Innately, the success of a movie sequel hinges almost entirely on how much you liked the first film. If you liked it, then you probably want to see the story continued. If you didn’t like it, then the story stops there. It’s that simple.

I didn’t care too much for 2019’s Ready or Not; its sureness of being the next iconic thing quickly morphed into a sweaty try-hard stench. So, when the aptly titled sequel, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, literally dons the tagline “double or nothing,” it didn’t exactly inspire much confidence from me. As we all know, doubling on zero is still zero. Okay, fine, zero is a bit of a cheap shot. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is more like one-third of a good movie, with two-thirds being a pedantic recycling of what’s come before.

One is the loneliest number, which is where Grace (Samara Weaving) found herself at the end of the first film. She was the only one left standing on the night of her wedding into the Le Domas family: wealthy elitists who obtained their power by making a literal deal with the devil. By surviving a deadly game of hide and seek, she banished them to hell, each exploding like blood-filled balloons (you better have thought that was hilarious, because it’s the most consistent punchline here). At the very end, Grace finally walks out of the burning mansion, sitting down to enjoy a cigarette.

Returning directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, collectively known as “Radio Silence,” were so sure of the cultural impact of that ending that they opened the sequel with it. We continue from where the screen went black, with Grace being rushed to the hospital. She wakes up handcuffed to her bed and quickly surmises that no one is going to believe that she killed all those people in self-defense. Before a season’s worth of television could have been wrung out of mounting her legal defense, she’s forced back into the same game, this time with even more rules and stakes.

That’s what everyone wants when they’re having fun playing a game: more rules! Also returning for the sequel are screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. Here, they suffer from John Wick syndrome, where they must invent reasons for a sequel to exist after the simplistic original film didn’t naturally set it up. For some odd reason, killing the Le Domas clan has triggered a power vacuum for the highest seat on the High Council, populated by the families who literally run the world. David Cronenberg makes a cameo as Chester Danforth, making one call to enact an immediate ceasefire between two warring Middle Eastern nations. Each family gets one representative to be a hunter in the new hide-and-seek game, with the first person to kill Grace obtaining the high seat.

Once again, we watch as Grace does battle with a bunch of elitists who will literally kill for power. This time, she’s a little more experienced, even re-wearing her bloody wedding dress as composer Sven Faulconer cues up triumphant “suit up” music. Weaving still holds claim to be the leading scream queen of her generation, matching the nastiness of the action with a fierce presence and a wicked sense of deadpan humor.

Handcuffed both literally and emotionally to Grace is her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton). The pair must overcome their past trauma if they want to survive the night, which they'll do several times by stopping mid-chase to hash out some conflicting memories. And then, when they are caught, the supposedly ruthless killers will play with their food, creating opportune moments where one sister makes a selfless act to save the other.

At this point, having a bunch of rich, satan-worshipping asseholes get their comeuppance at the hands of the little guy(s) just isn't satisfying anymore. The real-world news cycle has continually confirmed our wildest conspiracies about the highest class, pretty much guaranteeing that this sort of thing probably does go on in plain sight. And this self-aggrandizing humor is just preaching to a choir that is being served progressively more reheated leftovers. I've lost my appetite, and I'm hoping the chefs are getting sick of serving it.