It’s time for another Kpopalypse film review! This time by popular demand we’re taking a look at the film “Kpop Demon Hunters”!
To say that people have been keen to see Kpopalypse.com cover Kpop Demon Hunters would be an understatement, the begathons to get me to look at this started almost as soon as it was released. However I don’t like to cover anything too quickly – I’m not about being “first” for clicks and engagement, I like to take some time for the dust to settle before I check out anything that’s popular in the k-pop related media space, and popular Kpop Demon Hunters certainly is, currently sitting at #1 in the most popular Netflix movies of all time. It’s only natural that people want to know what someone like me who has been active in the k-pop onlineosphere for over a decade and generally shits on most things thinks of the quality of the product, and I was curious also – I mean, surely all this popularity isn’t coming from nowhere?
Released: 2025
Running time: 98 minutes
It’s worth noting that the songs from Kpop Demon Hunters are just as big as the movie itself, and have charted higher than any songs ever released to date from any Korean pop artist at the time of writing, easily smashing all those sales records held previously by your faves. When something blows up this big worldwide in the k-pop space, there’s usually a reason, but we all know from experience that the reason these things get big isn’t always related to quality. Is Kpop Demon Hunters actually truly worthy of the hype and extreme popularity, or are the masses just easily pleased? Let’s look into it.
Plot synopsis: Kpop Demon Hunters follows a three-member girl group called Huntrix, the members being Rumi, Mira and Zoey. Mira is basically Mamamoo’s Moonbyul complete with the deep voice and the confidence/cynicism that we all probably project onto her whether it exists or not, Zoey is the token “short, cute, girly with short hair” girl that every other k-pop girl group since the dawn of time seems to have, and Rumi is the main character who straddles the divide looks/personality-wise and who plot stuff actually happens to, because when you draw a main character, aiming for the middle is how you appeal to the maximum amount of film watchers. Huntrix are a k-pop group but they’re also demon hunters, who are continually fighting demons who are trying to take over souls for… reasons, and this fighting involves martial arts battles but also involves singing songs for some reason because… more reasons, and all of this needs to be kept secret from the public because… well, I suggest you don’t think about it too hard, because I don’t think anybody who made this thing did. Anyway, the demons are getting their asses kind of handed to them on a plate and it’s looking like curtains until one of them decides to form a competing boy group called Saja Boys in order to battle Huntrix on their own turf and use the same tactics that Huntrix use to capture the hearts of fans… and there’s a lot more but without wanting to get too spoilery, that’s the plot in a nutshell. It’s basically just a good vs evil battle from there, but the “evil” looks like SHINee doing a “summer comeback” in 2010. Perhaps we can all relate.
Appeal to average filmgoers: Let’s start with the positives for the average non-kpop-caring-about filmwatcher, because there are actually quite a lot of those. Firstly, the characters are absolutely excellent. Visual design and character writing across the board is fantastic, with tons of expressiveness and character-enhancing detail, everyone feels realistic and human (even the animals) and there’s enough character-building during the good times to make you give an actual shit when bad things start happening. Animation quality overall is also mostly excellent, a lot of it has that sleek AI-assisted frame-smoothed look that’s creeping into everything now, but whatever they did I can’t deny that it works, and none of it comes at the expense of dulling the unique look of the main characters or creating obvious machine-bloopers. The speed at which the plot moves is another plus point, for the most part the story rips along at a fast pace, wasting little time and cramming tons of story into an ADHD-friendly time span. Some romance scenes do slam the brakes on, but they’re short and don’t drag things down too much before the pace picks up again (apparently quite a few extra romance scenes were left on the cutting room floor, which was the correct choice). It’s quality writing overall, with enough realistic detail all around to feel authentic.
That said, the relentless speed of the plot means it can get a bit fucking jabbery like a Saturday morning cartoon at times, which may or may not bother you but it does have the benefit of making the slower relationship-building moments feel like a welcome short break from the constant sensory overload of everything else. If the characters aren’t talking at light speed then they’re singing or rapping, and there’s so much of it that the entire movie probably qualifies as a “musical” in the 1950s Hollywood sense. While the segues into song don’t feel too random as they’re very much driven by the plot, just the songs being there at all may be enough to annoy some viewers especially as inserting token cheesy “gee golly I’m so badass” rap into pop songs is a particularly Korean pop quirk that might not fly too well with the average filmwatcher. Overall though, even though there’s a lot of story happening within a small timeframe, the overarching plot is really just… well, it’s Star Wars with a helping of “it’s okay to be yourself, man” messaging on top, except that “demons” = “the dark side” and “demon hunters” = “Jedi knights” and instead of spaceships and lightsabers it’s k-pop stages and… sabres made out of light. The more “romantic” scenes really make this parallel obvious, I really felt like I was watching the “come to the dark side”, “no, you come to the light side”, “no, you come to the dark side” conversations of the Star Wars series with the thinnest of k-pop veneers over the top.
Appeal to k-pop fans: Anyone deep down the k-pop rabbit hole or who reads this site on a regular basis is going to notice a lot more about this film than the average person. The k-pop girls existing in a parallel universe where there’s demons is one thing, but how the girls get to routinely stuff their faces with food, write their own songs and even determine their own comeback schedule is going to be what makes this film feel like a fantasy world for actual k-pop fans. Sure, there’s a subtext about the girls having their mental and physical health disregarded in pursuit of their goals plus the psychosis of idolism in there somewhere, but it doesn’t hit that hard – it’s shunted far enough to the background to the point where the target audience might not even notice. The biggest lie that the film perpetrates however is that singing and vocal talent in k-pop actually matters or that performers even get to showcase their singing talents (or lack of) at all most of the time, let alone entire performances hinging on them. As my partner put it “I don’t know what’s more unbelievable, the k-pop girls being demon hunters, or them being able to ad-lib on stage”. However on the plus point for authenticity, fans acting like deluded morons, fan shipping, dumb Korean variety show games, and idols having to hide themselves from the public is all depicted fairly realistically and will get a knowing nod from caonimas, if nothing else k-pop fans will probably just enjoy these things being acknowledged at all.
