Ruined the first one for us

The first movie in this series is a favourite Halloween movie of ours. We've watched the second one once -- I barely remember it -- and we just watched the third one, only because it was on Netflix

Wish we hadn't.

The biggest mistake of this movie was filming most of it in broad daylight. The first one made effective use of back-lighting, shadows, subdued lighting to establish the creepy vibe. We never got a clear vision of the Creeper until the end. Seeing the Creeper clearly throughout this movie made him seem more like... well, a guy in a mask and beat up duster.

And filming in daylight also revealed how bad the CGI and special effects were in this movie. The green-screened driving scenes really jumped out at us. The truck -- which looked genuinely battered and old in the first one -- is very obviously strategically painted to look grungy in this movie. The first movie may have had similarly dodgy special effects, I don't know, but the overall dark look of the film would have done a much better job of disguising that.

Random observations:

So at the end of the first movie, we see the Creeper replaces his eyes with Darry's noticeably brown eyes. Yet, in this movie, they are bright blue. This movie seems to take place in the day immediately following the police station attack. Did he swap his eyes out twice in the same night? Did the final scene of the first movie take place AFTER this movie, but BEFORE the second movie?

His M.O. changes from the first movie... In the first movie, the Creeper does his killing with bare hands. In the subsequent movies, he has these elaborate throwing stars, spears, etc. allowing him to kill people from a distance. Not a complaint, just an observation...

His strength and vulnerability. This seems to be all over the map as the script demands it. It's the same problem with superhero movies where their powers fluctuate, particularly in those big battle scenes. It really deflates a lot of the tension.

That amazing truck of his. James Bond's Q couldn't design anything more elaborate. Cable anchored spears! Where is the cable stored? How is it fired and retracted? How is it aimed anywhere else but straight backward which would limit its usefulness. Bullet proof! Even against armour piercing shells! Spring loaded bars! That... are... four feet long and descend down from a roof that's maybe four inches thick?! And a rod that fires sideways out of the driver's seat to... protect against what exactly? Do so many dead bodies come back to life in the back of his truck that he has to plan for it?

I could go on. No point. Stick with the first one, maybe the second, forget this one even exists.