Holy Night: Demon Hunters

Seoul descends into chaos as a devil-worshipping criminal network wrecks havoc across the city. In a desperate plea for salvation, the police turn to a trio of demon hunters with supernatural powers.

Better known by the stage names Ma Dong-seok in South Korea, and Don Lee in America, Lee Dong-seok is a South Korean and American actor, and one of South Korea's most bankable movie stars, most famous for his devastating punches and his distinctive slap-strike fighting style.

An amateur armwrestler since 2008–which, to be fair, is technically true about everyone–Don Lee's breakout role was in the classic 2016 South Korean "zombies on a train" movie, Train to Busan, where he punches the shit out of a bunch of zombies. He has since gone on to punch the shit out many other bad guys in many other films, including Chloe Zhao's underrated MCU film, The Eternals, where he punches the shit out of alien monsters while playing the legendary Gilgamesh, a possibly historical king who may have ruled 3000 years ago in the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, and who was then posthumously deified, becoming the world's first superhero when he starred in the world's first superhero story, the Mesopotamian epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, which eventually led to him becoming a Marvel comics character, at one point even becoming an Avenger.

Basically, Don Lee has made an entire career out of punching the shit out of bad guys. It's probably fair to say that a good chunk of his filmography are just vehicles meant to showcase him punching the shit out of bad guys.

Holy Knight: Demon Hunters is no different.

The city of Seoul is being overrun by a devil-worshipping cult who call themselves Black Mass. They beat up citizens, and run around the city while being rude, all as they try to summon ancient demons to Earth. Helpless before the chaos unleashed on the city streets by these devil worshipping jerks, the police have no other option but to turn to a private agency.

Holy Night is kind of like a private detective agency, except they specialize in supernatural problem, things like hauntings or monsters or possessions. It is run by Ba Woo, a man who is superhumanly strong and haunted by past brushes with darkness. His team includes the lovely and ethereal Sharon, the team's mystic and spiritual exorcist, and Kim Gun, their social media guy and tech support, who seems to be just a regular guy with a camera.

During all of this, Holy Night is approached by a neuropsychiatrist named Jung-won, who needs them to save her younger sister, Eun-seo, who is suffering from a brutal demonic possession. It soon becomes clear that Eun-seo is under the sway of a very powerful demon, one that has been summoned by Black Mass.

And so begins... the punching.

My general test for any supernatural bad guys is... How easily could Buffy or Blade stomp the absolute shit out of these guys? After seeing Holy Night: Demon Hunter, I am now adding a third "B"

Ba-woo.

Buffy, Blade, and Ba-woo.

Just to get it out of the way, Holy Night: Demon Hunters is fun. In a nutshell, if you enjoy Don Lee punching the shit out of bad guys, then you will probably enjoy this movie, where the bad guys are all demons, cult goons, and also the devil, who Don Lee punches the shit out of, often right in the face. Despite having a bit too much of the usual boring Christian mythology blah-blah-blah bullshit, the film's runtime is only about 90-ish minutes, so for the most part, it moves pretty quickly, doesn't waster time on delivering what we all came to see... Don Lee punching the shit out of people... and also doesn't really overstay its welcome.

Plus, there's some good demon fighter/supernatural jokes here. I always enjoy a good joke about not reading evil text out loud. Also, Don Lee has a real cool jacket. It's not quite a Sukajan Japanese Bomber Jacket, which I love–and the next time I visit Japan, is number two on my list of things to get, after the Amazing Yamaguchi Revoltech Mazinger Z Action Figure, obviously–but it's pretty close. I love the tiger.

And while, yes it's true that despite claiming to be an action/horror movie, it isn't scary at all, and generally lacks any tension or creepy atmosphere, or even a simple jump-scare, and is mostly pretty standard fare possession story stuff, including the inevitable scuffing of the circle of salt, when it's not concerned with punching the shit out of bad guys, I think it's fair to ask... if this truly bothers you, what the fuck did you expect?

This is a Don Lee movie.

Across the board, Don Lee movies, especially the ones from Big Punch Pictures, the production house founded by Don Lee, are all of an obviously higher standard, but at the same time, they also share a trait similar to Steven Seagal movies... the entire point is to show Don Lee punching the shit out bad guys. Everything in the film is being done in the service of that. As always, it's fine to not like this film, but you can't ding it for being exactly what it intended to be. If you choose to jump into a pool and then you complain that you got wet... I'm sorry, but that's not valid.

Besides, if you want a good South Korean possession movie, go watch Exhuma.

But sure, otherwise, it's fair to have issues with the way the backstories generally don't amount to much here, or the way the story feels less like a standalone movie, and more like the pilot episode a tv show. It's true that, at best, this film is mostly just kind of... okay. Still, it's fun to watch Don Lee punch the shit out of bad guys.