I’ve always wanted to get “the band back together.” And by band, I mean my Warhammer 40K buddies from high school. We played almost every weekend, throwing together games with ridiculously large point totals. Rules be damned. If we didn’t have the models, paint bottles, G.I. Joes and whatever other trinkets we could find filled in. It wasn’t pretty, and I’m sure we got plenty wrong, but it was fun.

We’ve all gone our separate ways since then. Getting everyone together for a tournament, or even just one game, doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Still, I’d love to spend another weekend around a table with those guys, rolling dice and pretending a paint bottle is a legitimate military threat. At least none of us are dead yet.

That puts my reunion plans a few steps ahead of Brodie’s in Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon.

A sequel to the 2015 horror-comedy Deathgasm, Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon reunites writer-director Jason Lei Howden with the original film’s metal-loving misfits. Years after surviving a demonic bloodbath, Brodie (Milo Cawthorne) has discovered that saving the world doesn’t necessarily mean your life gets any better.

He’s unemployed, his musical ambitions have stalled and Medina (Kimberley Crossman) has moved on without him. When a battle-of-the-bands competition offers a chance to turn things around, Brodie sees an opportunity to reclaim some purpose and hopefully win back the woman he loves.

First, though, he needs to get his band back together.

With some of its members dead, that requires considerably more effort than a few phone calls. Brodie turns to the dark magic that caused so much trouble the first time, hoping to resurrect his friends and recapture their former glory. Naturally, bringing back the dead comes with complications that no amount of rehearsal can fix.

What begins as a desperate reunion becomes another collision of heavy metal, undead mayhem and spectacularly bad decisions.

I should admit that I haven’t seen the first Deathgasm, so I came into this sequel completely blind. I had no attachment to these characters or expectations about how their reunion should play out. But spending time with them here has made me want to go back and watch the original. I feel like I showed up late to the party, had a good time anyway, and now want to hear what I missed.

The Zombie effects for Zakk (James Joshua Blake) and Dion (Sam Berkley) are top notch, as are those for most of the other undead that end up taking over the town. There’s a lot to appreciate in how thoroughly disgusting these characters become without losing the personalities that make them fun to watch. The makeup lets the actors remain expressive, giving Zakk and Dion room to be characters instead of just walking displays of decay.

That matters in a movie where the undead need to land a joke, as well as deliver the carnage.

The practical effects are a big part of the appeal here, and there is a ton of blood. Usually, gratuitous bloodbaths aren’t my thing. I can appreciate the work behind a gruesome death, but watching a movie repeatedly try to top itself tends to wear thin for me. Here, though, the comedy makes it work. The violence gets so ridiculous that I found myself laughing while cringing at the damage being done. The bloodshed becomes part of the punchline, with the practical effects delivering some wonderfully disgusting payoffs.

A perfect example is former WWE star Braun Strowman, real name Adam Scherr, showing up as a security guard. Before taking on a group of Zombies, he delivers his wrestling catchphrase: “You’re gonna get these hands.”

And then the Zombies rip his hands off.

So, technically, they got exactly what he promised them. It’s a ridiculous setup with an equally ridiculous payoff, and that pretty much sums up why the gore works for me here. I’m usually ready for a movie to move on once it starts tearing people apart, but this one had me laughing at a wrestling threat taken literally.

Brodie’s likability also makes the movie better because it gives me someone to root for between all the blood and severed body parts. He’s flawed, and using black magic to bring his friends back is obviously a terrible decision, but I could still understand why he wanted to do it. Deep down, he misses his buddies and wants another chance to have everyone together. Cawthorne makes that feel sincere, which kept me invested in Brodie, even while he was making a complete mess of things. I wanted him to get something good out of this reunion. Without that connection, I don’t think the comedy or the carnage would have worked nearly as well for me.

On the other hand, Medina feels underused. Even coming into this without seeing the original, I wanted more time with her and Brodie, especially since winning her back is such a big part of his motivation. Their history carries weight in the story, but I would have liked more opportunity to feel that connection for myself. And while the comedy made most of the bloodshed work for me, a few of the more drawn-out gross-out moments still tested my patience. Sometimes the joke lands, and the movie keeps going when I’m ready for it to move on.

I give Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon four out of five stars.

I came in blind and left wanting to see the original, which says plenty about how much fun I had with its mix of likable misfits, ridiculous comedy and practical gore. It also reminded me why I still want to get my old Warhammer buddies around a table again. Give me some dice, a few paint bottles standing in for models, and one more ridiculously oversized game, and I’d be happy.

If getting everyone together requires black magic, though, I think I’ll keep working on the group text.