10 Actors Who Returned To Horror Franchises YEARS Later
2. Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist
In terms of the latent period between horror franchise appearances, nobody beats Ellen Burstyn, who at 91 years of age recently played a supporting role in The Exorcist: Believer, reprising her role of Chris MacNeil from the original Exorcist 50 years prior.
For the great many Exorcist fans who simply felt the franchise was thoroughly played out by this point, Burstyn's role was basically Believer's primary selling point - a clear attempt to bridge the gap between old and new eras of Exorcist lore.
Granted, though Burstyn gave it her all as usual, fan reception to Chris' role in the sequel was heavily polarised, largely due to a scene where she's attacked and blinded, adding a grim post-script to Chris' already-traumatic story.
For Burstyn's part, she freely admitted that she only reprised the role to help fund a scholarship program for actors, which is about as noble a use of a fat studio payday as there ever has been.