ICE NINE KILLS Presents “Hell or High Slaughter” From Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come

Their sons may have eclipsed them in the 21st Century, but for a sleazy moment, Grave Diggler left its stain on hard partying rock n’ roll with decadence, desecrations, and panty raids. The group once stood shoulder to shoulder with their eyeliner-and-excess peers in Poison, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P., before bad business and even worse drugs dampened the fire in their loins. By the early ’90s, like many glam bands, Grave Diggler faded from the spotlight.

But history has a strange way of digglering up the past.

When the directing duo behind Scream (2022) and Scream VI, began work on the sequel to their 2019 black comedy horror hit Ready or Not, they desperately wanted to include one of Grave Diggler’s forgotten classic anthems. But even after Radio Silence Productions deduced the connection with Spencer Charnas, securing the rights was no mean feat.

The ensuing legal battle between fathers and sons resulted in Ice Nine Kills re-recording “Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler: Pt. 2)” for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and the long-banned 1987 music video for the song seeing the light of day.

“I’ve been estranged from my father for a long time,” Spencer explains. “But this movie, and this song, while bringing a lot of complicated feelings to the surface, also brought us back together.”

“Ice Nine Kills Presents Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler: Pt 2)” and it's NSFW music video are only available on YouTube. Watch and listen HERE.

Broken Lizard’s Paul Soter (Super Troopers), a lifelong Diggler obsessive, teamed up with director Myles Erfurth (Pandemic Sex Party) and Spencer to detail the band’s tale in a forthcoming documentary.

Laid to Rest: The Grave Diggler Story features all-new interviews with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’s Samara Weaving (The Babysitter), Kathryn Newton (Freaky), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett; Stephen Pearcy (Ratt); Matt Pinfield (MTV); Michael Starr (Steel Panther); Jose Mangin (SiriusXM); James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca (Dead Meat); Andy Gould (former Rob Zombie and Guns N’ Roses manager); and both Sonny and Spencer Charnas.

In recent years, Ice Nine Kills toured the world with Metallica; “A Grave Mistake” went gold; “A Work of Art” was in Terrifier 3, the highest-grossing unrated film ever; and “Twisting the Knife” ft. Mckenna Grace, from Scream 7 (which topped the box office upon release and set a franchise best record for Scream) shot to No. 1 on multiple Billboard charts.

But even as Ice Nine Kills Presents “Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler: Pt. 2)” blazes into Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (playing both in an early scene and again over the closing credits), Sonny Charnas remains characteristically unimpressed. “You call my son shrieking into a microphone like a meshuggah mental patient ‘singing’? That’s not heavy metal. I’m heavy metal."

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