Ne respire pas 2

The cinematography and set design steal the show in a film designed to make Steven Lang's sex predator look better by surrounding him with even-worse villains.

The sequel is efficient enough to get by but lacks the canny drive-in-movie ingenuity of the original.

By the time the third act rolls around it doesn't inspire screams and gasps so much as it inspires embarrassed laughter.

But it's unlikely anything Alvarez and Sayagues could hatch would equal their fantastic first outing, which only veered off its minimalist path when it knew the twist would knock your socks off.