Appeal to k-pop fappers: True to Rule 34, the Internet has become invaded with Rumi cosplay, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we get our first adult video recreations of Kpop Demon Hunters surfacing, if they haven’t already by the time you read this. However it’s worth noting that the actual film itself mirrors what I’ve always said about the k-pop space ever since I started writing – it’s the men who are consistently objectified in k-pop, far more than the women. The girls of Huntrix are always dressed either plainly or stylishly but modestly, meanwhile Saja Boys are depicted with the girls of Huntrix and fans alike steaming (literally) over their toned abs and muscles bursting out of their torsos.
Of course, I’m not against it, and if you’re not against it either, I’ve got an annual objectification survey for you to participate in which only has a few days left to run at the time of writing. I’m just saying – this film deserves praise for depicting this aspect of k-pop honestly, it’s far more honest than the fans themselves are capable of being. The film even goes the extra mile to highlight this dishonesty, showing the Huntrix girls in sharp denial about their own objectification of Saja Boys in the above scene. The creators of this film know how you think, and so do I, my web traffic doesn’t lie.
But what about the songs?
Okay, so let’s cover those real quick.
Golden (Huntrix)
The big theme track of Kpop Demon Hunters, that appears in all the film’s most pivotal scenes, “Golden” is a decent song and basically just a more vocally-focused take on IVE’s “I Am” plus very musically similar. This vocal focus is important for the film because it actually ties into a plot point (which I won’t spoil), but it also makes the song slightly weaker just because the vocal line gets a bit wearying to listen to after a while. It’s worth noting also that a lot of the visual aspects of Huntrix seem to use IVE as their inspiration point, from some of the fashions used, right down to visual setpieces like the “Wonyoung jumping out of the moving plane” scene. However less people know about IVE because they don’t have a big-ass Netflix movie attached to their name – not yet, anyway. But if you’re looking for your routine fix of more songs that sound like “I Am” and you’ve run out of other IVE songs that also sound like “I Am” to listen to, “Golden” will do the job until IVE release another one in a few months to try and cash in on how big their songwriting style has become.
Takedown (Huntrix)
Cringe raps in the verses leading to a Blackpinkian disaster of a chorus, I guess the film needed their other main Huntrix song to be realistically rubbish because a k-pop girl group with consistently good songs wouldn’t feel realistic. Note that Jeongyeon gets more screentime in this video than in the majority of Twice music videos these days.
How It’s Done (Huntrix)
Huntrix go full “in your area” mode on this song, which is pretty tired sounding in 2025. The scariest thing about this song isn’t that it has even more cringe raps or is bad generally, but that it might string struggling groups in Korea along into thinking that trying to copy Blackpink might allow them to claw their way out of irrelevancy for a few more years.
Soda Pop (Saja Boys)
The main song for Saja Boys comes complete with vaguely suggestive lyrics and is authentically terrible in that boy-pop summer song way, it’s perfect for the film but absolute rubbish. If nothing else it certainly does what it’s supposed to in the film by establishing Saja Boys as “team evil”. I’d just like to thank my girlfriend for still consenting to our relationship after she watched this trash with me, because if I ever handed her on a silver platter a reason to dump my ass, asking her to watch this is definitely it.
Your Idol (Saja Boys)
The more “dark theme” Saja Boys song is slightly more listenable, but not by much. It fits the moment where it appears in the film quite well, but there’s no reason why you’d listen to it outside of that context – unless you were into nonsense like this of course.
What It Sounds Like (Huntrix)
Another song that works quite well in the context of the film, mainly because of the lyrical context being directly related to the story at that point (quite late in the story too so a potential spoiler alert), but I don’t think it has much appeal outside of that.
Free (Rumi ft. Jinu)
The “big ballad” that we probably had to have for the big relationship-building scene, it’s pretty generic honestly. At least the cat and bird (the two best characters of the entire movie) get some screentime here.
Conclusion: I’m no expert on what makes a popular film popular, but from what I can tell I think the popularity of Kpop Demon Hunters comes from a perfect storm of a few different elements – the increasing cultural visibility of k-pop, the quality and popularity of the main song, the very relatable characters, the popularity of Netflix itself, and the fact that it’s just a well-written film. At its core it’s a pretty straightforward musical morality tale with a lesson about being yourself and not hiding who you’re about, but it’s fairly well told and probably about as good as this type of thing gets. I don’t feel like it’s as earth-shattering a film as its popularity would suggest, but it’s easy to see the broad appeal of it, and if you’re a k-pop fan and/or you can stomach the cringe raps and cartoon vibes, there’s a decent film to be had. My k-pop hating rap-hating cartoon-hating girlfriend watched it with me and didn’t absolutely despise it and want to throw bricks at the television, plus she even liked Mira’s sass plus the cat and bird, so I guess that’s a recommendation.
Final score: 3.5 massive prawn-shaped Rumi braids out of 5, but add an extra braid if you’re either a crazy shipping k-pop fan or a Norwegian with massive braids and feel good about seeing your culture represented in k-pop.
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