You Should Hunt This One Down

If your social media feed looks anything like mine, then for the last couple of months, you've been practically besieged by people singing their praise for an unusual new animated movie on Netflix: KPop Demon Hunters. I finally succumbed to the hype and watched it... and to me it feels like the hype is pretty real.

The story centers on K-pop girl group, Huntr/x, who secretly use the magic in their voices to fight literal demons that are trying to devour souls and corrupt the Earth. They face their greatest challenge when they go up against a new, rival boy band who themselves are secretly demons in human form. It's a wild and fun premise that by itself sets the hook for its audience.

But the premise alone doesn't have to do all the work. The animation style is even bigger than the gimmicks: frenetic, candy-colored, and often influenced by anime. There's a deliberate decision to inject some jitter into the movement, which I think I resisted at first, but ultimately came to accept as a choice to make this feel more like stop motion than computer animation. It makes the characters and props feel a bit more like real objects somehow, which helps anchor the fantastical story about demons and magic.

KPop Demon Hunters is also a musical -- and a really good one. Purists might quibble about how many of the songs are diegetic, but they all speak directly to plot and character. And they are catchy as hell. Just when you think you've heard the movie's earwormy "song of the summer" candidate, along comes another banger to overwrite your short-term memory with another immediately hummable melody. As with the animation style, I needed an adjustment period with the music. I was convinced that the audio balance of the film was terrible when I couldn't understand half the lyrics... but when I turned on the subtitles and learned it was because they constantly weave back and forth from English to Korean, I had an "oh, duh" moment and settled in. (I've struggled to go to bed every night since, not quite able to banish some of the melodies from my restless brain.)

There's so much creativity here in the visuals and the music that the story almost inevitably can't quite keep up: the plot feels a bit familiar to me, and it's certainly the least exciting element at play here. Still, "familiar" isn't "bad" in this case. The story is well told, and the "be true to yourself" message at the core lands with more emotional oomph than you might expect from... well, a movie with a goofy title like "KPop Demon Hunters."

I finished the movie feeling that what I'd seen was pretty good, but also that I needed to think on it a day or two before I tried blogging about it. The movie has only risen in my esteem during that time. I'm reminded of a time long ago when I was telling people "I know it's called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' but I'm telling you -- it's pretty great." KPop Demon Hunters is pretty great. I give it an A-, and fully expect it to be on my top movies list at year's end.