Two sisters must fight against Satan-loving wealthy people whose very existence depends on the ritual sacrifice of unsuspecting poor people. That is literally the plot for both Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and They Will Kill You, both of which are genuinely delightful, gore-heavy ha-ha-horror movies designed to offer you a smidgen of socioeconomic catharsis in these trying times.

In true Hollywood fashion, let’s give priority to the sequel. In the first Ready or Not, Grace (Samara Weaving) was rather disappointed to find out that she would be hunted to the death by her rich husband’s family mere hours after she married him. She endured a mansion full of weapon-toting aristocrats attempting to please Lucifer by murdering the new bride. Bad news: She wakes up to find that the game isn’t quite over yet.

Grace’s survival meant the eradication of her hubby’s entire bloodline. As a demonically litigious Elijah Wood explains, this means that the remaining families who are included in the devil’s bargain for wealth and power must now each send a representative to kill Grace before dawn. She politely declines to participate again, but they threaten to whack her sister, Faith (Kathyrn Newton). The blonde siblings must then try to escape Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her brother, the coolest doctor from The Pitt (Shawn Hatosy), as well as an assortment of other affluent ne’er-do-wells.

Leaning more heavily into the violence and gore than the first go-round, Ready or Not 2 doesn’t radically amplify the spectacle so much as it more thoroughly understands what it is. Exploding humans are more frequently used as pleasing punchlines. Weaving’s much-praised screams are screampt at only the most well-chosen of times. The ending is admirably grotesque. It is redundant to the original and wholly unnecessary, but watching increasingly awful things happen to 1%-ers will forever be a fantastic use of one’s time.

That is also where They Will Kill You comes in. Gorier, funnier, and much weirder than its sister cinematic sibling that we just discussed, this is essentially a kung-fu/horror hybrid. Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) goes to jail after shooting her abusive father, abandoning her younger sister, Maria (Myha’la). While she’s in the hoosegow, lil’ sis lives a somehow-even-worse life that eventually sees her employed as a maid at Beelzebub’s hotel. The whole thing is secretly a prison, and the elite jerks who live in it snare innocent folks to get murdered so that they can have eternal life.

Not quite as cool as if Sam Raimi directed The Raid, but close, Asia and Maria must fight their way out from the clutches of Patricia Arquette, who prays to a talking severed pig’s head. There’s an extended (and quite funny) sequence with a detached eyeball that goes for a stroll. Heather Graham and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) show up. There’s a fight in a blacked-out ballroom where Asia uses a flaming axe while a Doechii song plays. If all of that doesn’t do it for you, your loss, honestly.

At a brisk 90-ish minutes, They Will Kill You is as close as we are going to come in today’s meta-aware, corporate-synergized cinema to a genuine cult classic. It is breathless, wild, weird, stupid, and so very much fun.

Remember in the 80s/90s when all the villains were nebulously Russian because of the Cold War? Then in the 2000s, every baddie was a Middle Eastern terrorist? Using the uber-rich as bloody punching bags avoids all that racism and delivers 100% guilt-free satisfaction. More please. Don’t stop. Cut ‘em up, ladies.

Grades: Ready or Not 2 gets a B+, They Will Kill You gets an A-, maybe a bit overgenerous, but I stand by it.

Other Critical Voices to Consider

Walter Chaw at Film Freak Central says “while I didn’t necessarily hate Ready or Not 2, I was disheartened by how typical it is. It behaves like a knock-off of Ready or Not that figured out the notes but not the music.”

Amelia Harvey at Frame Rated says “If you’re looking for smart, ‘eat-the-rich’ satire, They Will Kill You is not for you. It has no intention of making a political or socioeconomic point; it just wants good old-fashioned, machete-wielding fun. You could argue it’s style over substance, but it’s fully aware of that.”

Emmet Asher-Perrin at Reactor says “Like its predecessor, Ready or Not: Here I Come does not skimp on outrageousness in its finale, going so much harder on its second run that the emotional catharsis comes clear. The underpinnings of the first story do shine through in enough moments to remind its audience that this isn’t simply a story about the moral bankruptcy of our ruling classes—it is also ultimately a story about how much the institution of marriage demands (and takes) from women.”

Nadine Whitney at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists says “Kirill Sokolov’s first English language feature is far from substantial. Indeed, when one reads that his filmmaking style is influenced by Park Chan-Wook (or at least the hallway fight scene in Oldboy), Sam Raimi’s gory-driven horror-comedies, and anime; They Will Kill You becomes obviously derivative. Yet, within the derivation there’s a certain pleasure at just how far he is willing to go with his one-woman army played by Zazie Beetz.”