![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-2025-08-25T180813.503.webp?resize=691%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThis past weekend\u2019s biggest big-screen hit didn\u2019t go straight to the big screen. Animated actioner \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d premiered in June on Netflix, reportedly racking up over 180 million views in its first eight weeks. A special one-weekend-only \u201cSing-Along\u201d version of the film was released to select theaters this past Saturday and Sunday, taking in an estimated $18 million. A haul like that warrants a review, even though the theatrical \u201cSing-Along\u201d version is not scheduled to play beyond its specified engagement (plans could always change, of course). This review is based on the Netflix version of the film, which is how it will be available for the foreseeable future. Sorry, but I just can\u2019t take \u201cit gives the sold-out theater a raucous party atmosphere\u201d into account on this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The premise is that demons once had run of the Earth, sucking out people\u2019s souls whenever they wanted. A team of fierce Korean warriors found a way to banish the demons to the underworld using their voices, creating a shield called a Honmoon through which most of them could never pass, and the few that could get in could be fought off by the warriors and the people they inspired with their singing. The tradition of singing warriors passed down through the generations with the current incarnation being a KPop girl group called Huntrix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The members of Huntrix, leader Rumi (Arden Cho), hardened Mira (May Hong), and cutesy Zoey (Ji-young Yoo), split their time between being the biggest popstars in the world and fighting the occasional demons that make it through the Honmoon. With the rise in population and social media in recent years, their music may soon be heard by a wide enough audience to permanently fortify the Honmoon and keep demons away forever. Rumi looks forward to the day when demons are no longer a threat to humanity, because then she won\u2019t have to worry about the world freaking out upon learning that she\u2019s half-demon. Until then, it has to remain her shameful secret, even to her best friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demon leader Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun), having gotten nowhere for centuries by sending up occasional vicious demons to battle the hunters, takes a suggestion from long-suffering musician demon Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop) to send up seemingly-benevolent Kpop boy band Saja Boys. The group, led by Jinu himself, is tasked with stealing fans away from Huntrix so Gwi-Ma can greedily feast on their souls. A professional rivalry ensues, eventually evolving into a battle for the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film is very much setting itself up as the first chapter in a long series. Future installments will no doubt flesh out the backstories of the members of Huntrix, especially Rumi and her half-demon heritage. Normally I\u2019d complain about the film getting too cocky in assuming that there will be future installments, but its success is already established and it was probably a safe bet that a property with this wide-appealing subject matter was going to be a hit anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How was my introduction to \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d? Okay, I guess. The human vs demon action isn\u2019t particularly memorable, and while I know I\u2019m going to get in trouble for saying this, I wasn\u2019t crazy about the songs. It\u2019s not unusual for a good KPop song to turn me into a zombie fanboy before it\u2019s through the first chorus, but something, maybe the wordiness, kept these songs from having that effect on me. But I did like the personalities of the main characters and the way they played off each other and the Saja Boys. Plus there are some good visual gags courtesy of some of the animation team behind those inspired \u201cSpider-verse\u201d movies. I don\u2019t like the property enough to stay with it if its success drops off, but as long as it stays successful, I\u2019ll enjoy its success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: B-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d is rated PG for action\/violence, scary images, thematic elements, some suggestive material and brief language. Its running time is 95 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver This past weekend\u2019s biggest big-screen hit didn\u2019t go straight to the big screen. Animated actioner \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d premiered in June on Netflix, reportedly racking up… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"13","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjUtMDgtMjVUMTgwODEzLjUwMy53ZWJwP2ZpdD02OTElMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3ICYjODIxMTsgS1BvcCBEZW1vbiBIdW50ZXJzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.smfrsyi7GNGJMvz3qEG4671kgKblg4NIKZpi4RnAl-8MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57477,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-2025-08-25T180813.503.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[12050],"class_list":["post-57476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review-kpop-demon-hunters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57478,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57476\/revisions\/57478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}