
Holy Night: Demon Hunters movie review – Ma Dong-seok in tiring Korean action horror
Advertisement
Supernatural thriller Holy Night: Demon Hunters might better have been titled 'Ma Dong-seok: Demon Puncher'. This lowbrow exercise in low-rent exorcism offers little more than the hulking Korean superstar, also known as Don Lee, throwing down against an assortment of sketchily drawn spirits.
Produced and co-written by
Ma together with first-time director Lim Dae-hee, the film is the latest, and certainly weakest, in a string of recent Korean horror titles that delve into the dark realm of demonic possession.
While a smattering of intriguing ideas are brought to the altar, they are immediately abandoned in a final product that pales next to the likes of box office hit
Exhuma , or even the underwhelming
Dark Nuns
Kang Bow (Ma) runs the detective-agency-style outfit 'Holy Night', together with exorcist Sharon (Seohyun) and rookie/cameraman Kim Gun (Lee David), which specialises in bizarre and otherworldly cases that the police cannot solve.
Advertisement
They are approached by psychiatrist Jung-won (Gyeong Su-jin) after her medical expertise fails to stop the psychotic episodes of her younger sister Eun-seo (Jung Ji-so).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong could have a Class Three Champion Griffin for the first time in 14 years
Not since the 75-rated Bear Hero took the gong at the end of the 2010-11 season has a horse on a mark below 80 been crowned Hong Kong racing looks set to have it's lowest-rated Champion Griffin in 14 years after the Jockey Club confirmed the initial nominations on Wednesday. Not since the 75-rated Bear Hero took the gong at the end of the 2010-11 season has a horse still in Class Three won Champion Griffin, but that is likely to change this season. Sky Jewellery and Crossborderpegasus are the nominated gallopers and, with the John Size-trained pair unlikely to race again this season, it looks as though either the former off a mark of 79 or the latter with a 77 rating will join the likes of Ka Ying Rising, Howdeepisyourlove, Lucky Sweynesse, Champion's Way and Mr Stunning on the honour roll. There is scope for additional nominees to be added if they stake their claim across the final four meetings of the season, but it's highly unlikely anything can win their way to a rating of 80 or higher. Crossborderpegasus is a handful! John Size's emerging talent wins for a third time from four starts thanks to some skillful handling from @zpurton at Sha Tin... 👏#LoveRacing | #HKracing — HKJC Racing (@HKJC_Racing) May 4, 2025 The Champion Griffin award is open to 'new imports carrying the 'K' brand, which arrived in Hong Kong unraced, and which were aged either two or three on the date of the first Hong Kong race meeting of the 2024-25 season'. To boast the 'K' brand, horses had to arrive in Hong Kong on June 1 last year or later. Another Size-trained galloper, Juneau Pride, actually boasts a higher rating than his stablemates on a mark of 80, but he isn't eligible because he arrived in March last year, even though he didn't race last season and began the campaign as a three-year-old. The highlight of the Jockey Club's Champion Awards night on July 11 will be the culmination of the Horse of the Year battle between Voyage Bubble, Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior, while a swag of other honours will be dished out. Ka Ying Rising is the only galloper nominated for Champion Sprinter, Voyage Bubble and Red Lion will duke it out for Champion Miler, Romantic Warrior and Voyage Bubble are in the running for Champion Middle-Distance Horse, Voyage Bubble has the Champion Stayer category all to himself and Ka Ying Rising, Cap Ferrat, My Wish and Rubylot have been nominated for Champion Four-Year-Old. Manfred is the Man Thanks to his impressive treble at Sha Tin on Tuesday, Manfred Man Ka-leung now boasts the highest strike rate of any trainer this season. By bagging his first three-timer since 2016 and moving to 43 wins from 383 runners this campaign, Man lifted his strike rate to 11.23 per cent and past 12-time champion trainer Size, who is striking at 11.04 per cent. Reunification Raceday wins from We Are Hero, Pearl Of Pang's and Yuen Long Elite continued a strong run of form for Man, who has banged home 16 winners in the past two months. Man, who sits just one win short of his personal-best tally for a season, has eight runners at Sha Tin this Saturday, including the white-hot Patch Of Stars, who shoots for a fourth consecutive victory. While ending the season with the highest strike rate would be a feather in Man's cap, Size is on track for much higher honours and looks well placed to further ram home his advantage in the race for the trainers' title. Eight victories clear of David Hayes with only four meetings remaining, Size saddles up last-start winners Masterofmyuniverse and Szeryng as he looks to seal a record-extending 13th title. While the race for the trainers' title won't mathematically be over for a little while, a couple of unofficial titles will be settled this weekend as the city enjoys its last two dirt races of the term. Unsurprisingly, Zac Purton will prevail on the jockey front, with the suspension of Britney Wong Po-ni preventing the possibility of a late duel. While both riders have eight all-weather wins for the season, Purton has far more seconds and he has rides in both of Saturday's dirt contests. No one else is in contention. Things are much tighter from a trainers' perspective, with Hayes and Frankie Lor Fu-chuen tied on nine wins and Man and Caspar Fownes in striking range on seven winners.


South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong ‘tourism hotspots' show promise, now to ensure visitors come and stay
In this two-part series we take a look at Hong Kong's efforts to boost its tourism industry. Part one examines the government's moves to reinvent tourism with nine hotspot attractions and whether they will make a difference. Tourist Jessie Wu was enthralled and swept up in nostalgia as she made her way through an exhibition that transported her to Hong Kong's past. Featuring a canopy of criss-crossing electricity cables, the visitor from mainland China paused at a shop that was both a hair salon and a restaurant, and an alleyway kitchen so realistic she could almost smell the fish balls. The 'Kowloon Walled City: A Cinematic Journey' exhibition has been attracting locals and tourists to its replica sets from the 2024 blockbuster martial arts film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. The exhibition opened in May for a three-year run at Kowloon Walled City Park, the location of the densely populated enclave of haphazardly built shops and stacked homes notorious for its lawlessness before it was demolished in 1994. 'I wanted to come here after seeing the film,' said Wu, a biomedical professional in her forties and a regular visitor from Beijing. 'Those of us born in the 1980s on the mainland had a Hong Kong dream, but as I walked through the exhibition, I kept wondering, if I had lived here at that time, would I have survived?'


South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
How Hong Kong singer-actress Karen Mok went from Stephen Chow's co-star to Mandopop queen
This is the 54th instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades. Advertisement Karen Mok Man-wai is one of Hong Kong's more internationally acclaimed stars. However, it is in the nearby Mandarin-speaking places that she has enjoyed greater success. Despite growing up in a city where the majority speak Cantonese, she has released 13 Mandarin albums – the most of any woman singer who debuted in Hong Kong – and has spent the better part of the past decade touring in mainland China. Mok was born in Hong Kong as Karen Joy Morris. She is of Chinese, Welsh, German and Persian descent, and comes from an academic family. Mok at an interview with the Post in 1996. Photo: Jon Hargest Her grandfather was one of the first principals at the prestigious King's College school for boys in Sai Ying Pun. Mok herself studied at another distinguished establishment, the Diocesan Girls' School, where she was active in drama groups and school plays. Advertisement In the 1985/86 school year, at about age 16, Mok was one of 10 girls who won the first Hong Kong Outstanding Students Award, given to secondary school students across the city for academic, extracurricular and community-service achievements.