KPop Demon Hunters and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues turn it up, up, up all the way to 11

Thanks to the record-breaking live return of Oasis, this has been a year heavy on Britpop nostalgia. But did anyone expect 2025 to include a rerun of the notorious Blur-versus-Oasis battle of August 1995, where the two bands dominated multiple media cycles by releasing head-to-head singles in a race to the top of the charts? 

History doesn’t repeat but, like a good chorus, sometimes it rhymes. So almost exactly three decades on from that Britpop ding-dong it is tempting to frame a similar rivalry between two cinematic bands vying for your eyeballs as well as your eardrums. The films they feature in could not be more different. One is a caffeinated animated movie aimed at tweens soundtracked by state-of-the-art synthetic pop. The other is the lugubrious sequel to an improvised rock mockumentary classic that leans heavily into an already heavy-sounding back catalogue.  

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But these contrasts are what makes pitting the musical stars of KPop Demon Hunters and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues against each other so compelling. It’s east versus west, pop versus rock, young versus old, streaming versus cinematic release, the future versus the past. (Perhaps the only battle more elemental would be fire versus ice, and thanks to some philosophical musings in the original This Is Spinal Tap we all know that results in lukewarm water.) 

So what’s the tale of the tape (or Spotify stream)? In the red corner is KPop Demon Hunters, the fizzy animated story of HUNTR/X, a dazzling Korean pop trio with an unusual side hustle. Rumi, Mira and Zoey (voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo) have inherited a generational musical mantle where a girl group must use their singing talents and nifty combat skills to chop up demonic invaders desperate to steal people’s souls.  

It’s a heady mix of Charlie’s Angels, Blackpink and Buffy with an energised artistic style comparable to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The film was actually produced by Sony Pictures Animation – the studio behind the Spider-Verse and Cloudy with a Chance Of Meatballs movies – with an estimated budget of $100 million. To secure the rights, Netflix apparently covered the production costs and paid $20m on top. 

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KPop Demon Hunters was released directly on the streamer in June with little fanfare but has since become the most watched film in the company’s history, racking up over 250 million views (this is all according to Netflix’s rather woolly viewing metrics). A more tangible indicator of the movie’s success is the fact that multiple songs from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack have had a stranglehold on charts around the world all summer. Smartly, directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans brought in actual working K-pop songwriters and producers to craft the tracks. 

Even if you have never heard of HUNTR/X you will have heard the skyscraping “we’re going up, up up”  chorus of Golden, the film’s pivotal empowerment anthem. 

This is all in keeping with the plot: HUNTR/X draw their power from the intensity of their fandom, so it certainly helps if their songs are genuinely great. Their sworn enemies even stage a clever fightback by manufacturing their own sleek demon boyband, whose breakout hit “Soda Pop” is also such a banger it makes them instantly beloved. (“We knew the movie needed to highlight the importance of the fan and idol relationship because that relationship is unlike anything else in entertainment,” Kang explained to Time magazine.) 

KPop Demon Hunters feels like a wild bet that hit big. But because of its Netflix provenance it’s unclear quite how that translates into cold, hard cash. A recent limited run of sing-along screenings in actual cinemas has earned an estimated $19m; the millions of plays and views for the soundtrack have likely made some money too, even with the stinginess of streaming royalties. But in terms of sheer overall cultural impact? It has been a palpable pop coup for Netflix. 

Over in the blue corner, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues looks like a rather crinkly underdog. But being thwarted is all in keeping with Spinal Tap’s signature combination of hubris and humiliation. It could hardly be called an authentic Tap comeback if sweetly grumpy rock trio David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) didn’t experience some kind of disaster along the way. 

What the Tap lads have on their side is anticipation. Not only is it over four decades since This is Spinal Tap was first released in 1984 – and the band missing the milestone 40th anniversary feels like part of the joke –  it has also been quite an agonising three years since returning director Rob Reiner first announced the follow-up at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. (“We wouldn’t try unless we thought we had something that could work,” is how he described it to NME.) 

The slowburn approach does seem appropriate. This is Spinal Tap did not set the box office alight when it was first released. Even with rereleases, the film’s global box office is estimated at around $6m. But it did become an enduring cult hit on VHS, creating catchphrases like “these go to 11” and “none more black” that have become part of the vernacular.  

The real reason it has taken this long to get the band back on screen is a legal wrangle over royalties. In 2016, Shearer launched a court case against This is Spinal Tap rights holders StudioCanal alleging that the band had received just $81 in merchandising income and $98 in musical sales from the original film. The two parties finally agreed a settlement in 2020, paving the way for a proper sequel. It understandably still rankles with the actors, even when they are being interviewed in character. “There’s no cash involved in our careers, basically,” Guest, as Tufnel, told The Los Angeles Times recently. 

So as well as the film itself – centred around the idea of a one-off Spinal Tap comeback gig in New Orleans to honour a dusty contractual agreement – the band are giving it the full multi-media push. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will debut in proper cinemas worldwide, including some IMAX screens, rather than just on a streaming platform.

Releasing an accompanying soundtrack album is a no-brainer but this week also sees the publication of a new book, A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap, offering an oral history of the UK’s loudest band. The idea of going all-in on merch opportunities even makes it into the movie, with officially branded “Tap Water” in mini Stonehenge-shaped bottles. (“This is artisan?” asks St Hubbins hopefully in the trailer. “It’s, uh, just tap water,” is the reply.) 

When the dust settles on 2025, Spinal Tap II: The End Continue will likely end up being the second-most popular movie about a fictional musical trio fighting demons (their own or external). But while a new version of Tap’s towering rock anthem Stonehenge featuring guest vocals from Elton John is unlikely to dislodge HUNTR/X from the top of the charts, at least McKean, Guest, Shearer and Reiner will have done it all on their own terms.

They might also take comfort from how the ‘Battle of Britpop’ panned out. Blur’s “Country House” may have beaten “Roll with It” to number one but Oasis clearly won the war. 

KPop Demon Hunters is on Netflix now; Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is in cinemas now.

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