Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
Theatrical poster
Hangul	곤지암
Hanja	昆池岩
Revised Romanization	Gonjiam
Directed by	Jung Bum-shik
Produced by	Kim Won-kuk
Written by	Jung Bum-shik Park Sang-min
Production company	Hive Mediacorp Constantin Film ZDF
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Showbox
Release date	March 28, 2018 (2018-03-28)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	US$2.28 million[1][2]
Box office	US$19.9 million[3]

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (Hangul: 곤지암; Hanja: 昆池岩; RR: Gonjiam) is a 2018 South Korean found footage horror film directed by Jung Bum-shik.

Plot

Two teenage boys are recording their exploration of the abandoned Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, where rumour states that the director of the hospital killed all of the patients and went missing. The two head to Room 402, the intensive care unit, which no one has opened before. They try to open the door but suddenly hear a ping pong ball. Their broadcast abruptly ends. After seeing news of the teenagers' disappearance, Ha-Joon, the owner of YouTube channel "Horror Times", decides to explore the building as well.

Ha-Joon gets together a group of six people: three girls; Ah-Yeon, Charlotte, a Korean-American and Ji-Hyun, and three boys; Sung-Hoon, Seung-Wook and Je-Yoon. They will do a live broadcast of their exploration of the hospital with a goal of reaching one million viewers.

The group travels to the hospital and sets up their equipment. Ha-Joon stays at their base camp off the road to control the broadcast. The rest of the group find some underwear and tie it to a tree as a marker. Upon breaking in, Charlotte pours holy water in a small petri dish to record its reactions. In the director's office, they find a group photo with all the patients and staff. Ji-Hyun and Charlotte explore the laboratory, where they find a doll. The team performs a ritual to 'invite' the spirit out but become terrified when the strings with bells that they had set up start to shake. However, it is revealed to have been staged by Seung-Wook and Sung-Hoon, unbeknownst to the other four, as a way to attract more viewers. Going back to the lab, Charlotte and Ji-Hyun are shocked to find that the doll has moved. The group discover it is the same doll held by one of the patients in the group photo.

Je-Yoon and Ah-Yeon try to open the door to Room 402, while the other four explore the "Group Treatment Room," seeing many strange coffins. Seung-Wook puts his hand inside a hole in a coffin and fakes his hand being pulled. However, when Ji-Hyun tries the same, her hand is actually pulled and wounded with claw-like scratches. The group, terrified, flees. Too disturbed, Ji-Hyun and Charlotte decide to leave. Ha-Joon reviews footage of all six participants standing together and becomes unsure who filmed it if all six are in the shot.

Charlotte and Ji-Hyun walk back to the base camp but end up caught in an illusion as they encounter the underwear marker more than once. Ji-Hyun goes into a trance. Suddenly, her eyes open with black sclera. Charlotte realises she is in Room 402. Ji-Hyun is in a corner with the doll from the lab by her feet. A naked man appears in front of her and Charlotte is attacked and pulled into the darkness.

Seung-Wook and Sung-Hoon see a wheelchair pushing itself in the basement. Everything in the room begins to float, and both boys are knocked out. Regaining consciousness, Sung-Hoon runs to Je-Yoon and Ah-Yeon, who are still drilling to open the door to 402. Suddenly, a ping-pong ball bounces towards them and Charlotte's screaming is heard from inside 402. The infra-red cameras starts to flash as the sensor detects a presence. The door of 402 opens and the screen goes dark.

Sung-Hoon, Je-Yoon and Ah-Yeon find themselves trapped in a dark room with no exit, standing in knee-deep water. Numerous ghosts appear; the three panic until they are possessed one after the other and swallowed by the darkness. Ha-Joon, after losing contact with his team, goes to investigate. He brings a drone and flies it upwards, seeing someone in the window. However, he realises it was an illusion. The person in the window was himself. He turns to see the director's body floating as if hanged. Ha-Joon is then strangled to death. Regaining consciousness, Seung-Wook finds himself strapped to a wheelchair. The wheelchair slowly rolls to Room 402 by itself, and Seung-Wook cries out for his teammates. He sees various ghosts and hears gibberish before he is pulled into 402.

The live broadcast fails with viewers dropping and claiming the broadcast was fake. In the epilogue, the dish of holy water starts to boil, implying holy water has the effect to repel ghosts.

Cast

• Wi Ha-joon as Ha-joon
• Park Ji-hyun as Ji-hyun
• Oh Ah-yeon as Ah-yeon
• Moon Ye-won as Charlotte
• Park Sung-hoon as Sung-hoon
• Yoo Je-yoon as Je-yoon
• Lee Seung-wook as Seung-wook

Production

The film takes place in the former Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, purportedly one of Korea's most haunted locations. In 2012, CNN Travel selected it as one of "7 freakiest places on the planet."^[4][5]

Most of the scenes in the film were filmed in the National Maritime High School in Busan, with the production team adhering closely to the floor plan of the actual hospital to recreate the exact same exterior and hallways.^[6]

Release

Prior to the release of the film, the owner of the asylum filed a lawsuit against the film being shown in theaters, claiming that the film will have negative effects on the sale of the building. However, a Seoul court in late March 2018 ruled in favor of the film being shown.^[7]

In April 2018, just days after the film was released, actor Lee Seung-wook who made his film debut in Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum announced his departure from the entertainment industry. The actor, who was reportedly absent from promotional activities for the film, cited personal reasons for the decision.^[8]

Reception

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum came in first at the domestic box office on March 28, 2018, alongside the openings of Hollywood film Ready Player One and local film Seven Years of Night, collecting US$1.2 million from 198,369 admissions.^[9] Remaining at the top spot for the next four days, the film earned US$10.2 million from 1.37 million admissions in its opening weekend and accounted for 40% of the total weekend box office receipts,^[10] the biggest March opening ever achieved by a Korean film.^[11]

After three weekends, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum has attracted near to 2.6 million viewers and accumulated US$19.2 million in box office takings, the second biggest gross for a Korean horror film, behind 2003's A Tale of Two Sisters.^[12][13]

Awards and nominations

See also

• Grave Encounters, a 2011 Canadian film with a similar setup

References

External links

• Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum on IMDb
• Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum at HanCinema
• Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum at Naver Movies (in Korean)