A K-pop girl group who fight demons meet their greatest challenge yet when the forces of darkness unleash a demonic boy band, just like Mumford & Sons.

It is hard to escape the cynicism of a film like Kpop Demon Hunters, a slick move by Netflix to capitalise on the K-pop boom and hook children with its smooth visuals and bilingual pop songs. And the American movie certainly hit its target, becoming the biggest film and soundtrack of 2025, while bagging a couple of Oscar nominations. The Sony animation is clearly made with affection for its subject matter, and is by no means a cheap cash-in, but it’s not exactly exciting either.

Story-wise the film feels flat, and the characters have a habit of turning from good to bad and back again whenever it suits the plot. It is also light on jokes and songs, with the same few asinine numbers used repeatedly, presumably to mainline them into children’s heads. It makes some references to K-pop culture and fandom, which are also recognisable to Western audiences. In fact the music is surprisingly similar to British and American girl and boy bands from the ’90s, only with more autotune, rather than the more modern sound of a group like BLACKPINK.

But anyone expecting Shrek-style pop culture parody will be disappointed by the movie’s weirdly serious tone, lacking the depth and personality of East Asian pop-inspired animations like Turning Red or Belle. Crucially though none of that matters to the target audience, and it’s probably that straight down-the-line storytelling which makes it so appealing. As the parents pleading with their kids that they don’t need to rewatch this for the 30th time know all too well, Netflix has already won.