Back in 2018, Rob Lowe directed a Lifetime adaptation of The Bad Seed with Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) in the lead role. Now Grace is reprising the role of the homicidal youngster in The Bad Seed Returns, which will be making its Lifetime premiere on Memorial Day (Monday, May 30th). A trailer for The Bad Seed Returns has been released and can be seen in the embed above.
Grace wrote the script for The Bad Seed Returns with her father Ross Burge and Barbara Marshall, who wrote the ’18 film. Louise Archambault (Catastrophe) directed the sequel. Grace plays
15-year-old Emma, a seemingly typical teenaged girl who is anything but that. Set several years after the murderous events of the first movie which left her father dead, Emma is now living with her aunt Angela and navigating high school. Angela’s husband begins to suspect that Emma may not be as innocent as she appears and suggests sending her off to boarding school. Meanwhile, a new girl at school seems to know Emma’s secrets, leaving Emma no choice but to slip back to her old ways and take care of her enemies by any means necessary.
Grace also executive produced The Bad Seed Returns with Ross Burge, her mother Crystal Burge, and the first movie’s executive producer Mark Wolper. Grace and Ross Burge, an orthopedic surgeon, wrote the initial draft of the script while stuck at home during the pandemic lockdown.
Lifetime’s Tanya Lopez told Deadline,
When Mckenna came to us with a spec script she wrote, we were blown away with her vision for the next installment and thrilled we could greenlight it and re-team with her and Mark Wolper. This is an incredible Broader Focus moment to have such in a talented young star stretch her abilities beyond acting into writing and executive producing.”
The Bad Seed Returns was produced for Lifetime by The Wolper Organization and Front Street Productions, and is the first production for Grace’s company Beautiful Ghosts Productions.
The 2018 version of The Bad Seed was a reimagining of the 1956 psychological horror film The Bad Seed (watch it HERE), which itself was based on a novel by William March and its stage adaptation by Maxwell Anderson. There was also a 1985 movie based on the story.
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