S E22: Episode 22 | Is KPOP Demon Hunters OK for Christians? Kids, Spiritual Warfare, & Discernment

Welcome back to the True Grit podcast with Rachel Grit.

I am your host, Rachel Grit.

And today we've got kind of an interesting topic that I've been wanting to talk about for a while, and that is the movie K Pop Demon Hunters, and whether we as Christians should be watching it and letting our kids watch it.

Now, I'm going to give you a little bit of a spoiler here.

I love the movie.

My kids love the movie.

I was extremely apprehensive about it at first.

First.

But after watching it, we've watched it several times now, and we've actually been able to have some very interesting, very good, very grounded talks about spiritual warfare, about evil, about demons.

It's honestly been an incredible tool for teaching our kids about things that they can't exactly see and how evil actually works.

So I'm going to start by talking about the things that I really like about the film and the reason that I believe it is a really good tool for teaching kids about spiritual things.

And I am, at the end, going to talk about some things that I don't really love about it or things that you might want to watch out for.

I do very much encourage parents, of course, to be careful about what they're allowing their kids to watch.

That said, though, I grew up in a home where my parents were extremely careful about what they let us listen to, what they let us watch.

And.

And while the idea of being careful and at, at the very least mindful about what you put into your heart and your mind, I think is a concept that has served me well.

How strict my parents were about what I was actually allowed to watch, I honestly feel was a little bit counterproductive.

It almost led to, once I was able to make my own decisions about what I watched, just having no restrictions whatsoever because it felt like, oh, wow, I've had all these very, very, very tight restrictions on me so far, and now I get to make my own decisions.

It didn't really teach me to be mindful.

I kind of had to put the concept that I knew into practice on my own instead of kind of being walked through the process of, you know, dealing with difficult subject matter, how to reconcile difficult subject matter with my faith, all of those kinds of things.

I was kind of just taught to avoid anything that could potentially be bad.

So I know that there are.

And I participated in some conversations online about this movie, and people are very split down the middle, and I understand why.

And like, I. I grew up in a home where we watched and read Narnia.

Harry Potter was Not allowed.

Like there was, I wasn't allowed to listen to Radio Disney.

And anything that could potentially be considered demonic was definitely off the table.

And so I will be pretty upfront.

I, at first, when I heard about the movie was like, yeah, okay, over my dead body are we watching something called K Pop Demon Hunters.

And there's, you know, there, there are videos that I've seen of people kind of making fun of, like it's kind of a silly name.

Even if let's take the demonic thing out of it.

It's like, oh, K Pop Demon Hunters.

Okay, wow.

I think Trey Kennedy has a video where he's like, wow, they really have run out of ideas and then ends up like, after watching the movie, it was like dancing to the soundtrack.

But there also is that angle of anything with the title demon in it, especially for Christian parents, for spiritual parents is kind of going to prick their ears up and go, okay, hold on, let's take a second look here.

And for a lot of parents in discussions I've seen online, the name alone is enough to completely shut down any conversation about watching it.

Because if it includes the name demon, it must be demonic and we need to avoid anything demonic.

And while I understand where they're coming from, because that, that pretty much was how my parents leaned growing up and that is honestly how I leaned until we decided to give it a go.

I want to encourage you to be a bit open minded.

If you are in the camp where you heard the title and were like, pardon the pun, and also a little bit of language, hell no, this is, this is not happening.

I want to encourage you to have a bit of an open mind.

We're going to talk through the positive and the negative.

And honestly, I firmly believe that the positive far outweighs the negative.

And the negative honestly provides an opportunity for some conversations about things.

I grew up in Christian school.

I grew up with many kids who were far more sheltered than I was.

Like, even some Christian music, even some Christian media wasn't deemed clean enough.

And those are the kids who tend to go buck wild once they get a little taste of freedom.

Sheltering your children does not save them from the evil that is in the world.

The best thing you can do as a parent is prepare them to encounter evil in the world.

And so honestly, I think when there is, you know, things represented in media that are things that some Christian parents may want to avoid, a lot of times I will allow my children to engage in it because it provides a good format for a guided discussion for me to be the place for me and my husband to be the place where our kids go when they have questions about things.

Because especially in the dawn of the Internet, and especially now with AI, if our kids do not feel comfortable bringing all of their tiny, weird niche questions to us, they are so easily are going to be able to find an answer elsewhere.

And you know, when I was a kid growing up, it was Urban Dictionary, right?

Like you would look at Urban Dictionary to find out what things meant.

Now we have AI that, you know, not just is going to be able to give a very specific answer to a very specific question very quickly, but especially right now with where AI is at.

A lot of times it's just one perspective and is not always accurate.

Okay, so that is enough preamble.

Let's go ahead and get into what I like about the movie K Pop Demon Hunters and why I strongly believe it's a really solid theological tool for teaching our kids about evil, about spiritual warfare, about demons, and about how to combat the enemy.

So first and foremost, introducing the idea of demons to children is something that's really scary.

But is something that we are as Christian parents going to have to talk to them about eventually?

I think there is still so much that is unknown about the spiritual realm, about demonic activity, about demons as a whole, but this movie does a really great job of introducing them in a concrete way.

You know, how I've kind of explained it to my kids is okay, demons are real.

They do not look like this.

They are not actual, you know, physical creatures all the time that you're gonna battle with a sword.

But there are spirits and influences that the enemy puts out into the world in order to control us, in order to entice us to make bad decisions, in order to get us off of God's plan.

And this is probably one of my favorite points that the movie introduces and does a really great job of giving us a concrete example to point to how evil, a lot of times can look good and look attractive.

So if you're not familiar with the movie at all, there are going to be spoilers in this episode.

I'm just going to talk about everything.

So if you don't want any spoilers, this is your sign to go ahead and click away.

Though if you're concerned about the movie, I would definitely recommend looking up the spoilers to be able to get a full picture of what the movie is before you watch it or allow your kids to watch it.

And I actually didn't really have a choice in my kids watching it, which is One of the interesting parts of having a blended family.

So my kiddo's mom, my older two, their mom had dropped them off and was like, oh, yeah, we were in the middle of watching K pop Demon Hunters, so you might want to like.

