horror, through Ricky, takes its revenge not only against naughty breachers of filmgoing etiquette, but also against blowhard critics.

Everything feels like a first take, the dullest moments are padded out to their maximum duration, and even the kills are markedly lacking in effects.

Though Part 2 isn't much more dignified than its predecessor, at the very least its isolated pleasures have a culminating effect.

The franchise equivalent of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" — a great second half undone only by the preceding padding.