'Holy Night: Demon Hunters' A Painful Failure Relying Solely on Ma Dong-seok; Heading to Home Screens Today

The movie 'Holy Night: Demon Hunters', starring Ma Dong-seok, begins its IPTV and VOD service today, a month after its release.

'Holy Night: Demon Hunters' is an occult action film where a city plunged into chaos by a cult-worshipping evil, is saved by the 'Holy Night' team - Bau (Ma Dong-seok), Sharon (Seohyun), and Kim (Lee David), who possess unique abilities to vanquish the forces of darkness. The film, which opened on the 30th of last month, only managed to attract 770,000 viewers nationwide. With a production budget of 20 billion won, the film's break-even point was around 2 million viewers.
This film, coming from Ma Dong-seok, the box office star who achieved the remarkable feat of triple ten million viewers with the 'The Outlaws' series, had garnered high expectations before its release. However, it faced harsh criticism from both critics and audiences for its lack of originality, with characters seemingly cloned from 'The Outlaws', a script and direction lacking genre understanding, and subpar CGI. Unlike the 'The Outlaws' series, which was celebrated for its entertainment value, 'Holy Night' was particularly criticized for its lack of fun.

It remains to be seen whether 'Holy Night: Demon Hunters', which performed poorly in theaters, will be re-evaluated in the comfort of home viewing. Ma Dong-seok's previous work, 'Men of Plastic' (2022), also had a modest theater turnout of 600,000 viewers but fared well in the IPTV market.

(SBS Entertainment News | Kim Ji-hye)