October 6th - The Asylum Yields its Evil Dead

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)

This was on Shudder and I was at the start of "Witchboard" when my daughter asked if we could watch it on Saturday. So I found Gonjiam newly added and hadn't really watched a lot of South Korean content, so this seemed like it could be fun. And it was. I admit that a guilty pleasure of mine are paranormal investigative reality shows. Found footage horror like Gonjiam takes those shows and actually provides the audience some supernatural ghouls and violence, instead of some ball of light or a minor page turn in a room. You can see a young woman's eyes go black while she's mumbling something incoherent while her colleague, in the woods, breaks for it. Inside the asylum, where its former director (who won awards and was celebrated for her supposed good work for the hospital) reportedly hung herself (and the building reportedly used for horrendous crime), as a YouTube creator's hired young adult group for a horror paranormal page investigate and observe the surroundings. At the start, nothing seems too life-threatening. But as the night continues, whatever evil lives within the building starts to emerge...and that evil "influences" and imprints onto the investigators. The motivating force behind remaining there even after an arm is pulled into a standing wooden coffin, a scarf is pulled on a woman's neck, and doors knocking folks down is a live broadcast reaching 1 million views for a lot of money.

Before all hell breaks loose

You can tell that it is all fun and games initially when they first approach and enter the asylum. They monitor the rooms and walk the halls as their producer/boss records and broadcasts from a tent not too far away in the woods. Prior to that, those hired meet the producer who gets the introductions out of the way, and they all joke around. They even put on helmet cams and leaps onto inflatable rafts that bounce them into the water. This was supposed to be just a fun little romp that will hopefully get them plenty of views on YouTube by those curious to see if their dilapidated, garbage-strewn asylum yields any paranormal activity. At the very end, some comments believe what happened to the team assembled was fake.

Ha-Joon, the YouTube channel creator of Horror Times, gradually worsens as the night continues. When it would appear the channel is closing in on the cool million views he's after, Ha-Joon goes from mild-mannered, calm producer/broadcaster into a barking, raving tyrant, ordering the others to remain at the site and continue filming. And they are equipped with all kinds of cameras and equipment allowing them to capture something of significance for the broadcast / channel.

If you watch enough of these paranormal found footage horror films, there are certain expectations. We do get the scene where a room's trash and scattered objects start moving across the room or at the investigators. A spray-painted name on a wall has text underneath it that changes from one point to another hours later. All the team eventually encounter manifestations of those haunting the place, eventually dragged across floors, lifted in the air (and dropped somewhere else), locked in rooms, and possessed (white-corpse fingers reach around faces until eyes go black and minds are lost to the place). The use of multi-cameras and capturing a lot of space by using those cameras harnessed with characters in the asylum and surround grounds give the film plenty of footage. And you get your ghouls. What started out as a laugh, a gas, results in horror and loss. Is this any different than, say, "Grave Encounters"? Not really, but the change of venue, a different country, and characters who aren't really toxic, "get off my screen" types helps. 3/5 

October 6