Robert Englund returns as Freddy Krueger for a surprisingly distinguished slasher sequel with a very interesting cast (including Larry Fishburne and Patricia Arquette) and credits (director Chuck Russell went on to make The Mask and The Scorpion King). This time Old Pizza Face runs amok in a psychiatric ward full of disturbed teenagers, entering and distorting their worst nightmares. But it's not the plot that counts: it's the chillingly scary atmosphere, the fine special effects, Heather Langenkamp's reappearance as Freddie's foe and, of course, the chilling presence of Englund himself. Needless to say, but we will anyway, it's extremely gruesome and nasty, so the faint-hearted should steer well clear. But some of its ideas are as genuinely clever and original as they are shocking: how about a puppet that turns into a tiny version of Krueger and uses blood pouring from a bloke's body as the strings to chuck him from a high window? And the script's nasty sense of humour includes Freddy turning his Fu Manchu nails into hypodermic needles to kill a drug abuser. Yes folks, the true stuff of nightmare!

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes