AllMovie

Prolific B-movie auteur Fred Olen Ray's sequel to Inner Sanctum is little more than softcore porn masquerading as an arty erotic thriller. Full of hallucination scenes, erotic nightmares, and other gimmicky devices (sometimes nested three deep), the film tells the story of nurse Jennifer Reed (Tracy Brooks Swope), who -- when she was still played by Tanya Roberts in the first movie -- killed her murderous husband after he attempted to do the same to her. Jennifer's brother-in-law Bill (Michael Nouri from Flashdance) and his wife (Sandahl Bergman) come to stay with her. When a series of hook-murders begins, the traumatized woman and her guests must determine who is drugging her and setting up the killings. None of it really matters, however, as the mystery is secondary to all of the sex and violence. There are numerous softcore couplings, as well as some pretty silly hallucinations (sex with a decaying corpse, Jennifer's graveyard dance with an undead Kato Kaelin), and even a catfight to keep the punters happy. Ray casts the film with the usual semi-names (Robert Quarry, Margaux Hemingway, David Warner, Joe Estevez) but can't muster enough MTV-style gloss on his budget to make it really work as an erotic thriller, nor enough true silliness to make it work as camp. It just sits there, as disposable as a paper plate and about as stimulating.