Lori Anne Porter, 11, watches “KPop Demon Hunters” almost every day. She estimates she’s seen it upwards of 50 times. She also evangelizes.
“My sister had a sleepover, and she got to pick a movie to watch and she chose ‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ and she made all her friends at the party who haven’t watched it watch it,” Porter said. “It was so fun because they were like, ‘This is gonna be so bad,’ and then they watched and they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty good.’”
“KPop Demon Hunters” is the animated Netflix superhit that’s on track to become the streamer’s most-watched film.
If you’ve spent any significant amount of time with a child between 5 and 15 recently, you have likely been subjected to repeated viewings and singalongs — and now you’ll likely be subjected to it in theaters, as Netflix releases the film for singalong events in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
I personally have not seen “KPop Demon Hunters.” Rather than carve out an hour and 40 minutes of my time to watch the movie myself, I instead spent two days asking kids to explain it themselves.
Turns out, “KPop Demon Hunters” is a pretty self-explanatory title.
“So, there’s this K-pop group called the Huntr/x,” Mia Cast, 10, explained. “And basically, the entire world sees them as pop stars, but behind the screen, they’re actually fighting demons that they have to keep off by singing songs that power the Honmoon, which is basically the shield that separates the demons and the humans to keep them safe.”
“Then a group of demons decide that they need a new plan, and they decide that they’re going to become a K-pop group too and steal the fans so that they can eat their souls,” Cast added.
This fan-stealing, demonic K-pop group is called the Saja Boys. Drama, romance and epic fight scenes ensue.
“There’s demon boys that are like trying to defeat the hunters and at the end they defeat the demon boys that are just pretending to be humans,” Serena Phan, 7, said. “It’s kind of sad. But still, it’s a really good movie.”
Per Phan and other kids I talked to, “Kpop Demon Hunters” is not a sappy, simplistic tale of good triumphing over evil, but rather a moving exploration of identity and self-acceptance.
“The point of view it’s coming from is like, ‘It’s okay to be yourself. You don’t always have to just try to hide your personality just to show someone and make someone like you,’” Zuri Reid, 10, told me.
When I asked some of the kids whether they found the movie weird or scary, they dismissed my questions and instead praised the movie’s plot and characters. Reid specifically commended the character development.
“One of the main characters, Jinu, he just wants to destroy the world so he could get the voices out of his head,” she said. “But then he actually develops his character like, ‘This shouldn’t only be for me, it has to be fair for everybody.’”
It is perhaps a testament to “KPop Demon Hunters” creator Maggie Kang and the writing team that so many kids seemed to have a soft spot for the demons. Spoilers ahead!
“My friends, we were talking about it, and we were so upset that the Saja boys died at the end,” Deanna Iphill, 12, said. “We just really love them. They’re supposed to be bad ‘cause they’re demons and we’re not supposed to like them. But if you take Jinu from the Saja Boys, he’s cool. He’s not a bad demon.”
In fact, the overall consensus was that the next “KPop Demon Hunters” movie should include more demons. (TheWrap recently reported that Netflix is considering two sequels, in addition to a live-action remake and a stage musical.)
“I’d want to see Jinu coming back and Mira turning into a demon,” Evie Rodriguez, 9, said.
“I wanna see the demons come back, but in a more friendly manner, instead of trying to destroy the whole world and conquer the Earth,” added Reid.
The kids who like “Kpop Demon Hunters” really like “KPop Demon Hunters.”
“The story is really good, the music is really good, and it’s one of those movies that you can’t stop watching,” Blaze Soule, 8, said. When we spoke, he had seen the movie four times and told me he planned to watch it again the next day.
Many of the kids I interviewed attributed the success and popularity of “KPop Demon Hunters” to it being unlike other movies made for their demographic.
“It’s not like that regular Disney musical you see on Disney+ and you’re like, ‘Oh, I just want to watch this so I can hear the music,” Reid said. “This is like a musical, but next level, modern musical.”
“I think what’s different about it is that it’s a demon movie and a K-pop movie mixed together,” said Henna MacLean, 10. “Usually it’s just K-Pop or just demons.”
For Sienna Kwartowitz, 8, part of the appeal is that it feels like something she isn’t supposed to be watching: “It’s like a kid movie, but it has a tiny bit of violence.”
The main thing you should know about “KPop Demon Hunters” is that the songs slap.
Three songs from the soundtrack have cracked the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with “Golden” by the movie’s fictional girl group Huntr/x peaking at No. 1. Nearly all of the kids I talked to could sing the chorus of “Golden” or the Saja Boys’ saccharine “Soda Pop” flawlessly on the spot — sisters Deanna and Dalayna Iphill mentioned that they knew the choreography and lyrics to every song in the movie.
“KPop Demon Hunters” also appears to have spawned a delightful fandom of in-jokes and references. MacLean reports that she and her friends are constantly texting each other lines like “I don’t think you’re ready for the takedown” and “golden.” When I asked Reid what topics she and her friends were discussing around the movie, she responded: “Let’s just say we weren’t really having conversations. We were having whole, full-blown singing montages.”
After conversations with about a dozen kids, I thought I had successfully grasped the basics of “KPop Demon Hunters.” Then, Reid ended our chat with this cryptic advice: “A message I have to say is that if you see someone drop their vocal patches, do not take it!”
Puzzled, I asked her what this meant.
“You’ll see when you watch the movie,” she replied with a playful giggle.
Seeing the fervor with which Reid and the other kids discussed “KPop Demon Hunters,” I was persuaded. Maybe I’ll actually watch it for myself.
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