They really liked it.

It has a really great soundtrack, so go ahead and watch it.

And at first I was like, oh, fantastic.

Okay, great.

Yeah, not going to happen in our house.

But once I actually looked it up, one of the first reviews I saw was, hey, like, from the perspective of a Christian mom, I think there's a lot of value to this.

Da da da da.

And so that is kind of what hooked me.

And I was like, okay, we'll give it a watch.

I read through a whole bunch of reviews.

I read through a whole bunch of, like, content reviews and things and those, like, parent guides that they put out about movies and eventually decided, okay, we'll give it a go.

And I'm honestly glad that we did.

But one of the things that happens in the movie is there.

There's a girl group, there's a K pop girl group, and they are the Demon Hunters.

And there's been different iterations of this group over long periods of time where their music keeps the demons at bay.

And so the demons are not able to steal the souls of people, which kills the people.

This is not shown in any sort of graphic detail, but it is very much implied that the demons consume the souls of the people.

And I, I realize this is some like, pretty heavy, scary language, but hang with me.

The demons consume the souls of the people and that fuels the demon world.

And so keeping the demons at bay with the music that the hunters are able to provide brings people together, creates community, and keeps the demons at bay.

And so the demons, once we, when, when the movie starts, the point in time that we are at is right before the demon world is going to be sealed out once and for all.

And so the demon world is kind of like, up, oh, crap, we have to do something.

And one of the demons, whose name is Jinu, he presents this idea of, well, why don't we.

In order to combat the K pop girl band Demon Hunters, why don't we make our own demon K pop boy band?

And at first this is kind of laughed at by the, like, Demon King.

And then he's like, okay, you know what?

This might work.

Go ahead and go for it.

And the purpose of this group is to garner support, get the affection and attention of the fans, kind of take the hearts and minds away from the girl group who is called Huntrix.

The girl band is called Huntrix.

And then eventually break them apart.

Break apart.

The kind of veil that separates the real world from the demon world is called the Honmoon.

And so they want to break apart the Honmoon and then have the demon world be able to just consume all of the souls.

And again, this sounds really scary, but when you break it down, take kind of the literary theater part out of it.

And that's actually kind of how evil works.

The Enemy's entire purpose is to break us apart, keep us from Christ so that he is able to win our hearts and our minds, and then at the end of the day, our souls.

So right off the bat, the premise for the movie, while there is something some fantasy involved, there's a pretty solid basis there of how the Enemy actually works.

Now, I highly doubt we have actual, like demon boy bands going around battling for the hearts and minds of fans through music, but again, when we suspend our disbelief a little bit, there's a lot of really solid truth here that we can use to clearly illustrate to our children in a way that they will understand, but how evil actually works.

And so this boy band is made up of demons and they in their human form are supposed to be very attractive.

Like, all of the fans really love them.

They're.

One of the lines that keeps getting reiterated through the movie is, wow, they're so hot.

And respectful because they present this front of being very respectful.

And it prov.

This is one of my favorite points of the movie, that it provides such a solid reference point for evil presenting itself as good.

At first, even the hunters are confused because they see these demons.

So you can, you can recognize demons by.

But.

But they are able to be recognized by these patterns that the hunters are able to see.

And so they, they see these patterns on the boy band and realize, oh, wow, they're demons.

But then they see them doing all of these like, kind good things for the audience when they see them at their first performance and are like, okay, well maybe they're nice demons, but wait a minute, there's no nice demons.

What is going on?

And then they start to realize what has happened, that these, these, these demons have come in human form to create this boy band in order to break them apart, steal their fans, steal the hearts and minds of the fans, and break apart the Honmoon once and for all.

So, once again, this is just a really solid example that we can point back to with our kids of how evil a lot of times looks.

Not even just harmless, but good and attractive and fun and even morally upstanding.

How can you look at.

At these people who are so attractive and doing these kind things and think that they could have a nefarious purpose?

Honestly, there's.

There's a lot of parallels that you can draw here, not just from a spiritual warfare standpoint, but from a protecting our children from abuse standpoint.

Someone can be someone who you look up to and find, you know, attractive or trustworthy or a safe place for you, and their behavior can even, at some points, look really good.

But we need to be paying attention to everything someone does and factoring that into how we view them, because someone can look good and kind and safe and actually have very nefarious intentions.

And that's a pretty abstract concept to introduce to children.

And so that's kind of.

Like I said, one of my bigger points that I really, really like about how they did the movie is it just presents this point in a way that kids are able to understand now.

And I'm jumping around.

I don't have a script or anything.

I'm actually in the car, which is why I might sound a little bit different, because between having three kids that go to three different schools on two different custody schedules and having ADHD and running a business and all kinds of other things, I kind of have to record when I'm able to record.

And so we're just.

We're rolling with it.

This is not going to be super polished.

This is not going to be, like, super succinct, neat little points like, if you are my people, you are my people, and you will understand how my brain works.

I've heard from multiple people that the way and the speed in which I talk and how I kind of jump around, like, is helpful for them.

So if that is not you, I apologize.

But that is how this podcast is.

So let's go ahead and move on that.

Another point that I think the movie does a great job of is showing that one, someone who is on the, you know, evil side of things can be redeemed.

But that also does not mean that everyone who is choosing to be on the evil side of things is just this helpless soul looking for redemption and comfort.

So Jinu, the demon who presents the idea to the Demon King of creating this boy band, it turns out that he is human and he kind of sold his soul to the Demon King in Order to, you know, 400 years in the past, he was poor on the streets with his mom and his sister.

And it's presented that he sold his soul to the Demon King in order to secure a better, safer life for himself and his family.

And then, as a result, he was eventually consumed by the Demon King, by his shame, by his guilt, and then ended up being banished to the demon world.

And he has this deal with the Demon King where if he is able to secure the demise of the Hunmoon and is able to provide an avenue for the Demon King and the demon world to be able to consume all of the souls, then he will be freed from the shame and the guilt that he carries and the terrible memories that he has.

And so that is his motivation.

He was not naturally born a demon.

