Review: KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

KPop Demon Hunters

Rating

Director

Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang

Screenplay

Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans

Length

1h 35m

Starring

Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Ahn Hyo-seop, Yunjin Kim, Ken Jeong, Lee Byung-hun, Daniel Dae Kim

MPAA Rating

Review

Korean cinema began invading US in the last couple of decades while KPop has been dominating music in recent years. It was only a matter of time before the two combined and KPop Demon Hunters asks if the world is ready for it.

KPop idols Huntrix are the latest in a long line of singing trios whose job is to hunt demons and ensure that the the barrier between the world and the underworld remains intact to protect from the entire demon horde. When competing boy band Saja Boys emerges to take the world by storm, Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) face their biggest challenge yet, hormones. As we learn more about Rumi’s heritage and that of her Saja Boys counterpart Jinu (Ahn Hyo-Seop), we discover how damaged people can still make a difference once they confront their inner “demons.”

Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans co-wrote the script with Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan, crafting a fun, entertaining narrative that took familiar thematic elements and wove them into something genre-defining. In the plight of these three young women, we find ourselves. Sometimes confident, sometimes scared, often hungry. They are embodiments not just of Gen-Z’s hopeful optimism in the face of dire terrors but of the generational change they want to become. Although the screenplay isn’t coded as obviously as that, it subverts expectations by embracing the joyful exuberance of the KPop musical world.

The computer animated style, while obvious in its American crispness, takes clear influence from Japanese anime with its periodic exaggerated facial expressions and reliance on cute tertiary characters that act as comic relief in a story that has quite a few serious moments. Some of these moments work (the cat and the crow) and some don’t (slurping down ramen) but overall the misses are minimal and the film is an engaging musical adventure.

The use of catchy, hollow lyrics for the Saja Boys while exploring deeper meanings with the Huntrix efforts helps define the character roles effectively while entertaining the audience with their musicality. “Golden” is an impressive bit of musicianship, presenting a challenging three-octave vocal that demands the audience applaud, using its ambitious high note to embody the pursuit of perfection Rumi needs in order to seal the world away from the demon underworld. While its dance-heavy beat and pop flourishes could have come off sounding artificial, they exemplify the genre effectively blending in with the film’s themes.

KPop Demon Hunters demanded the world take notice and they did. The creators were clearly prepared for the sensation it would spawn and while the narrative is a self-contained one, the suggestion of room for a sequel was not only an obvious addition to the final scenes but a fitting conclusion to a film audiences will definitely want more of.