The film quickly nose dives from there with very little elements of intrigue. In fact, it ends up becoming exactly what it initially set out to poke fun of, falling back on the haunches of old formulas and clichés. The twists and turns in this installment are eye rolling, and the major reveal of the killer is delivered a little too early and their motive is laughable. Lucky for the film's characters, they get tipped off by the posthumous Jamie Kennedy, who gives them the new set of meta rules for a trilogy, comparing the franchise to Star Wars and The Godfather.

The meta aspects of the film, which were once a source of the franchise's freshness, become stale and used a little too heavily as a crutch. All throughout the film, the writing acknowledges its recycled horror elements, but obviously lacks the self-awareness to really change up the its formula. The film further acknowledges its apparent lack of originality through the producers comments on the killer and his killings, saying things like, "Very Hannibal Lecter, very Seven." As if knowing about these films, copying them and calling it out makes it okay. Not to mention we have a deranged director who's killing the characters playing the characters in his movie within a movie. I mean, how genius is that?!

More sarcasm...