He was born a human and then was banished to the demon world.

So he is motivated by his own desire to get this voice of shame and guilt out of his head.

And throughout the movie, again, this is a spoiler.

He and Rumi, who is the main character of the film, she is one of the hunters.

And she also is half demon.

So she has patterns like a demon, but she has hidden them from the two other girls who are in the group, whose names are Zoe and Mira.

So Rumi is part demon.

Her mom was a hunter.

It is not explained explained in this movie how her mom ended up having a baby with a demon, but she was raised by one of the other women who was in the band with her mother.

And Celine is this woman's name.

And so Celine raises her, knowing she is part demon, but teaching her to hide this part of herself.

She teaches the girls, the entire band, that they have to conceal any flaws.

They have to hide their flaws from the world, hide their fear from the world, and present this point perfect front in order to be effective.

And I'm kind of mixing some of the things that I wanted to talk about here, but so it turns out that Rumi is part demon.

Jinu is a human who has been turned into a demon.

And during a battle scene where Rumi is trying to fight Jinu, he ends up her sleeve gets ripped.

And he sees her patterns and realizes that she is part demon.

And in that moment, he kind of takes the pity on her.

He realizes that during this battle scene, her fellow bandmates, Zoe and Mira, are going to see her patterns.

And there's this very quick scene where he wraps her in a hug, ties fabric around her arm to hide the patterns, and then leaves.

And so that starts this tension where he realizes that Rumi is part demon, that she is hunting demons, and that the Demon King has no control over her.

And so that gets his mind going about, okay, maybe there's another way here.

Maybe there is a way that I can loose the Demon King's control over me without going through with this plan that's going to result in basically the demise of the world.

And at the same time, Rumi now realizes someone knows her secret.

But she kind of continues about her day.

And over time, he reaches out to her, Chinu reaches out to her, and they establish contact and they start to kind of builds this very tentative friendship that then does blossom into romance.

But there is never.

They never.

They hold hands very briefly and there's definitely this romantic tension, but there's no.

They don't kiss.

Like there's.

There's no really resolution to the romance.

So then Rumi has this experience with this demon where he does something kind and compassionate for her that honestly is a little bit self sacrificing.

And so she starts to shift how she feels about demons as a whole.

And this is where we kind of have to get into the nuance, right?

And this is where the movie actually does a really great job of demonstrating that there is a difference.

They're not promoting the idea that all demons are actually just oppressed creatures and we need to free them and they're not actually evil.

In the next battle scene, she corners this demon who is not part human, they are full demon.

And she's asking, is the Demon King keeping you captive too?

Is he controlling you too?

And the demon's smile just like grows on its face and she realizes, okay, no, this is not this universal experience where the Demon King is just oppressing them and they're being forced to do things they don't want to do.

Most of these demons really just are demons.

And she realizes, okay, is this, this is not.

Not everyone is in Gino's position where he doesn't want to be doing this evil stuff.

A lot of these demons, most of these demons, if not all of them, truly are just evil.

And I think that's a really important distinction.

And I'm really glad that the movie introduces that point because it does clear up this idea that maybe all demons are just misunderstood that could potentially be there.

So then over the course of the movie, Rumi and Jinu have this tension between them where they try to create a plan in order to overthrow the Demon King.

But you're not really sure.

Is Rumi playing Jinu and just trying to get him to do what she wants so that they can finally seal the Hon Moon and her patterns will be gone.

So she is kind of selfishly motivated, but by the desire to remove her patterns so she can just live her normal life and not have to worry about hiding from her bandmates.

And Jinu is selfishly motivated to get the Demon King's voice out of his head and finally be freed from his guilt and his shame.

And so there's this tension where they both are using each other, but then it goes poorly.

But then they kind of try to trust each other and they build this tentative friendship that blossoms into romance and they have this ultimate plan to try and at the very final performance, because throughout the movie, sometimes Hunt Trix is winning these performances that are going on in this world.

And sometimes the demon band is called the Saja Boys.

Sometimes the Saja Boys are winning these performances.

And so kind of the.

The climax of the movie is Rumi and Ginu plan to sabotage the Saja Boys performance at it's called the Idol Awards, which will allow Huntrix to win and should finally seal the Hon Moon.

And if Jinu is on the human side of the Han Moon when it is sealed, he will be free and cut off from the Demon King.

So that's kind of their ultimate plan that they end up settling on and they end up learning to trust each other.

And it's.

It's this really beautiful story that honestly reminds me a lot of my relationship with my husband and how we met.

Uh, we are both divorced.

We both were in pretty rough marriages.

I think all parties would probably agree that the marriages were pretty rough.

And when we found each other, we were both very, very damaged.

We had both been in therapy for years.

We had both been seeking Jesus wholeheartedly, but we both were still incredibly damaged.

And tentatively learning to trust each other and tentatively learning to kind of accept, extend ourselves and build a friendship that blossomed into this beautiful romance that now is a really wonderful marriage.

The story of how Rumi and Chinu start falling in love is.

Is really beautiful.

And I know I'm not pronouncing all of the names correctly.

I'm doing my best, but it just.

It's a.

It's a really beautiful story of two broken people who truly desire to be better, but are still deeply flawed.

Learning to trust each other and grow together towards improvement.

So that's another really, really positive aspect that I really enjoyed in the movie.

So as they are preparing for this final performance that is supposed to finally seal the Han Moon Once and for all, the band is trying to create a song that's going to act as kind of a diss track against the Saja Boys.

And it ends up being full of these really hateful lyrics that as Rumi is having to confront really the reality that she is part demon and that she knows a demon now who does not exemplify all of the characteristics that they've all taken for granted are true about all demons.

This entire time, she starts to be really bothered by just the hate that the group is using in order to defeat the demons.

And she starts to go, okay, you know what?

I don't really think this is right.

And something that Jinu tells her during one of their talks is, if hate alone could defeat the Demon King, I would have done it a long time ago.

And so she starts to realize that this anger and this rage and this hate that has been fueling their fight against the demons is actually counterproductive and is keeping them from achieving their true potential of keeping the world safe from these demons.

