Contrary to what other commentors are saying, I found this installment to be somewhat better than the first two. I do agree that the storyline has grown tiresome and it would have been nice to have at least _some_ semblance of originality; as it is, it just seems like they took the original and moved the setting to Chicago, as opposed to coming up with a continuation or even different storyline. What set this one apart for me - and this is the ONLY thing that I felt made it better - were the underlying tones of evil and hatefulness. Granted, the gore was somewhat better, the effects (IMO) were better, but as a story, I thought the entire atmosphere of "evil" and "rage" (as stated in the opening lines of each of the movies) was much more palpable. The first two movies felt "creepy", but this one had a sense of underlying hatred that just wanted to hurt and injure...not just "oooo, a creepy crawling entity that wants to get me!" I was particularly impressed with the way Kayako morphed out of the painting into the lady's apartment; probably best scene in the entire franchise. What continues to take the edge off of "horror" movies, however (this one being no exception) is how the victim always seems to fall, stumble, twist an ankle, break a leg, get trapped, etc etc and is unable to outdistance some broken, hobbling, evil entity that moves at a snail's pace. Satires have been made about these ridiculous fragments in almost every modern "horror" movie, and yet the writers and producers keep churning it out. It takes away…almost makes it laughable, actually…the actual idea of something scary pursuing you. In this movie, there were too many of these and far too many _"Doh! Why would you chase some freakish entity up a flight of stairs and into an empty apartment with no lights..."_ scenes. As an opposing example, the modern-day zombie movies (where the zombies can actually move rapidly and aren't just shuffling along moaning for "brainzzzzzzzz....") scare the bejabbers out of me because it wouldn't matter how fast you can move; if you don't stay upright, you're the main course for whatever is after you. In these movies, however, you have this broken, twisted, crawling, barely-moving dead girl who struggles to put one hand in front of the next (because she can't walk, mind you; she can only crawl) and yet somehow the victims manage to fall in such a manner they can't bring themselves to an upright position and get the heck outta Dodge. I don't know....maybe it's just me, but it's become such a generic cliche in today's "horror" movies that it's almost laughable anymore. And it certainly takes any element of apprehension out of a scene because you already know what's going to happen. All that aside, I still enjoyed this one even though it _was_ predictable. [spoiler] I found the conclusion to be a disappointment, mainly because I had expected this to be the last of the franchise. Now, it appears that (1) either it isn't the last or (2) it's the last but it wasn't intended to be. In any event, they need to find a conclusion to this one because they've quickly worn it out. [/spoiler] What's the legal phrase?… _"Asked and answered"_ This one has already been hashed and rehashed and this installment was only mildly more entertaining because they inserted a touch more intensity here. As a side note, I found it somewhat amusing that I couldn't see Shawnee Smith in this one without still seeing "Amand" from the _Saw_ franchise.