Review: K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025)

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With its mash-up title and candy-coated colours, K-Pop Demon Hunters might look like high-concept junk. You know, the kind of disposable entertainment that fills up the content levels on streaming platforms like Netflix. At first glance, the combination premise seems AI-generated, or at least conceived by humans who think like LLMs. “Show me K-Pop starlets fighting demons while singing songs.” No thanks, I thought.

But then, over the summer and fall, kids and parents kept mentioning the movie to me. And I saw the massive streaming metrics in the headlines. When I heard the cultural commentator Jonathan Pageau discuss the movie’s symbolism on his podcast, I decided it was time to investigate Netflix’s streaming phenomenon for the site. 

To my surprise, K-Pop Demon Hunters tells a well-developed story with clearly drawn characters. The premise is also more coherent than I had imagined. AI slop, this is not.

The film’s prologue explains the connection between singers and the spirit realm, envisioning an order of Korean singer-hunters who, with their power to bind communities together through song, are able to weave protective seals around the human world that prevent the invasion of demons. Occasionally, a demon slips through, and the hunters dispatch the demons in lethal (if bloodless) anime fashion. To the credit of the screenwriting team (Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Danya Jimenez, and Hannah McMechan), the mash-up concept actually makes sense. 

Fast forward to today, and we meet the trio who comprise the K-Pop girl group, Huntr/x, who are secretly also demon hunters: Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho), Mira (voiced by May Hong), and Zoey (voiced by Ji‑young Yoo). Rumi is the lead vocalist and leader of the trio. We learn that Rumi has been hiding the fact that she is half-demon from the rest of the group, at the behest of their former master. Mira, the main dancer, is portrayed as rebellious, having grown up as the black sheep in her wealthy family. Zoey is the main lyricist and rapper; she has a goofy, humorous persona.

Meanwhile, the demon-ruler Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun) wants to invade the human world before the hunters can weave the “Golden Honmoon,” which is the final seal that should permanently safeguard the human realm. The human-turned-demon Ji-noo (Ahn Hyo-seop) volunteers to lead a team of five demons into the human world to stop Huntr/x. They will use the clever disguise of being a K-Pop boy band, the Saja Boys. The rest of the film balances the two musical groups’ rivalry in the K-pop world with the underlying hunter-demon war, while also developing the hidden lives of Rumi and Jinu and their growing secret relationship (a plotline that clearly draws on Korean TV dramas). The different narrative threads are handled capably and clearly. As a narrative, K-Pop Demon Hunters puts to shame much of the manic animated kids content put out on streaming platforms.

What’s more, the film’s animation is not just flashy but also accomplished—sometimes striking, sometimes funny, able to meet the needs of different scenes and different tones. I chuckled at the humorous manga touches, like having one of the girl’s eyes turn first into corn and then bursting popcorn in response to a hunky boyband member’s abs. (And if you love jokes about instant ramen, this is your movie.) 

The ultra-slick fight scenes are constructed like pop music videos, making them impressive to behold but lacking the visceral threat of physical conflict. The audience doesn’t experience these fight scenes as the violent exchange of blows; they instead watch them as choreographed performances. And as performances, they succeed. 

Also, make no mistake, this is an actual musical. While some songs propel an action sequence, other songs thread together a narrative montage. There are, of course, also a few sentimental solos for the leads to express their feelings. It might not be my kind of music, but damn, if it’s not catchy (“Gonna be, gonna be, golden”).

Like so many animated movies in recent years, the film is, on one level, about discovering your true identity and self-actualization, with Rumi’s storyline taking the form of a closet narrative. I don’t mention this because I think you must read the film as an allegory about being gay, etc., but because it underscores how the closet narrative is one of the dominant tropes in storytelling today. In the 21st-century, we use its now familiar form to explain human identity and the prevalent notion that the inner self is the true self. In this sense, the film shares themes with animated movies I both love (Ratatouille) and dislike (Frozen).

The themes in K-Pop Demon Hunters that I found more interesting lurk around the edges. For example, the film probes shame in a fairly complex way: Rumi must become free of her hidden shame, but the Jinu plot also suggests someone might have a legitimate reason to feel shame. Jinu, a young man who has become a demon, did terrible things in his past, and the film doesn’t glibly excuse those mistakes. The film dares to ask, why might someone seek oblivion? On a different note, the idea that demons can be repelled by the bonds that art and music can forge between people is a richly resonant idea. There are moments of insight and even wisdom in the dark corners and underlying ideas of K-Pop Demon Hunters.

At the same time, I have qualms about the whole dynamic of fandom the film endorses. Yes, there are moments of critique, but there is also the assumption that it’s great for people to devote themselves to entertainment figures, like pop stars, whom they don’t actually know. Likewise, the film depicts the girl group Huntr/x as living in service to their fans. While we can applaud the dedication of such artists (both in the movie and in the real world), the film glosses over what is to be gained from such mass devotion: money and power. In other words, I would have appreciated a bit of skepticism about the cults of celebrity that drive pop music and pop culture, but, I admit, that’s probably demanding too much from a movie on Netflix about pop stars who hunt demons.

K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025, USA)

7 out of 10

Directed by Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans; written by Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan; starring Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo‑seop, May Hong, Ji‑young Yoo, Ken Jeong, Yunjin Kim, Lee Byung‑hun, Daniel Dae Kim.

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