“Holy Night: Demon Hunters” Theatrical Poster
Director: Im Dae-Hee
Cast: Ma Dong-Seok, Seohyun, David Lee, Kyung Soo-Jin, Jung Ji-So, Cha Woo-jin, Lee Da-il
Running Time: 92 min.
By Paul Bramhall
It’s been almost 10 years since Ma Dong-seok’s breakthrough role in Train to Busan, and in that time he’s battled zombies, serial killers, crocodiles, gangsters, reptilian human hybrids, gangsters, and even the yakuza. It was perhaps inevitable at some point then, that his anvil sized fists would be aimed in the direction of satanic demons from the depths of hell. Holy Night: Demon Hunters is the movie that gives us exactly that, with Dong-seok running the Holy Night demon hunting agency (yes you read that right). What’s even more surprising is that it’s not the first time for Korean cinema to prove demons can be dealt with by being punched in the face, with 2019’s The Divine Fury offering up an MMA infused take on the battle of good vs. evil.
In his latest outing Dong-seok is paired with former Girls Generation member Seohyun (Love and Leashes, I AM.) as a shaman with supernatural powers, and Lee David (Svaha: The Sixth Finger, Pluto), who doesn’t seem to have any purpose other than to turn up and film their encounters. It’s a legitimate question to ask if it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, and certainly in the late 2010’s when Dong-seok was starting to cultivate his amicable onscreen persona (combined with an ability to knock out a gorilla), it felt like it’d be impossible to tire of seeing him in action. However I’d state the case for Holy Night: Demon Hunters being the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it’s hard to describe it as anything other than a sloppily made hodge podge of tired exorcism tropes, mixed in with Dong-seok doing exactly what you expect him to.
Admittedly it’s refreshing to see a more visceral take on the done to death exorcism genre (Devil’s Stay and Dark Nuns were both released in the 12 months prior), however first-time director Lim Dae-hee feels out of his depth in his debut feature. The punchy (no pun intended) 90-minute run time is strangely absent of any kind of narrative thrust or tension, with stilted dialogue often making any scenes that don’t involve Dong-seok hitting things (and there’s many of them) feel stagnant. This issue is exasperated by the reason for his presence in the first place feeling like it’s based on shaky ground, with the explanation being that when someone’s possessed, Satan worshippers will naturally gravitate towards their vicinity. So while Seohyun performs the exorcism, Dong-seok is there to punch out any satanic lackeys who show up (and they always do).
Taking place in a red-mooned Seoul, when the trio are hired by a neuropsychiatrist who begs for their help in saving her possessed sister, they find themselves dealing with a demonic force more powerful than anything they’ve encountered before. The sister is played by Jung Ji-so (Parasite, The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale), clocking in a performance that’s likely to induce feelings of mild irritation to possible annoyance. Most of her screentime is spent incessantly screaming, with a highlight of unintentional amusement being a literal montage of home video footage capturing her possessed activity in the house. Playing out like a Scary Movie style riff on every possessed character stereotype in the book, at one point her face suddenly appears in front of the camera, which elicited laughter from the audience of the cinema I saw it in.
The lack of any real scares being induced from Ji-so’s paranormal activity is reflected in almost every aspect of Holy Night: Demon Hunters. If the unintentional comedy hits the mark, then the intentional comedy doesn’t fare so well. Ever since the first Roundup sequel Dong-seok’s distinctive style of self-effacing laconic humor has faced diminishing returns, and here things get off to an awkward start from the moment he’s introduced. When a client opens the door to his office and he swivels his chair to face them, the chair keeps on spinning so he ends up facing away from them again. The problem is that coming straight after a horror focused opening the comedic tone has yet to be established, so the scene falls flat on its face, with Dae-hee likely assuming it would work simply because audiences are expecting a Ma Dong-seok movie. It’s lazy filmmaking.
Thankfully it’s not a complete write-off, with at least some of Dong-seok’s self-written one liners delivering the intended laughs (including when he asks a demon if it’s Korean), but the ratio is more miss than hit. Action wise he’s once more paired with his go-to choreographer (and now sometime director) Heo Myeong-haeng (The Roundup: Punishment, Badland Hunters), with the action mainly consisting of one versus multiple opponent brawls. While there’s nothing on display we haven’t seen before, with Dong-seok falling back on his tried and tested boxing skills, he doesn’t quite get the easy ride that we see in some of his movies where no one can lay a finger on him which is a welcome change.
Unfortunately the decision was made to have some of the action framed from the perspective of Lee David’s video camera, clocking in what’s likely to be a contender for the most pointless role of 2025. Harking back to 2000’s era productions like Hong Kong’s Dragon Squad, having a character armed with a video camera that we have to constantly see various scenes through (you know the deal – timer running in one corner, battery percentage in the other, framing lines in the corners of the screen) proves to be superfluous, feeling more like a jarring distraction than anything else.
The biggest tragedy of Holy Night: Demon Hunters though is how cheap it feels, with much of the runtime playing out in the house that Ji-so and her sister used to live in together. While limited locations aren’t necessarily an indication of a bad movie, here they feel restrictive, and it isn’t helped by the fact every time some Satan worshippers show up they look exactly the same as the last batch. It’s easy to get the impression that it was likely the same set of masked stuntmen each time lining up to get a walloping from Dong-seok’s fists, which is ok, but there should be no doubt that what’s presented here is the Ma Dong-seok beatdown playlist at its most rudimentary.
It’s worth noting Dong-seok himself is imbued with an ability to call forth supernatural strength, a trait that’s explained in a number of poorly constructed flashbacks to when he was an orphan, and a tragedy occurred between he and his brother that set them on different paths. All three of the Holy Night trio have a connected past, but the way the flashbacks are interspersed feels haphazard, rarely feeling relevant to the context in which they’re presented. I won’t get started on the CGI demon that haunts Dong-seok in his dreams.
As one point while watching Holy Night: Demon Hunters I found my thoughts turning to how the only entity that Dong-seok really has left to punch in the face is Satan himself. But then surprisingly, in the finale, that’s exactly what he does. Once you’ve given a right hook to the source of all evil, where else is left to go? Time will tell, but for now, it’d be best if he exorcises Holy Night: Demon Hunters from his filmography all together.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 3/10
