Holy Night: Demon Hunters packs a punch, a bittersweet Happyend

The story: Holy Night is an elite team of exorcists in Seoul and the South Korean capital's only defence against the rise of a devil-worshipping criminal network.

- Whang Yee Ling

HOLY NIGHT: DEMON HUNTERS (NC16) 92 minutes, opens on May 8 ★★★★☆

A psychiatrist (Kyung Soo-jin) calls on Holy Night when her sister (Jung Ji-so) begins exhibiting disturbing symptoms no medical diagnosis can explain.

The K-occult thriller Holy Night: Demon Hunters, which began as a 2024 webtoon, introduces Don Lee as agency boss Ba-woo. His physical strength is his superpower.

Sharon (Girls' Generation pop idol Seohyun) is the psychic shaman aswirl in boho-chic gowns, while young sidekick Kim Gun (David Lee) provides technical support plus comic relief.

They operate, charmingly, out of a shabby antique mall, and theirs is a recognisable world of downbeat realism, however fantastical the exploits, as they investigate and then battle to save the possessed girl contorting and levitating in billows of smoke.

The action is intense and atmospheric, until it becomes a repetitive cycle of Ba-woo punching the invading demon and Sharon bellowing "return to hell".

They should know, after an hour in, that this approach is not working.