2/5 stars
Supernatural thriller Holy Night: Demon Hunters might better have been titled โMa Dong-seok: Demon Puncherโ. 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 โHoly Nightโ, together with exorcist Sharon (Seohyun) and rookie/cameraman Kim Gun (Lee David), which specialises in bizarre and otherworldly cases that the police cannot solve.
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).