After some bit parts on TV, seemingly sweet ingénue Ashley Bell made her movie breakthrough with a terror-inducing turn in the chilling 2010 indie The Last Exorcism. With good buzz among critics and a shocking and twisted ad campaign, the low-budget flick with an unknown director took in more than 67 million dollars worldwide. And so it’s getting a sequel, terribly tentatively titled The Last Exorcism 2.
THR has revealed that Bell has entered final negotiations to reprise the role that scored her an Indie Spirit nomination last winter. At the time I noted, “Ashley Bell’s change from doe-eyed Daddy’s girl to neck-cracking demon child was as guttural and gripping as Ed Norton’s two-faced turn in Primal Fear.” So I’m admittedly eager to see her return to the rural setting for some more devilish doings.
In the meantime, Bell has scored a supporting role in a new interracial romance titled Chasing Shakespeare, in which she plays a theater buddy to a Native American girl who falls for a African-American boy during a production of Hamlet. (No further plot details have yet surfaced.) Norry Niven (whose most eye-catching title to date is a video doc titled Playboy: Girls of Hooters) will direct the feature, which is set to begin filming in Texas soon.
While waiting for her to raise hell or spout Shakespeare, you can see Bell in the post-apocalyptic thriller The Day (trailer here) or the Hollywood-set thriller The Truth About Angels.
Are you interested in a sequel to The Last Exorcism?