So they decide to use the song golden, which is a single they had just released, which is a complete and utter banger.

I'm telling you, you've probably heard it by now.

It's a fantastic song.

It is so good.

It is so catchy.

And so that is what they decide to perform at this, these Idol Awards.

So it comes time for their performance.

The Saja boys were supposed to go first, but they are now fighting because we're going, okay, great.

Jinu sabotaged it like he was supposed to.

So Huntrix goes on stage to perform golden.

And Rumi is on stage performing.

But Zoe and Mira see their manager being carried off by demons and go to try to intervene.

Well, it was a diversion to get them off stage.

And now demon versions of Mira and Zoe have taken their place on stage instead of the real Zoe and Mira, the demons are able to kind of present themselves as different people.

So demons pretending to be Zoe and Mira then go on stage with Rumi and their, their takedown song starts playing.

That's the diss track that they had been working on that ultimately they all three decided, ok, this song isn't right.

We need to go with like the positive song that brings us together, not this hate filled diss track.

And so this song starts playing and Rumi starts like very confused doing the choreography for it.

And as the song goes on, these demons pretending to be Zoe and Mira remove her jacket and show her patterns to the entire world.

So she is now completely exposed as being part demon.

Which is the secret that she's been trying to hide from the world for her entire life.

And she's been told and conditioned.

She has to hide.

And she's been doing this her entire life, even from her very closest friends.

She is now completely exposed on stage.

Zoe and Mira, their.

Their real selves get back to the stage and see her patterns and realize that she has been hiding this from them and who she really is.

And everything falls apart.

The girl group breaks up.

Zoe and Mira are just so hurt and scared of Rumi at this point that she's begging them not to leave.

She's like, no, we're so close to, to finally sealing the Han Moon once and for all.

Like, I, I, you weren't ever supposed to see this side of me.

And they are just terrified.

And end up pointing their weapons at her, effectively cutting her off from the group.

So the group has broken up now.

Tsurumi goes and finds Jinu, and it seems as though he doubted their plan.

Things fell apart, and he just decided to go through with the plan that he had been most confident in, which was this deal with the Demon King.

And so he tells her this was all a trick.

I just told you what you needed to hear in order to get what I wanted from you.

And she's, you know, begging him.

She's like, no, I know that you're not this person.

This is not who you are.

And then it comes out that the story he had initially told her about the deal that he had made with the Demon King was not actually true.

He didn't make this deal to save himself and his family, to give himself and his family a better life.

He did it just for himself.

His mother and sister were left on the streets while he was able to live in the palace and sleep, sleep on silk sheets and have a full belly every single night.

And so that is the shame that he's been carrying, that he sold out his family in order to secure an easier life for himself.

And so at this point, you know, all hope is lost.

Rumi's secret has been exposed.

It looks like the Honmoon is just going to fail once and for all.

And then the Saja boys go on to have a performance of their new song, which is called Idol.

Now, this is another sticking point for a lot of people.

The song Idol has a lot of religious imagery.

It is creepy as hell, and that is the point.

So something that we need to be very, very careful about is writing off the content as being single, layered.

This song is about the boys being the idol of their fans and taking their souls.

One of the lines is literally, I came for your heart, now I'm here for your soul.

Or I took your heart, now I'm here for your soul.

Something like that.

All of the lyrics are exposing what their true intentions have been this entire time.

So yes, it is creepy, yes, there is religious imagery and, and I've seen some people saying like, oh, it's sacrilegious.

No, the entire purpose of this song is exposing the demon band's true intentions.

And again, this is a really fantastic example that we can use with our children.

Number one of things that look nice at first, when they are evil, they will decay.

And their true intentions and their true impact and their true consequences will come out and it will not be good.

It also has provided an interesting opportunity to talk to my kids about really listening to what lyrics say to understand what they are about and whether it's something we should or shouldn't be listening to.

Full disclosure, There are several songs on the soundtrack that I do not allow my kids to listen to outside of the context of the movie.

The diss track is one of them.

There's a lot of language about violence and hate.

And within the context of the movie it's made abundantly clear.

Okay, this song is counterproductive.

We should not be fueled by hate.

But without the context of the movie, I don't want that bouncing around in my kids minds and hearts.

And then also the song you idol, that is one that I do not let my kids listen to outside the context of the movie because again, it is inside of the movie.

It's a really great tool to get the point across to show the true intention of the demons.

But outside the context of the movie, I don't feel comfortable with my kids just consuming it on a regular basis.

And during their performance, the costumes that they are wearing represent what's basically the Korean equivalent of the grim reaper.

So there's so much imagery happening here.

And another thing that the lyrics provide for the song you idol is when you look at them, it really is honestly like a mini manifesto of how evil actually works and how the enemy actually works.

So I'm going to read you some of the lyrics.

These are all in English.

Some of the songs, since they are K pop songs, a lot of the lyrics are English, but some are in Korean as well.

So at the beginning they chant, pray for me now Keeping you in check, keeping you obsessed Play me on repeat endlessly in your head Anytime it hurts Play another verse.

I can be your Sanctuary no, I'm the only one right now I will love you more when it all burns down More than power, more than gold yeah, you gave me your heart Now I'm here for your soul I'm the only one who will love your sins Feel the way my voice gets underneath your skin and again, these lyrics.

I've seen people, like raising alarm bells in some of my Christian parenting groups saying, like, how are we allowing our kids to listen to this?

Number one, this is how evil actually works.

And this is such a great tool to be able to teach our kids the insidious nature of evil.

And honestly, I like to give a little more credit to my kids and teach them about heavy, heavy things like this sooner rather than later.

And especially when it's in relation to some sort of media that they enjoy, that they understand, that paints a good picture to them and connects in their little growing brains of how evil actually works.

I think that's incredibly valuable.

And two, I do think it's important to, for your idol specifically, but also take down to not be listened to just casually.

So within the context of the movie, they're fantastic tools.

So it is creepy.

It is there.

There is a lot of religious imagery here, but I think it works very, very well as a tool for teaching our kids and honestly, for doing some introspection of our own.

There is a lot of evil, not just that comes after our children, but that comes after us.

