KPop Demon Hunters –  Rumi, Zoey and Mira are the massively popular K-pop girlband, Huntrix, but they keep an important secret – they use their voices to fight demonic forces led by the evil Gwi-ma. Desperate to lose the memories of his past, demon Ji-noo brings an evil boyband together called Saja Boys to fight the girls and bring about the apocalypse. Rumi, who has spent her life hiding a major part of herself from everyone begins to struggle with the weight of her destiny. Can Huntrix defeat the Saja Boys or will the world go – Soda Pop?   

KPop Demon Hunters (2025) – Director: Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang

Rating: PG

Running Length: 95 mins

Starring: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, Lee Byung-hun

Genres: Animated, Fantasy, Horror, Musical,

REVIEW: KPOP DEMON HUNTERS

Since ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ dropped onto Netflix – the world has gone wild! Sing-a-longs are cropping up at cinemas, there is merchandise in everything, and people of all ages are joining in the KPDH mania. As someone who isn’t a fan of K-Pop (I know, I know!) but does love many aspects of South Korean media, I was on the fence as to how much I personally wanted to see this film.

I appreciate that I’m not the target audience for this film so my criticisms are unlikely to sway the kids who love it (and I would never want it to) but I’ve got to be honest and honestly, I wasn’t too impressed. The film is superficial. There are attempts at depth – Ji-noo’s guilty conscience weighs on him and a sub-plot on Rumi’s secret is threaded in and out – but those parts feel crowbarred in and fail to synch up with the film’s bright and breezy pace. You can imagine the prompt ‘k-pop is so hot right now’ being chucked into ChatGPT and producing something similar. ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ really is just a few K-Pop songs connected by a thin thread of plot.

Sometimes the power of songs can elevate basic material (cue the mega best selling soundtrack to ‘The Greatest Showman‘) but ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ drops the ball here. Ok, Soda Pop may be a break out hit, but the songs are fired out like throwaway morsels rather than woven into character. Songs that defeat demons should surely be different to every other song in the genre and yet the music led by Huntrix continues in the same vein as all the other output.

What I did like was the movie’s devotion to Korean culture. The clothing, the food and history are all subtly Korean; there is no watering down to Western norms. That the movie is so popular over Europe and America is a credit to audiences desire for a little authenticity in their entertainment from overseas. Also, Ji-noo’s companions – the Totoro-esque tiger and three-eyed, hat-wearing crow are adorably weird.

You may not understand it but your kids will love it. As long as you’re happy with the content just go with it and I bet you’ll be humming ‘Soda Pop’ as soon as you hear it.

CONTENT: IS ‘KPOP DEMON HUNTERS’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The movie opens explaining that demons have been attacking humans and ‘stealing our souls’ for centuries. There is a silhouette of a woman which we see through a window. The shadow of a demon appears behind her which sucks out a blue light representing her soul from her.

The girls are obsessed with food. Before a show they are hungry and go mad when food is put in front of them. Rumi picks up a gimbap which is long and cylindrical  – this would normally be cut into smaller pieces but instead she slowly pushes the whole thing into her mouth. Obviously in real life this would make the person choke so we mention this in case children imitate it. After this the girls are threatened but they are unconcerned and Rumi burps rudely.

There are several scenes where the girl’s fight the demons. They use bladed weapons but there is never any blood or gore – the hits are quick and never lingered upon. One demon is chopped in half in the foreground but no suffering is shown.

Five attractive young men walk down the street and the girl’s are stopped in their tracks and stare at them. When one man raises his arm, there is a gratuitous shot of his abdomen. Zoey and Mira are clearly attracted to him and as Zoey watches him, much like other cartoons where a hungry character’s eyes turn into pieces of meat, her wide eyes turn into torsos which swap to ears of corn. The man’s shirt bulges and a button flies off towards Zoey – when it hits her, it turns into butter splatting onto her ‘corn’ eyes. The two girl’s turn red from the heat and the corn suddenly bursts into flowing popcorn. The girl’s lusting over the young men is quite strong and parents may not be happy with younger kids seeing this.

One of the Saja Boys is nicknamed ‘Baby’ and when taking part in a hot sauce challenge, he sucks on the bottle like a baby would. However as a member of the boyband, he is also an object of lust for his fans. Many parents may be uncomfortable with this.

The demons are shown taking souls. This happens to a character after the girls have defeated a lot of demons and have just walked away, and to another minor but established character where she picks up a drink and a shadowy demon wearing a traditional Joseon era hat appears behind her. All we then see is the drink dropping to the floor. Many of the demons wear this type of clothing the imagery of which is similar to that of European plague doctors.

A ‘tear’ appears in a ceiling which is a portal to the demon world. Thousand of demons stream through although the girls are unafraid and fight them easily.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘KPOP DEMON HUNTERS’ FOR KIDS?

There’s no escaping the ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ mania! There are a few creepy moments and the girl’s lusting over the boys is a bit strong at times but overall we feel this movie should be appropriate for kids aged 7 and over.

• Violence: 2/5 (several scenes of the girls using bladed weapons against the demons but there is no blood or gore and no suffering. One girl smashes a kettle into a demons face in time to music)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5 (Rumi is upset about the secret she has to keep from everyone and Ji-noo has guilt over what he did in his past relating to his family)
• Fear Factor: 1/5 (a few creepy moment and some of he demons look quite scary)
• Sexual Content: 2/5 (the girl’s lust over the members of Saja Boys and particularly focus on one members ‘abs’)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other Notes: deals with themes of friendship, keeping secrets, destiny and accepting yourself.

Words by Laura Record