Director/Producer – Alin Bijan, Screenplay – Chris Bessey, Story Concept – Mike Norris, Photography – Hamid Shams, Music – Amin Emam, Visual Effects – Post Asylum (Supervisor – Ilram Choi), Makeup Effects – Lily Shams. Production Company – Norris Film Works/Media World.
Cast
Mike Norris (Jux Jonas), David [A.R.] White (Conrad Champlain), Carey Scott (Oren Ames), Chuck Norris (Matthew), Scarlett McAlister (Diana), Gabby Di Ciolli (Lyric), Grant James (Emeritus), Marshall Teague (Joshua Ravel), Scott Veale (Jeremy), Richard Rollin (Chacahilu), Tara DiLeva (Maria Ames), Roy Empfield (Pastor Spencer), Julie Arebalo (Alecia Champlain), Matthew Greer (Pastor Bellows)
Plot
Three men, Conrad Champlain, Oren Ames and pilot Jux Jonas, set out from a church in Dallas in a small plane to deliver a consignment of Bibles to Mexico. However, the plane develops engine troubles in mid-flight and they are forced to put down. They walk to the nearby town of Ceres but find the locals strange and unfriendly. There are no vehicles available or phone lines out of town, although the friendly Matthew offers them the use of a radio that allows them to briefly contact home. However, when the church tries to send help, they find there is no town of Ceres on any map. Jux connects with young Lyric who reminds him of his daughter who was killed. The others gradually uncover the secrets of the town – of how the townspeople are ruled over by children who have lost their souls and how the town exists to corrupt the innocent over into worship of The Devil.
Mike Norris is the son of action star Chuck Norris. Mike had been acting since he was in his teens, first appearing in A Force of One (1979), Chuck’s first film as a leading man, and assorted other roles, along with working as a stuntman and fight choreographer on his father’s films. Mike began directing with episodes of Chuck’s tv series Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001) and made his feature-length film debut with the action film The Rage Within (2001). Sometime in the early 2000s, Mike discovered religion and all of his output since then has been as a director and writer of films in Christian Cinema. These have included the likes of Birdie & Bogey (2004), Maggie’s Passage (2009), I Am … Gabriel (2012), Mission Air (2014), the laughable right wing conspiracy theory film Amerigeddon (2016) and the Biblical Apocalypse/survivalist drama The Crossroads of Hunter Wilde (2019).
With Bells of Innocence, Mike formed Norris Film Works to produce the film, while acting as executive producer, coming up with the story and being the lead actor. Surprisingly, Mike Norris does not direct Bells of Innocence, presumably so as to concentrate on playing the lead. The actual directing is conducted by Alin Bijan, who elsewhere has made the thriller Seduction of the Innocent (1995) and the horror film Ghosts of Goodnight Lane (2014), plus some documentary work. He has also produced several of Mike Norris’s other films.
Mike Norris brings with him David [A.R.] White who has become the nearest this Christian Cinema niche has to a superstar, as well as Carey Scott who has played roles and directed other Christian films. The most bizarre piece of casting is Chuck himself who wears a cowboy hat and smokes a cheroot before in the end being revealed to be an Angel. Chuck plays the part with the same sense of stony implacability that he does every role – in the scenes where the townspeople surround his house, you almost expect him to deliver a series of dropkicks and send the mob packing.
Chuck Norris as the angel Matthew
Mike Norris and co have shot Bells of Innocence on a low-budget, using the western recreation town at Beaumont Ranch in Grandview, Texas. The entire film appears to have been shot there – there is no credit for production designer, for instance, meaning no sets built for the film. The photography is strictly average middle-of-the-road video film work of the era, while the score is elevator music blandly hyping drama where none exists.
Bells of Innocence sits on the edge of being a horror film – there are evil children who have lost their souls, while the townspeople are revealed to be Devil Worshippers. This taps into the trope of the small town of Satanists that we get in films such as City of the Dead (1959), Brotherhood of Satan (1970) and Race with the Devil (1975). The film also taps the Western ghost town theme – there are a surprising number of similarities to the Western Black Noon (1971) where people are trapped inside such a town because of a deal with The Devil; this has an origin story flashback to the West, although all of the action takes place in the present day. On the other hand, Bells of Innocence is not so interested in the horror elements, more in his redemption arc and in the characters having to make simplistic choices between serving good or evil and eventually celebrating their faith.
