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metronews.ca Monday, February 25, 2013
Letting the Devil in Hell’s Bell. Ashley Bell returns as lead in The Last Exorcism Part II Chris Alexander Metro World News
In Hollywood, it ain’t over until it’s over, and when a film tanks at the box office, it most certainly is over. But Daniel Stamm’s 2010 mock dock shocker The Last Exorcism, produced by Eli Roth, did not tank theatrically, rather it did very well, transforming its meager budget into big returns. So it made sense to revisit the same pea-soup spewing well, thus we have the awkwardly
titled The Last Exorcism Part II, a film that abandons the first picture’s shaky-cam esthetic in favour of a straight-forward narrative. Thankfully, one element that does remain a constant is the ethereal presence of American actress Ashley Bell (The Day) as the bedeviled lead. Bell once more plays Nell, the possessed girl set up by her own kin to birth the Antichrist. The sequel finds her now removed from her oppressively evil rural home and loose in the world, still infected with Satan but this time she kinda likes it. “Nell has devolved in the sense that we find her broken and in re-exploring her I had to put her back together,” Bell told
Metro. “In those missing pieces, that’s where there’s room for doubt for the Devil to creep in and wreak havoc. Being suddenly exposed to things that have been forbidden like lipstick, a boyfriend, her first kiss ... it’s like there’s a love story going on with the Devil, a whole dance that she does with him and it changes her.” The urgency of the original was exemplified in Bell’s raw physical performance, one that saw her do all her own eye-popping contortions and spastic back bends. The followup sees her getting even more bent out of shape, to the point that she sustained some legitimate wear and tear.
Ashley Bell says playing Nell in The Last Exorcism Part II was a demanding role. handout
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