Gonjiam : Haunted Asylum Movie Review

It's been a long time since I blogged about movie reviews. Ever since I blogged about The Conjuring and Annabelle's movie review, surprisingly some people who don't dare to watch the movie read my review instead. Maybe horror movie in written form is not so scary. Therefore, today I will review the current trending Korean horror movie - Gonjiam : Haunted Asylum. 

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum follows a group of volunteers on the Korean web series Horror Stories, as they venture into a notorious psychiatric hospital, dubbed one of “the seven freakiest places on Earth”. Shut down in the 1970s, following an alleged mass suicide of its patients, the asylum is rumoured to have housed political prisoners as well as the mentally ill, who were tortured and tested on by the director, who has since disappeared.

This movie starts with two teenagers travelling to Gonjiam psychiatric hospital - a place where there is a rumour that the mass suicide of patients and the disappearance of the hospital director occurred on October 26, 1979 - more specifically, they headed toward Room 402, an intense care room. Two schoolboys make fun of their friend who didn't go along with them due to fear. When they tried to open Room 402 with a hammer, a ping-pong sound of a table tennis ball was heard and then their broadcast suddenly ended. Later, a newspaper showed that two students were missing upon they entered Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital. A YouTube channel "Horror Times", led by Ha-joon, decided to explore such an abandoned hospital.

Days later, at a cafe in Seoul, 7 people meet each other - A-Yeon (a student attending the Department of Nursery), Charlotte (a female Korean American who explored 3 of 7 'Freakiest places in the World' selected by CNN), Ha-Joon, a YouTuber who manages the channel "Horror Times", and 4 more people - Sung-Hoon, Seung-Wook, Je-Yoon and Ji-Hyun. Ha-joon explains that they will make a live broadcast about the exploration of Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital and in doing so they will make some earnings through advertisement. Their targeted hits are 1 million.

By the way, I was quite impressed with the gadget in this movie. Each of them has 2 GoPro with them which means there are nearly 20 GoPro. I was just wondering whether GoPro sponsored them in this movie. Lol. They even have a 360 camera for the main videographer as well. I personally think they are so professionally prepared (in the movie) for a live video because Malaysia's live video is so "cincai" (casual). HAHAHA

After entering the hospital, they make additional preparations to track down supernatural occurrences and several ghosts. They set up the infrared-detecting camera through the ceiling of the hallway, Charlotte pours holy water purchased from Myeongdong Church on a small petrify dish and set up a camera to record reactions of holy water as well. 

When they begin to explore and live broadcast throughout floors with cameras, the door of the Director's room suddenly shuts with a loud sound without any touch. They enter the room and discover various photos and signatures of the President but nothing unusual. Seung-Wook and Sung-Hoon prepare necromancy, while the others go to different floors.

Later, They bring together and initiate necromancy. Various supernatural occurrences hit, but it was revealed that they faked them with several behaviours. After broadcasting resumes, A-yeon and Je-yoon go to open Room 402, and the others go to the laboratory room led by Seung-Wook and Sung-Hoon. While exploring, Charlotte and Ji-Hyun panicked when the doll they saw just before moved to another place; and they discovered that the doll was the same one in a picture - held by one of the patients.

After they enter to Group Treatment room, they see many coffins with one hole and try to open it but the coffin does not open. Seung-Wook tries to open it by putting a hand through the hole and attempts to bluff other people by saying someone is pulling his hand. Ji-Hyun tries as well but at that time, something pulls her hand and arms and everyone panicked. After pulling out her hand, Ji-Hyun discovered her arm scarred. 

Shortly afterwards, the coffin opens automatically. Panicked, they exited the Group Treatment Room. However, when they arrive at the place where Charlotte writes her name on the wall, they discover the red-coloured word "Survive (살자)" was reversed to "Suicide (자살)."  Wow, now I know how to write survive and suicide in Korean. Charlotte got disoriented after she felt that she was cursed by the hospital. Ha-joon cross-checked their films and realized the change of the word was real, not fake. Afterwards, a big argument broke out.

After exiting the hospital, Charlotte and Ji-Hyun desperately walk toward base camp. However, when they discover a cloth hung on branches again, they panic. Charlotte also found out the specimen of chicken and flask. Shocked, she finds Ji-Hyun fear and discovers her but Ji-Hyun seems to be hanged to death. Shortly afterwards, Ji-hyun's eyes are open with fully blacked and she starts to say something gibberish but unrecognizable.

Panicked, Charlotte ran away from her but some time later, she discovered that she was trapped in Room 402. She activates her flashlight to see inside Room 402. Charlotte discovered Ji-hyun standing cornered at one side but she decided not to say her name since she saw her possessed appearance. On the other side, she saw the horrible appearance of a ghost. Overwhelmed by fear, Charlotte desperately cried for help by loudly knocking on the door, but later a ghost appeared just behind her and pulled her into darkness as she screamed.

Okay, I finally admitted there was something that appeared! The whole movie was kinda of boring because it begins like a vlog but finally, I saw so ghost in this scene. But the scary part is kinda short.

Now, Ha-Joon, the only one who is still alive, decides to broadcast on his own. When travelling to the hospital, he discovers someone is trapped in Room 402 and rushes to rescue the person as soon as possible. But upon entering the room, he realized that it was all a hallucination; he watched himself with a drone controller outside the hospital through the window of Room 402. 

It is revealed that the person before he enters the hospital was his future self. Overwhelmed by fear as well, Ha-joon slowly holds the camera upward and discovers a director's ghost is just behind him. Shortly afterwards, Ha-joon was strangled by the ghost; presumably killed. It is also revealed that their 'seemingly live' broadcast website was also a hallucination made by a schoolgirl ghost. The actual hit was 503, not 1 million; and the ghosts disappear.

This scene was actually my favourite part of the whole movie. Also, consider the scariest scene though. However, I personally felt that scene was kinda copied from one of the scenes in "The Conjuring" Part 1 if you ever saw that movie. 

RATING

★★★☆☆

COMMENT

Not scary as I expected. Maybe I was giving too much expectation after reading so much feedback on the Internet mentioned it was so scary. It is actually quite boring from the beginning until the middle part. The scary part might just last for 15-20 minutes. Thus, I don't think it was a super scary horror movie if compared to a Japanese horror movie. However, this was the 3rd Korean horror movie that I ever watched. So the rating is still considered not so bad. I was just curious did the director really kill all of the patients? Because there are so many patients how did she kill them all alone? Maybe I just paid too much attention to the storyline and forgot about the scariness. Lol. If you haven't heard about this movie yet, you may watch the trailer below.