That portrays itself.

Scripture talks about the Enemy portraying himself as an angel of light.

And so honestly, I very strongly feel that K pop demon hunter's portrayal of demons and spiritual warfare is pretty biblically accurate.

Like, this is exactly how the Enemy operates.

He promises us comfort.

He promises us, I will accept you.

You don't have to abide by these standards.

You don't have to avoid sin.

I love your sin.

You are comfortable here.

You are safe here with me.

And that's how he draws us in.

And then we end up being consumed.

So the fact that these lyrics strike a chord with Christian parents is a reason to use it as a tool for your children, not a reason to run from it.

Because guess what?

Children are going to hear these messages and not just in the context of a fictional movie.

They are going to hear these messages from the Enemy himself.

And it is going to go far better for them if they know how to respond and are aware that these messages are going to pop up versus having absolutely no idea and basically being sitting ducks for every tactic that the enemy can throw.

If we can prepare our kids even a little bit for how the enemy works that will serve them incredibly well.

So.

So I want to warn you that watching the movie K Pop Demon Hunters, there are quite a few prickles that are going to happen.

But what I want you to do, first of all, I would encourage you to watch the movie before you watch it with your kids.

I did not do that.

And I don't think I was as prepared as I should have been to have some of these conversations with them.

Now, we have watched it multiple times and have had multiple, multiple conversations about it.

Every time we rewatch it, it kind of brings up something new that we can talk about.

So.

So I very, very much want to prepare my children to deal with spiritual warfare, to be able to confront evil, to be able to walk in truth and be prepared for how the enemy is going to attack.

But your discernment likely will get prickles from this movie.

Now, I do want to briefly say that this is also an area where personal conviction can come in.

If you feel personally convicted not to watch this movie, I want you to pray about it and abide by by that conviction.

But I also want to warn you not to conflate your spirit picking up signs of evil with conviction, because this is imagery, this is language, these are tactics that the enemy uses.

So of course our spirit is going to recognize them.

But when we are seeing them in the context of literature, we are able to use that in order to teach, not just as something that absolutely needs to be shied away from.

Let's go ahead and move on.

But your idol, just to reiterate, has definitely been a sticking point for a lot of parents that I have seen online.

But I want to challenge you.

Look at it from the perspective of using it as an example of what the enemy is capable of and how he operates, and that will allow you to use it as the tool that honestly has been so incredibly helpful for us.

But I do think it's important to note that just letting your kids watch this movie is not going to achieve that end result of educating them on evil and on spiritual warfare.

It is going to require us as parents having conversations and guiding them through it, which is why you're here.

So I want to encourage you in that this is not me saying, oh, yeah, it's totally fine, just go watch the movie.

I want you to be aware so that you are able to guide your kids through it, because it's a fantastic tool.

So the final performance by the Saja boys ends up being interrupted by Rumi, who now is like her Hair is disheveled.

She's no longer wearing her jacket.

You can see her patterns all over her skin.

One of her eyes is now even golden, which the demons tend to have golden eyes.

A lot of them have golden eyes or at least glowing eyes.

So it is incredibly clear now what she is.

And, you know, her secret has been exposed to the world.

But she still shows up to this sage boy's performance and interrupts it and begins to sing a song about now that I am not trying to hide my imperfections and my flaws and the things that I struggle with.

This is what my voice sounds like now.

And as she begins to sing and confront the Saja boys, Zoe and Mira, who were also in the audience, they had ended up going their separate ways.

And I, I want to pause here and, and talk about how that happened.

So as the Huntrix band has broken up now and the Han Moon is more vulnerable and the demons are able to have more and more control, the demons start to kind of get in the heads of some of these characters.

So, for example, Mira, we learned through the movie that she was kind of the black sheep of her family and that Huntrix was essentially her second chance at having a family.

So when the band broke up, the demons start to get in her head and go, you don't belong anywhere.

You don't deserve a family, but I can give you a family.

And Zoe, we learn throughout the movie that she is very much a people pleaser.

She's very eager to please.

She really wants to be accepted.

And so, of course, the band breaking up really shakes her.

And as Mira then kind of casts her away, the demons get into her voice and to Zoe's voice, head and say, you know, you're too much and not enough, but I can help you belong.

And so, like, it's, it's, it is insidious, it is creepy.

But again, this is how evil actually operates.

And it's such a great picture that we can point out to our kids and go, this actually happens.

We need to be aware of when thoughts come into our heads that are not of God because we do not need to listen to them.

And look, see, Zoe and Mira and Rumi, they listened to the demons that were in their heads.

They listened to the thoughts that were.

Were telling them things that were wrong and bad and evil.

We don't have to do that.

We have a different way.

And so during this performance, the two other girls, Zoe and Mira, see Rumi start to sing and find her voice now that her secret has been exposed and they join her and they sing, and they end up defeating the Saja Boys.

But then the Demon King is now able to enter the human world and confronts everyone and specifically targets Rumi and is trying to destroy her.

And he's like, blasting her with his power and all.

And it shows Rumi just pushing back and pushing back.

And all of a sudden it stops.

And she looks up and hears Jinu, and he has placed himself in the path of the Demon King and is sacrificing himself in order to save her, which then gives her the strength.

Jinu disappears.

It's presumed that he dies.

She then is able to defeat the Demon King, and then she and Zoe and Mira defeat the remainder of the demons.

The Han Moon is saved and the people are saved.

And so it should kind of go without saying that.

I mean, scripture is very clear about, you know, true love is laying your life down for your friends.

That is, sacrificing yourself for the good of others is a very spiritual, biblically backed idea.

And so this redemption arc that happens where Gino realizes, even if he's not going to get what he wanted this entire time, there's something better that can happen, and that is saving Rumi and in turn saving the world and sacrificing himself in order to make that happen.

The remainder of the Saja boys end up getting defeated by the other two girls and.

And everyone is saved.

Something else that I forgot to mention earlier is that when the band breaks up, the Han Moon ends up being destroyed.

And I. I had mentioned it being weakened, but it had actually been completely destroyed.

