It’s just another horror movie with a PG13 rating—a signal that it's intentionally avoiding anything genuinely frightening, practically announcing "There will be no scares here!" It feels designed to be as inoffensive as possible. Like so many others these days, the film relies on a few quick jump scares and then doesn’t offer much more. It lacks purpose without being classified as horror-comedy, but studios s…

This installment represents the series’ nadir so far, and arguably its most foolish chapter; however, it wasn't terrible enough to deter me from checking out the next one, scheduled for release in 2017. It also employs that irritating convention of being a prequel while still carrying a "Chapter X" designation. _Final rating:★★ - There were elements I enjoyed, but the overall result was disappointing._