ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — While “Superman” is a smash-hit at the box office and “Sinners” just landed on HBO Max, there are plenty of other 2025 releases out this summer worth a look. Check out our short reviews of a couple films to stream or skip this July.

You should stream…

“KPOP DEMON HUNTERS” (2025, 96 min., directed by Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang)

“KPop Demon Hunters” is as fun, energetic and beautifully choreographed as the catchiest K-pop song.

(Courtesy: Netflix) “KPop Demon Hunters” blends infectious musical sequences with demon slaying action.

The Netflix-exclusive follows three K-pop idols, Rumi, Mira and Zoey, members of über-popular girl band HUNTR/X and the latest in a long line of women tasked with protecting the world from demons. When the Saja Boys, a demon boy band, begins to climb the charts, it’s up to HUNTR/X to write the perfect song to defeat them. Meanwhile, Rumi must reckon with her own secret demon heritage and her complicated feelings for one of the Saja Boys.

Like “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the Sony Pictures Animation movie before it, “KPop Demon Hunters” is gorgeously animated. Rather than the comic book stylization of the Spidey films, however, this film is given its own visual language, this time inspired by anime and manga. Every one of the demon battling sequences look great, but even better, the film is soundtracked to a collection of genuinely delightful original music, the performances of which are animated with as much verve as the demon hunting. Like the demon-addled horde of K-pop fans in the film, I’m pretty partial to the Saja Boys’ “Soda Pop,” but the HUNTR/X songs are the real gems, an electric blend of rap, rhyme and clever lyricism.

Even if you’ve never listened to a single second of K-pop, I recommend giving “KPop Demon Hunters” a shot. You’ll be bobbing your head to HUNTR/X in no time.

Rating: 3.5/5

“KPop Demon Hunters” is now streaming on Netflix.

“MISERICORDIA” (2024, 104 min., directed by Alain Guiraudie)

For a pitch-black comedy, “Misericordia” is coated in gorgeous autumnal colors. The French dramedy, about a young, queer man attempting to cover up a murder in his hometown, is like a slow-moving and sumptuously shot conversation with the town gossip. The film brings the audience up close and personal with the messy relationships of its characters, which makes for a terrific pairing with the gorgeous Mont Aigoual forest and Sauclières streets, lensed by award-winning “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019) cinematographer Claire Mathon.

(Courtesy: Janus Films) “Misericordia” stars Félix Kysyl as a young man attempting to cover up a murder in his hometown.

“Misericordia” prominently features the art of morel mushroom hunting and watching it is a sensation similar to digging under the hobby’s piles of wet, rotting leaves. Though you may find yourself in turn entranced by, disgusted with or compassionate for the characters of “Misericordia,” you’ll inevitably find something delicious to chew on.

Rating: 4/5

“Misericordia” is now streaming on The Criterion Channel.

You can skip…

“ECHO VALLEY” (2025, 105 min., directed by Michael Pearce)

(Courtesy: Apple TV+) Sydney Sweeney and Julianne Moore have a strained mother-daughter relationship in “Echo Valley.”

“Echo Valley” is a less successful murder yarn than “Misericordia.” The film stars Sydney Sweeney as Claire, the troubled daughter of Kate, a horse trainer and grieving widow played by Julianne Moore. Following the recent death of her wife, Kate has been struggling to make ends meet on her farm, the titular Echo Valley. When Claire, a struggling drug addict, returns home with a vicious drug dealer close behind, Kate must make a few hard decisions to protect her daughter.

The thriller has a great twist and a solid Moore performance to sell it, but “Echo Valley” isn’t helped by Sweeney, ostensibly the co-lead of the film, virtually disappearing from the entire second hour. Sweeney turns in a performance that feels made up of unused “Euphoria” takes, but her character, at least, is more compelling than the villain, played by a dull Domhnall Gleeson.

“Echo Valley” is a bad echo of better thrillers, such as “Mare of Easttown,” written by “Echo Valley” scribe Brad Ingelsby and a perfect murder mystery to watch instead.

Rating: 2.5/5

“Echo Valley” is now streaming on Apple TV+.

“ABRAHAM’S BOYS: A DRACULA STORY” (2025, 89 min., directed by Natasha Kermani)

In the grand tradition of vampire movies adapting great vampire literature, “Abraham’s Boys” is a film adaptation of a short story of the same name by horror novelist Joe Hill. The tale is even posited as a direct sequel to “Dracula,” the ur-text of many of the best vampire flicks, including last year’s “Nosferatu,” and a story so well known that “Abraham’s Boys” uses several of its characters without exposition or explanation. The movie follows vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, now married with kids to “Dracula” deuteragonist Mina Harker and living in sunny California in the early 20th century.

(Courtesy: RLJE Films) “Abraham’s Boys” is posited as a direct sequel to the original “Dracula” story.

What this “Dracula story” gets so wrong, however, is how its co-opted characters are used. Van Helsing, a beacon of compassion, knowledge and kindness in the original “Dracula,” has been transmogrified in “Abraham’s Boys” into a cold, deluded abuser.

While this shift in characterization might be an interesting spin on the “Dracula” canon, writer-director Natasha Kermani eschews any attempt to clarify that the source text has been spun at all. Kermani plays “Abraham’s Boys” entirely straight as a “Dracula” sequel, yet its premise hinges on an understanding of its substantial oscillation away from its progenitor. The pieces are an imperfect fit.

Even if the film featured a defter script, it would still be in need of a better central performance. While young lead Brady Hepner, star of another Joe Hill adaptation, “The Black Phone,” does his best, and Jocelin Donahue as Mina makes an effort to waste away as eerily as possible, Titus Welliver is wooden as the famously charismatic vampire hunter.

“Dracula” die-hards seeking a compelling continuation of that vampire story shouldn’t stake too much in this one. “Abraham’s Boys” is excruciatingly slow and frustratingly confused.

Rating: 2/5

“Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story” is in theaters now.

“40 ACRES” (2024, 113 min., directed by R. T. Thorne)

It is clear from frame one that R. T. Thorne was bursting with ideas for his debut feature. “40 Acres” begins as a propulsive, explosive take on the apocalyptic survival genre, name-dropping Octavia E. Butler and revolutionary ideology left and right. 

(Courtesy: Magnolia Pictures) Danielle Deadwyler stars as a stern matriarch in “40 Acres.”

The film features the terrific-as-always Danielle Deadwyler as the matriarch of a militarized Black and Indigenous family defending their farmland compound in a dystopia devastated by famine. The production design, practical effects and scope of the world are stunning for a movie with an $8 million budget, and the film begins a smart, racially-minded take on near-future climate wars. It is so close to something like “A Quiet Place” with its sci-fi farm setting and family angst, but told with a Bachelor’s degree in Critical Race Theory.

Unfortunately, “40 Acres” has about 40 minutes of legitimate greatness before it dies on the vine. After the introduction to the world and its characters, the film starts to dig a field of plot holes, seeding them with cliché and watering the crop with a bad action movie finale. There was once the prospect of a beautiful movie here. I hope Thorne decides to make that next.

Rating: 2/5

“40 Acres” is in theaters now.