Gonjiam also known in English as Haunted Asylum is the only Korean film of it's kind that was released last year. The film was a huge success stemming from the fact that South Korea had never seen a horror movie created in a live camera documentary feel. Bum Jung Sik wrote and directed the script for the film based off a real Asylum(CNN named the place one of the creepiest places in the world back in 2013 which got torn down last year.) and casted a group of lesser known actors/actress to play the roles. The cast consists of Wi Ha Joon, Lee Seung Wook, Moon Ye Won, Yoo Je Yoon, Park Sung Hoon, Park Ji Hyun, and Oh Ah Yeon.
A group of young people go to an Asylum that was said to be haunted by ghosts who were tortured years ago. Rumors spread that people who enter the building never come out, so the group enters to film a live stream online. They fake some scary instances to get viewers to watch until they realize that things start happening that none of them staged…..
Haunted Asylum honestly isn't a scary film at all. Viewers will spend most of this film seeing young people having fun together as they work their way into filming inside the Asylum more than anything else. The character's aren't really all that likable. They're kind of just there to take up time since you see everything through the cameras they hold. This film could be considered the Korean version of Blair Witch without the Asylum, of course. Events become a bit creepy once they story takes you inside of the Asylum but the film tries to psych itself out into believing that this is just a bunch of college kids fucking around in a creepy ass place where nothings going to happen. Well, nothing actually doesn't happen until pretty close to the end of the film. Viewers are still left with questions even when the shit starts to hit the fan. The background for the reasons why the ghost are doing what they do is never really told. Then we are given a super rushed group of scary(?) scenes back to back that loose momentum after the first two that are shown. There's only one scene in this film that made me jump and that scene wasn't technically in the Asylum. The scene following that was good too. Much was left to be desired after that in my opinion. The director could have made so many choices in order to make the kill scenes more artistic than what they were. He took none of these approaches and allowed the film to simmer down instead of building in intensity. I wasn't impressed by how the film ended, nor did I like how he let the idea of possession fall by the waist side. He could have really made Haunted Asylum give viewers nightmares had he taken things a few steps farther.
I didn't care too much for any of the characters like I said above. The only one of them I would hang out with was Charlotte. She also had one of the best kill scenes. I felt more frustrated with all of them because who in their right mind goes into a place that is said to never have people come out once they go in? The acting was what it was. You don't need to be an award winning actor to act in this kind of film.
Haunted Asylum isn't the best horror film out there but it isn't the worst either. If you want a simple film that is flawed but an interesting enough watch, This film is for you.
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