And Rumi realized that the old Hanmoon needed to be destroyed so they could build a new one, so they could build a better one, one that was based on actual truth, not this twisted, fake idea of perfection that they were trying so hard to present to the world.

So they're the previous member of the band, Celine, who had been in the previous iteration of the Hunters.

She was kind of their guide and taught them everything that they knew.

And she would constantly tell them, like, you have to hide your fear.

You have to hide your flaws.

And so this old Hanmoon had been based on this fake Persona, this face, fake perception that the girls had been presenting to the world, that they were perfect, that they had it all together.

And only once that pretense was gone, only once that fake inauthentic view of them was gone.

Only then was truth able to provide the final boost that the Han Moon needed to seal out the demons once and for all.

And honestly, it this clicked for me last night.

I was watching it with my 4 year old last night and my parents actually were over for dinner and watched the first 15 minutes or so and I could tell they were like, what are you allowing your child to watch?

So sorry, mom and dad.

Once you see the entire movie and we're able to talk about it, it'll make more sense.

But it clicked for me last night and this is probably the fifth time I've seen this movie.

The Han Moon, I believe, can represent the church.

There has been a very large rise in Christian nationalism right now in America and it is insidious and it is a false presentation of the gospel.

It is a false idea of what Jesus is and what he calls us to.

And honestly, I think we're in the middle of an overhaul of the church right now because people are realizing that a lot of what American evangelicalism stands for and teaches and touts and establishments, especially now that it has been aligned with the conservative political party here in America.

People who call themselves Christians, many people there are, there are many people who call themselves Christians who genuinely do serve and follow Jesus.

But the American church as a whole, now that it has kind of been commercialized and packaged alongside cons, the conservative community, the conservative political party, it has become something Jesus never would have wanted it to be.

It has become about appearances, it has become about power, it has become about status.

It is no longer about radical truth.

It is no longer about authenticity.

It is no longer about exposing your flaws and finding community to bolster you and seeking out the lowly in order to be build community and further God's kingdom.

It is about power and keeping those in power in power.

And honestly, I started to cry when I realized this last night.

I was like, wow.

I think that if we're, you know, it's.

Nothing is going to be a perfect analogy, right?

There's not going to be.

Okay, well, this tiny detail in the movie actually represents this.

Like in the movie there's, there's like this little bird that has three eyes and presumably six eyes because there's three eyes on one side and it like wears this little hat and it's this, this like funny little creature in the movie.

I.

There's not really like a parallel for that.

So not everything is going to have a perfect parallel.

But when I look at the broader message of the movie and specifically look at it through a Christian lens, I think the Honmoon is the church.

I think that the church has been built up on this false pretense of perfection.

And what we believe to be righteousness.

Our understanding as American Christians of what righteousness is, is incorrect.

The Bible Project has some incredible, incredible podcast episodes about what righteousness actually means and what justice actually means, and how a two cannot be separated from each other and you need both together in order to accomplish Jesus mission of bringing the kingdom of God here on earth.

We need an overhaul.

We absolutely need an overhaul.

And I think the panic about this movie and people being so afraid of it and shunning it completely kind of reinforces that point that we've become more about the appearance of things than we are about actual truth.

We are so afraid of a movie that has demon in the title that we are missing an incredible opportunity to teach our children about what evil really, truly is and what it looks like and how it silences us and keeps us from the truth.

It just.

It's such a perfect example of what I see as being wrong with American evangelical conservative Christianity.

And this is going a little bit different of a direction than I had been.

So I do apologize for going on a little bit of a rabbit trail here.

But I just.

Because I.

With full disclosure, when my parents were over and I was watching it, suddenly I'm.

I'm seeing everything that I missed before that.

I'm like, oh, they're not going to like that.

Oh, they're not going to like that.

Like, the first time I watched an episode of the Office with my parents, the entire time, I'm like, oh, I didn't realize this happened.

Oh, I didn't realize that.

Inappropriate joke.

Oh, I didn't realize this.

I'm suddenly, when I was watching it last night with my parents, just picking up on all of the things, and so I started to kind of like, feel this prickle in my spirit.

I'm like, okay, I want to pray for discernment here.

Because truly, if this is the Holy Spirit kind of prickling me and going, is this something that we should be feeding our hearts and our minds?

I want to be aware of that.

And so as we're watching the movie, you know, I stopped to pray for discernment and.

And for God to show me, you know, is this something that maybe I've built up in my head and I've made excuses for and found positive explanations for things in order to be able to justify watching it.

Because I want to be so aware if that is the case.

I want to be listening to the Holy Spirit's leading if that is the case.

And as I finished praying, I just began to see more and more areas where this movie can be used as a tool.

And then that's when kind of the idea that the church is the hon moon and maybe we don't need to preserve and strengthen the church as it is.

Maybe it really does need to be broken down so it can be rebuilt.

And I am saying that as someone who very much was broken down and rebuilt.

A couple weeks before I was served divorce papers, I had just had my first child.

My little buddy was only three and a half months old at that point.

And I wrote down in my prayer journal, I asked God to break me down and rebuild me into the woman that he had for me to be.

And, you know, at that point I was thinking, you know, maybe he would bring to the surface a bad habit I wasn't really aware of, or maybe he would help me refine my character a little bit.

Nope.

I was served divorce papers.

I was basically unable to go back to my home.

I became a single mom overnight.

My entire world crumbled.

The people who were my support system completely, completely turned on me.

My entire life was destroyed beyond recognition and never to be the same.

And it was a very intense process that honestly is still ongoing, of refinement and God squeezing me and breaking me down and rebuilding me in this very, very tender, beautiful way.

But that was honestly extremely painful.

Breaking something down does not mean it is being destroyed in a negative way.

It is many times making way for something new.

We serve a God of redemption.

We serve a God who loves to take things, the enemy intended for evil, and use them for good.

And I fully believe that that is what we have the opportunity now to do in the church.

Okay, I'm gonna step off my soapbox now.

Uh, you probably have some thoughts on that, especially if you are part of the conservative Christian community here in America.

I'm sure you were not anticipating hearing that this morning.

Um, so real quick, before I kind of dig into some of the things that I think parents need to be aware of that maybe aren't so positive about the movie, I do want to provide an opportunity to talk about this.

