I’d like to pretend like I saw the success of Kpop Demon Hunters before most people. When I added the film to my weekly column of things worth watching on streaming, back before the film came out in June, I had never heard of it. I watched the trailer and thought it looked like fun, so I included it. I had no idea it would become the movie of the summer.
I was so not sure of the film’s actual popularity that I didn’t bother to give it a look when it arrived on Netflix. It wasn’t until it came out and I saw it on social media that I realized Kpop Demon Hunters was a massive hit. And then my kids found it.
Kpop Demon Hunters Invaded My Life Against My Will
Both my kids are fairly young, so as much as I love to watch movies with them, I limit their screen time. Beyond that, my oldest daughter can often have very emotional reactions to even mild violence on screen or to seeing characters she likes being hurt. For that reason, I never considered showing her Kpop Demon Hunters. I didn’t think she’d like it.
But Kpop was undeterred. It wasn’t the movie itself that Cable (that’s her nickname) found, but the music, as introduced to her through kids at school. Like many around the same age as my eight-year-old daughter, she became obsessed with the soundtrack. By the end of a recent summer vacation in which “Golden,” “Free,” and the rest featured prominently, everybody in the family knew the songs, even though none had seen the movie.
My wife and daughter finally used our Netflix subscription to watch the movie together when I was out of town, so I still hadn’t had a chance to see it when the topic of last weekend’s Sing-Along Kpop Demon Hunters came up in a conversation. My daughter was in earshot, so she immediately asked to go. I could tell it was going to be an experience when I went online to buy tickets, considering finding two seats together at any showing all weekend was not easy to do, as this past weekend’s box office results confirm.
Wait, KPop Demon Hunters Is Actually Good?
So I decided to finally see Kpop Demon Hunters the way it was surely meant to be seen, in a theater full of over-sugared 10-year-olds who have watched the film on Netflix so many times that they don’t just know the words to the songs, but have every line of dialogue memorized.
I had no idea what I was going to get when the movie finally started. I knew all the songs, sure, my kids have made me play them every night for the last month, but since it turns out the track order of the album is not the order the songs appear in the film, I had very little idea what the movie-watching experience would even be.
And I have to say, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Kpop Demon Hunters. I thought that, since the music seemed to be the thing that fans were truly hyped about, it might be a case of great music holding up a weak plot, and while the plot of Kpop Demon Hunters certainly isn’t anything new, unless you’re 10 and haven’t seen many movies, it is at least a well done version of numerous popular tropes.
The songs are absolutely the highlight, not just from a music standpoint, but the animation is at its strongest during these sequences as well. However, the animation is handled well overall. The voice performances are strong, and I was absolutely invested in the characters enough to care where things ended up.
A Theater Full Of Singing Kids Is A Special Experience
The highlight of a sing-along experience of Kpop Demon Hunters, however, isn’t the movie. It’s the audience. If you haven’t sat in a movie theater full of singing tweens, I’m not sure there’s a way to adequately describe it. If you had asked me before the film if that was a place I would ever want to be, I would have said “No” and then run away screaming, but honestly, it was a blast.
When the songs came on, the theater would sing. When the songs were over, the audience would applaud. Were they applauding the movie? Themselves? I’m honestly not entirely sure, but I’m also not sure it mattered. The applause felt absolutely right in that moment.
At various points, I had flashbacks to going to live performances of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in college. Some of the audience wouldn’t just sing-along to the songs but recite pieces of dialogue along with the characters. If that had lasted the entire movie, it probably would have gotten on my nerves, but in a screening where you’re already planning for audience participation of one sort, the rest wasn’t so bad.
My own daughter is at that age where she enjoys singing along to the songs, but she’ll get embarrassed if she realizes you’re listening. The movie theater was the perfect place for her, as it let her sing along in public, but in the dark, so nobody needed to know that she was. I could tell she was having a great time, and that made it all the more special.
The Theatrical Experience Is Worth Saving For Reasons Like This
We’re still in an era where the future of the theatrical experience is fuzzy. The billion-dollar blockbuster is much more the exception than the rule it had become. Many people seem more than happy to wait to watch all movies at home.
Even I, a professional entertainment writer, don’t see as many movies in theaters as I once did. But I continue to believe that there is value in movie theaters. The last three films I watched in a theater with a big crowd were The Naked Gun, where the audience laughed, Weapons, where the audience screamed (and also laughed), and Kpop Demon Hunters, where the audience sang. I loved all three films, but I’m certain none would have been as great if my first experience seeing them hadn’t been with a crowd.
Yes, By The End, I Was Singing Too
I honestly thought that my afternoon watching Kpop Demon Hunters, I was simply an observer. I was there for my daughter so she would have a good time. This wasn’t Disneyland. This was Walt Disney sitting on a bench while his daughters rode the carousel. But by the end, a pretty fun movie and a totally on fire crowd got to me, and I was singing too.
Having heard all the songs already, I had already decided that “What it Sounds Like” was my favorite on the track list, though I didn’t actually realize it would be the big finale song of the story. Still, the two things combined nicely, and my daughter and I sang with the rest of the crowd.
The plans to turn Kpop Demon Hunters into the next major franchise are already underway. I’m as interested as anybody to see where all that goes. My only hope is that any sequel gets a theatrical release. Either that or I’m inviting a whole mess of kids to my house to watch it on Netflix. I need to see it in the right environment.