AllMovie

The original Devil in the Flesh had Rose McGowan's knowing humor, Peg Shirley's monstrous domestic villainy, and a relatively fresh reworking of exploitation tropes to recommend it. This straight-faced sequel, however, is saddled with too much back story, a carbon-copy plot, and a blasé lead performance from Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. Enacting exactly the same trail of obsession and revenge as McGowan's original Debbie Strand, but without the sardonic sensuality or the comic undertones, O'Keefe and novice director Marcus Spiegel turn Devil in the Flesh 2 into just another cheap psycho-girlfriend flick. Jsu Garcia isn't nearly as convincing an older hunk as the original film's Alex McArthur (who makes an uncredited cameo as one of the shrinks in Debbie's insane asylum). Meanwhile, cinematographer M. David Mullen and production designer Radha Metha, the latter a veteran of the stylish original film, go for a brand of gothic gloom and dorm-room flatness that's as unsatisfying as the film's elements. Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby at least had the temerity to take its source material and really run with it; Devil in the Flesh 2 is just an anemic imitation.