So if you have thoughts you want to talk through, even if you would want to hop on a podcast episode with me and kind of talk through things, or even if you just want to send me an email, you can email me rachelachelgrit.com all right, I'm going to take a breath here and have a little sip of my coffee.

So, to sum up, I truly believe there is so much good and so much potential for good in this movie.

It's a fantastic tool to be able to use to teach our kids about evil and what to look out for and what to be aware of and how the enemy actually works.

And again, to reiterate, before I get into some of the negative, I strongly believe the positive of this movie far outweighs the negative.

You are able to do with that whatever you would like.

You, of course, get to make the decisions about what happens in your house.

But I would encourage you to pray for discernment about this movie and be open to the Holy Spirit's bleeding.

It is absolutely fine to not watch this movie.

It is absolutely fine to have a personal conviction against watching it that you feel follow.

You should always be following your personal convictions when they are given to you by the Holy Spirit.

You know, God gives us discernment when we ask for it.

And so if you have a personal conviction about watching this movie, this is not me telling you to ignore that, but what I want you to do is pray about it.

Because again, I firmly believe the positive of this movie far outweighs the negative.

So let's talk a little bit about some of the things that are in this movie that I don't think are great.

There are a couple of things in the movie that can be seen as inappropriate, but ultimately I don't think they detract enough from the movie to forego watching it.

So the first thing is there is a little bit of like borderline sexualization of one of the characters.

I'm very glad that there is not for a single moment any sexualization of any of the girls.

So we're actually dealing with the sexualization of one of the boys here, which, you know, as a woman growing up in America is a little bit refreshing, but also something to be aware of.

So in the Saja boys, one of the characters is named Abby.

And that is literally just because he has a six pack.

And that is regularly shown off through the movie.

There is one scene in particular where the Huntrex girls meet the Saja boys for the first time and are immediately enamored because the Saja boys are very attractive.

That's one of the main draws to them, is they're very, very physically attractive.

And there is a scene they, the boys come into view in slow motion and there is a very close up scene that goes on for quite a while where Abby's shirt kind of flaps open and is very, very tight and one of the buttons flies off because, you know, his abs are so big and strong and his pecs are so big and strong.

One of the buttons flies and hits one of the girls in the face and they see his abs.

And Zoe and Mira, their eyes turn into six pack abs, which it's, it's not as creepy as it sounds like the, the actual visual execution of this is not as creepy as it sounds, but honestly it is, it is kind of a lot, especially for a kids movie.

And then their eyes turn into corn for some reason.

And then the corn pops because the, the insinuation here is that these boys are so hot that the corn that their eyes turns into pops.

And it's, it's done in a very cartoony way, but there also is a very, very huge emphasis placed on this character's abs and they are shown off a number of times.

The intro scene where we meet him for the first time is definitely the most intense.

And none of the other characters are really sexualized in that way.

And it's, it's.

I, I hesitate to even use the word sexualized because it really is more of like, wow, he's so hot.

There's nothing that points directly to sex sex about it.

Like when I was in middle school, I remember like being obsessed with six packs and being like, oh my gosh, six packs are so hot.

And it just, it more being about someone being very attractive versus sexy.

So kids who understand being attractive but not quite sexy yet, this is not necessarily going to like jump them a step ahead, but, but it is an opportunity for a conversation.

It is an uncomfortable scene.

So I would encourage you to watch it ahead of time and decide your comfort level.

You can absolutely skip through it.

One of the running jokes through the rest of the movie is that like even the little old grandmas are obsessed with Abby.

And there's a scene where they're signing autographs together and how he signs his autograph is he just does like a pencil rubbing over a piece of paper of his abs.

He's.

I think he's wearing a shirt at that point.

I honestly don't remember.

There are a number of scenes where he is shirtless or his abs are shown.

But yeah, so it's more of, wow, he's so hot.

Look how hot and attractive he is.

The sexual angle isn't necessarily brought up, but it's.

Hopefully you get what I'm saying.

I would just encourage you to watch the scene or just watch the movie before you watch it with your kids, but at least watch that scene and if you're uncomfortable with that idea, you can go ahead and skip it.

The only thing really integral to the plot and it's not even that integral to the plot that happens in that scene is Ginu accident, presumably accidentally knocks Rumi over, pretends to extend his hand to help her up, and then ends up brushing dust off his shoulder and says, watch yourself.

So it's our first introduction to Jinu being this selfish jerk, honestly.

But besides that, there's nothing really integral in that scene that you're missing in if you skip it.

Now.

The girls are not sexualized during the movie, which I really appreciated.

No one even really talks about like oh, they're so hot, they're so attractive.

There's not really any mention made of their looks.

But if you are sensitive to things like short skirts, it is kind of your typical animated body types.

They are very tall and thin.

They have very long legs.

They're skirts are also very short.

Nothing is shown.

A lot of times they're wearing high necked tops.

There's no cleavage.

There's really nothing sexualized about the girl's bodies.

But if you are someone who is sensitive to like short skirts or crop tops, they are wearing crop tops a lot of the time.

They're.

They are wearing short skirts a lot of the time, but that is kind of in proportion to their body length.

Again, there's no cleavage shown, nothing like that.

There is a scene at the end of the movie where they are at a speed spa and they're in kind of like a hot tub and you can see their bare shoulders.

So there's kind of the insinuation that they're either in like tube tops.

The credit scene has a cartoonized version of this where they're wearing towels under the water.

So it's, it's not completely insinuated that they're naked, but you could kind of make that assumption because you're seeing their bare shoulders and there aren't any straps or anything.

A couple of their outfits do have some buckles.

Zoe's main top that she wears is a crop top that has some buckles around the neck.

So that can kind of allude to some like leathery type clothing.

But nothing is, you know, there are no like corsets or like very strappy things or anything that is overtly sexualized.

It's just kind of like a style that is used.

There's some buckles in some clothing.

So if that is not suggestive to you, that will 100% definitely go over kids heads or not even register for them.

But again, the, the costumes are not sexualized.

There's no cleavage.

