Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?
Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky

Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.

Jason
Michael
Freddy
Pennywise
Chucky

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do?
First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.

ALeave immediately. I don’t need to understand a threat to respect it.
BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it.
CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again.
DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I’d rather know what I’m dealing with.
ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.

NEXT QUESTION →

02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?
Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.

ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people.
BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight.
CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what’s already in there.
DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things.
ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you’d expect is a threat.

NEXT QUESTION →

03
What is your most reliable survival asset?
Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?

APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence.
BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out.
CPsychological resilience — I’ve faced my worst fears before. They don’t have the same power over me.
DEmotional steadiness — I don’t panic. Panic is what gets you caught.
EScepticism — I don’t underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.

NEXT QUESTION →

04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?
Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.

AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer.
BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can’t locate, watching from somewhere I can’t see.
CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me.
DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself.
EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it’s too late.

NEXT QUESTION →

05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role?
Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.

AThe one who says “we need to leave” first — and means it, even when no one listens.
BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does.
CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to.
DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed.
EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.

NEXT QUESTION →

06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make?
Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.

AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t leave them behind.
BAssuming I’m safe once I’ve found a hiding spot. That’s when it finds me.
CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy.
DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I’m dealing with.
EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That’s exactly what it wants.

NEXT QUESTION →

07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means?
Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.

AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it.
BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn’t expect.
CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon.
DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on.
EImprovisation — I use whatever’s at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.

NEXT QUESTION →

08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it?
The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?

AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me.
BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it.
CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most.
DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed.
EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.

REVEAL MY VILLAIN →

Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated
Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.

Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th

Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.

Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween

Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.

But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.

Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.

Derry, Maine · It

Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.

Chicago · Child’s Play

Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

‘Ernie & Emma’ Is One of Bruce Campbell’s Most Unique and Ambitious Movies Yet

Bruce Campbell’s newest movie, Ernie & Emma, follows a lonely widower and retired pear salesman as he embarks on a statewide quest to spread his wife Emma’s (Robin McAlpine) ashes. It’s a journey filled with plenty of laughs that fans of the comedic actor might be used to, but also a surprising level of heart that should remind fans just how talented an actor and filmmaker Campbell is. The film is an independent picture through and through, and that was by design to make sure that Campbell and his team had complete and total control over their movie without any studio oversight:
“The concept of getting complete control again over the movie, our title, our tagline, our campaign, the movie will go where we want it to go, it’ll take its own course if it takes its own course. We’re not even doing it correctly. The correct method is you get a distributor, or the real correct method is you get financed by somebody who already knows the release date. But that causes its own problems. Now they might have to rush your movie. Oopsie. Might not be as good cause you gotta do it quick quick quick. So this was a case where, finally, the appeal of that was worth every daunting aspect of it that we were not gonna have any oversight.”
Ernie & Emma is in select theaters now. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Release Date

September 4, 2026

Runtime

88 minutes