When you see Korean actor Ma Dong-Seok headlining a Korean movie, you can 100% bet that there’s going to be a lot of punching and beatdowns courtesy of the actor’s character. Whether it’s zombies or organized crime, you can bet the Dong will administer punch-filled justice and stuff action sequences in whatever movie he’s starring/producing.

Holy Night: Demon Hunters contains exactly that, but replace criminals with cult worshippers and possessed cult members. Imagine films like The Exorcist and Poltergeist, but your main character being given excuses to punch things really hard amidst the unsettling and jumpscare-filled moments of the show.

Hell In A Handbasket

The film focuses on a trio of demon hunters: punch-happy and laid-back Bow (Ma Dong-seok), level-headed exorcist Sharon (Seohyun), and sidekick Kim Gun (Lee David). They’re good at their jobs as evident in the first 20 minutes of the film, with Bow punching the hell out of cultists (accompanied with a simple-yet-awesome demon ash hit effect when they get KO’ed), Sharon getting all white-eyed as she banishes demons after getting their name, and Kim getting all the good shots for record-keeping and archiving. They then get a gig from a desperate neuropsychiatric named Jung-won (Kyung Soo-jin) who needs a demon taken out of her sister Eun-seo (Jung Ji-so) as she’s been in the psych ward for lord-knows-how-long.

All hell breaks loose, of course, as a simple exorcism goes wrong, with ass-kicking and jump scares thrown left and right for good measure, with the demon hunters all ending up doing their big demon-slaying in an eerily white mansion. As with all good horror films involving possession, right? It’s as cliche as it gets, but the direction and production are top-notch and does keep your attention focused.

And it’s got some heart too, as we find out bits and pieces about how Bow, Sharon, and Kim ended up in this line of work. Though there’s emphasis on Bow and Sharon, the former doing it out of guilt from a previous tragedy and the latter being seduced by the dark side due to the nature of her close-call exorcism work. Holy Night: Demon Hunters knows it’s just existing to deliver scares and punch-ups, so these moments do break the monotony and add more tension and stakes. Special props should also go to Jung Ji-so as she’s convincing being the possessed, like a Korean Linda Blair creeping the heck out of audiences with her maniacal stares and unnerving demon laughter.

Devil May Cry

All in all, you can’t do any wrong with a Ma Dong-Seok headliner act, especially when he’s trying new things. Holy Night: Demon Hunters’ blend of horror, action, and bits of comedy is similar to hybrid fares like The Frighteners, Evil Dead 2, and the Zombieland series, only with more action scenes featuring the Dong. The film’s tone may be uneven for some, but I definitely wasn’t bored and more fascinated with how things play out, especially with the character backstories coming in at right times as a prelude to the exorcising and cultist-bashing. The bits where it’s pretending to be Paranormal Activity is more cringe than it needed to be, but that made me laugh a bit more than just shrugging it off.

File this one under “potential franchise” and “cult following flick” featuring Ma Dong-Seok. A sequel with bigger setpieces and more brawling would be suggested improvements over what we have right now: a great start to a horror-action hybrid flick that’s sorely missing in this day and age. There’s no harm in having more Dong in your life, especially one that’s fist-happy.

Final Score: 70/100