There's no like butt Cheeks hanging out.

They just are, you know, animated.

Women tend to have long legs and shorter skirts.

And that is very much the style that is here.

The dancing really isn't suggestive.

There are maybe a couple of moves that are like hip swivels and things, but there's.

There's really nothing suggestive in the dancing.

I'm trying to think if there's.

If there's really anything else.

This isn't necessarily negative, but there are some lines in a song that Rumi and Jinu sing together when they're kind of realizing that they can trust each other and realizing that they can relate on this very deep level.

They sing this song that includes some comments.

Rumi says, like, I want to change, but I won't if you're not by my side.

And kind of goes on to portray the relationship as this, like, special understanding that they have.

And it can be taken a little far.

Not any further than really any, like, Disney princess movie or any other movie that has a romantic plot line.

But it is also an opportunity to have a talk with your kids.

So, you know, I talk to my kids like, okay, so in a relationship, when you get into a relationship someday, it's going to seem perfect.

It's going to seem like no one understands you like this person, and no one understands your person like you and you're perfect for each other.

But that's not true.

It's going to feel perfect in the beginning.

But you're both human.

Everyone has flaws.

Nothing is perfect.

There is not just one person who's going to understand you, and you just can't live without them.

The movie isn't crazy overt about promoting that or about having that message, but it was something I wanted to talk to my kids about.

You know, even.

Even listening to, like, old School Taylor Swift, there's a lot of, like, toxic relationship advice.

I love Taylor's music.

It's played a big part in my life.

But she is not someone I would ever go to for relationship advice.

And so even something like listening to Taylor Swift a lot of times in my house results in a conversation about what a healthy relationship looks like and how no relationship is going to be perfect, but it's going to feel perfect at first because that's what hormones do.

They make it feel like things are perfect.

The only other thing I can think of that, honestly, I did not.

It did not register with me at all until watching it last night.

There is a scene where the Saja boys and Huntrix are at a joint signing.

They're signing things for their fans together.

And it's clear that there's kind of a connection between Rumi and Jinu.

Zoe kind of has a crush on one of the other guys.

I don't remember his name.

He has, like, hair in front of his face.

I think he's mystery.

But then Mira is sat between Abby and one of the other ones.

And there's a scene afterwards where you see different clips of fans kind of making.

If you know what shipping is, it's basically where, like, you're like, yeah, these.

I want these two to be together, typically with celebrities or characters in a show or a book or whatever it's called shipping.

So fans are shipping Roomie and Ginu, and then they're shipping Zoe and Mystery.

And then very briefly, you see on a screen where someone is shipping Mira with Abby and the other guy.

So you can.

Most people will probably interpret that as like a love triangle, almost like, you know, Bella with Edward and Jacob.

Like, which one is she gonna choose?

But it could be taken as a throuple situation where someone is, like, really wanting the three of them to be in a relationship.

But again, like, I did not even notice that until last night.

Most people will probably not even clock that that is even a thing.

It very much could be taken as, like, a love triangle sort of a situation.

But I did want to mention that very briefly, just in case that's something that you are sensitive to as well.

And again, it's an opportunity for a conversation with the kids.

Like, polyamory is a thing in today's culture.

It's been a thing for a very long time, but it's something that has kind of become.

Become part of the broader conversation now.

So that is an opportunity for you to be the one controlling the narrative with your kids.

You to be the one introducing that concept.

So they are not getting their information from their peers or from the Internet or from social media.

And again, I do not think most people will even register that.

The last thing is there is a bit of violence in the movie.

I mean, there is a lot of violence in the movie, but it's not really.

It's not shown in a gory way.

When demons are killed, they kind of prove poof into pink dust.

Like, sparkly pink dust.

And that's even, like, commented on in the movie.

The manager of the girls who is not aware that they are hunting demons is like, well, the special effects you use.

I don't know how you turned that guy into pink dust, because at the very beginning of the movie, they are Coming to a performance, and there's demons that they're having to fight on their way there.

And they end up killing this demon who's in the crowd, and he just poofs into pink dust.

And the manager's like, wow, I don't know how you did that.

He turned into pink dust.

Especially during the very first scene where they're in an airplane and they have to kill these demons who.

And it's made clear the demons are more.

They don't really die.

They're kind of just sent back to the demon world.

So you see some of the demons that had been, quote, killed in the first scene, they.

They appear again in the demon world.

So it's not so much death as being sent to the demon world again, but the first scene where they're on an airplane and they have to kill some of the demons could be seen as a bit intense.

Again, watch it before you watch it with your kids.

Skip it and just explain it to them.

That is pretty integral to the storyline this first scene is.

But it didn't really strike any of my kids.

My kids can sometimes be sensitive to scary or violent things, and none of them even had any sort of issue with it.

The lyrics to Take down do have quite a bit of violent language, but again, that is a device in the movie for the girls to kind of realize that the hate and the anger they've been using to fuel their fight against the demons is not effective and is actually counterproductive.

Okay, I'm trying to think if there's anything else.

Again, I had none of this written down.

This is totally just off the dome, which is kind of why I ended up just, like, reciting the plot to the story and finding the points I wanted to talk about along the way.

But, yeah, if you have any questions, I'm always open to an email.

My email is rachelachelgrit.com Feel free to share this on your social media or with anyone else who's considering watching the movie.

You guys, we live in the world, but are not to be of the world.

But that doesn't mean that things that are in the world cannot help us explain things to our kids.

Now, of course, we have scripture.

And scripture is an incredible tool.

It is a complete tool.

It is useful for teaching Christmas correcting and training and righteousness.

But we also were given the power of storytelling.

Storytelling is something that Jesus used to communicate.

Storytelling is something that humans have used for the entire time that we have been around and alive to communicate and teach and share.

And this is no different.

So I would very strongly encourage you use discernment, pray about it.

Be open to using it as a tool.

Let the Holy Spirit be the one to close that door.

Don't let fear or society close that door for you.

So that is all I have for you today.

Thank you for listening.

I would love it if you subscribed to the podcast and if you gave it five stars.

That helps me reach more people and I will talk to you in the next one.

Bye.