This movie annoyed me.
*Spoilers coming*
It did not play by the same rules as the first movie, you can tell they just wanted to make something scary vs. Keeping the magic of the first one alive.
The thing would purposely try to get it's victim infront of other people or another person, once it has a witness the victim would die but in this one, that didn't matter at all.
There are MANY times where the victim is in front of others but was left alive, also time manipulation and extreme long term hallucinations was big in this one but no where near as much in the first. They broke a lot of "rules" to make something visually appealing, deep and scary. It was well made and entertaining but if you watched the first one, it's just a different movie.
I think their biggest mistake was deleting the cop from the first one but what do I know.