With a $67 million worldwide gross the inexpensive independent found footage horror flick The Last Exorcism was one of the surprise hits of 2010. When cheaply-produced horror films bank serious profits at the box office the immediate production of sequels is inevitable. Lionsgate, the distributor of The Last Exorcism, built its company and reputation on the back of the lucrative Saw franchise and recently launched another potential ongoing series with the success of Texas Chainsaw 3D. They are the studio to beat when it comes to low-budget fright flicks and in three months the much-anticipated sequel to Daniel Stamm’s modestly profitable tale of demonic possession will be unleashed.

Now Lionsgate has released a trailer and poster for The Last Exorcism Part II. You can check them both out here below.

Directed by Canadian filmmaker Ed Gass-Donnelly (Small Town Murder Songs) from a screenplay by Damien Chazelle, the sequel picks up roughly where the first film left off. Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell), the Louisiana country girl who was possessed by the demon Abalam in the original, is discovered to be the sole survivor of the events of the previous film’s events and taken to New Orleans. Once there the evil forces that terrorized her in the past return to make her life a literal living Hell once again, which means another exorcism.

Sounds eerily similar to The Exorcist II: The Heretic, except that movie had the great Richard Burton at the lowest point in his otherwise distinguished career, overacting with his sweat glands, as well as some delirious visuals and one of the best scores Ennio Morricone ever composed for an American film. I am pretty sure the makers of The Last Exorcism Part II have no intention of living up to that misguided greatness, nor do they really care. March is a good month to open limited-appeal movies like this before the summer onslaught begins and this one will no doubt be another profitable success, even if it turns out to be a complete bomb.

The Last Exorcism Part II opens in theaters on March 1st, 2013.

Poster

Trailer

[Source: Yahoo! Movies]