Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Blu-ray Movie Review

Fake news.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 19, 2018

Lest anyone think that the PR hype accompanying Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is just that — i.e., hype — , CNN did in fact name the abandoned asylum one of its 7 of the freakiest places on the planet. It’s perhaps notable that Gonjiam came in at number seven, with at least one of the “higher” entries having already inspired not one but two horror outings, The Sea of Trees and The Forest. CNN perhaps might be credited with sparking the idea behind Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum since its very article linked to above begins its brief section on the asylum by stating, “The story of this abandoned psychiatric hospital reads like a textbook plot of a horror film.” Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum does get into some putative history of the place, though my hunch is, while perhaps based at least partially in fact, it’s highly sensationalized and even fictionalized. That said, another article I stumbled across while doing background research for this review indicates that all of the horror stories told about the place are, in the words of the article, “fakelore”, and that the facility has subsequently been demolished. In the context of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, the place was closed after a mysterious rash of patient deaths which were either suicides or the nefarious work of the enigmatic (female) head psychiatrist, a woman whose fate is also swathed in mystery and perhaps subterfuge. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum begins with ostensible phone video footage of two young Korean boys breaking into the place and making their way to the supposed “center” of erstwhile horrific goings on, the locked Room 402 (some viewers may jokingly feel Room 420 might be a better bet, if you catch my drift). Suffice it to say things don’t go well, with the video, which was supposedly uploaded to YouTube, ending suddenly, along (it might be added) with the boys, who reportedly disappeared mysteriously. That found footage then segues instantly into a cheesy Korean television or web show that is obviously supposed to remind viewers of shows like Ghost Hunters or perhaps more saliently Ghost Hunters International. The show is Horror Times, hosted by Ha-joon (Wi Ha-joon), who has been sharing the YouTube video of the two kids to set up the fact that he will be going to explore Gonjiam on his own on the anniversary of its closing, along with a coterie of fans who will be the “winners” of a contest. The exploration will be streamed live for interested viewers, and anyone who has ever seen one of the increasingly tired "found footage" horror films can probably guess more or less exactly what happens next.

In a way, it’s almost ridiculous how much time Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum takes in introducing its sextet of “and the rest” characters, since anyone keeping scorecards on entries like this know that the mortality rate tends to be on the high side. There are some fitting stabs (no pun intended) at developing distinctive characters in the sextet of people accompanying Ha-joon on his expedition to get to the bottom of the supposed hauntings at the facility. But there’s an almost absurd amount of time spent with these six (three girls, three boys) in pre-asylum scenes, which vary from their introductions at a rooftop cafe to, later, a camping expedition on the way to Gonjiam that seemingly intentionally apes aspects of The Blair Witch Project. Somewhat hilariously, for those who remember one of the more infamous shots from that film, you get not just one, but several shots up folks’ nostrils since all of the participants are equipped with Go-Pro like cameras strapped to their chests and aimed at their faces.

Now, for anyone who likes this kind of “up close and personal” horror film, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum will probably fill the bill, and in some ways the depictions here are much more overt than in offerings like The Blair Witch Project, which of course pretty famously relied on what might be termed impressions rather than actual displays of horror. But there’s still just a tired and frankly almost silly feeling to a lot of the film, especially once things predictably go awry, and characters find themselves in harm’s way, either due to their own fear based stupidity or (the horror!) actual demonic spirits. There are some admittedly spooky moments scattered through the film, but as with so many of these found footage offerings, there is an arguable over reliance on dark shadowy spaces (which may or may not be hiding things that go bump in them), and just rote shocks that are typically set up with something that seems to be a scare, but which turns out to be stuff like pranks.

In a way, the entire film is summed up in the opening few seconds, with the phone video that in essence is what the rest of the film turns out to be, albeit somewhat extended and after a lot of interstitial material, most of which my hunch is even diehard horror fans will perceive as largely needless. The real life asylum may well have been a scary place, even if its history may have been largely “tame”. This film is simply too hackneyed to ever really offer much more than occasional jolts, which, like many of the participants in the story, disappear without a trace.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer largely in 1.85:1 (the opening phone video is in "portrait mode"). The IMDb lists that as having been captured by various Go Pro models, at a source resolution of 2160p that was later finished at a 2K DI. However, that said, those expecting a razor sharp, highly detailed presentation will quite likely be let down by the look of the film, since things have been intentionally tweaked, with elements like pixellation, distortion and fuzziness added, all three of which understandably affect detail levels quite a bit. The early part of the film, which takes place outside, offers (again understandably) the most vivid palette, though even some of these scenes are distorted, with aspects like fish eyed lenses employed. Things tend to start to get a bit on the murky side with some of the camping material, and then once the dark and dank (in the old meaning of that word) asylum is entered, there are scenes where very little in the way of shadow detail can be made out. The palette becomes almost monochromatic once the asylum material begins, though occasional more brightly lit moments at least reveal little hints of color on various characters' outfits. Because of the overarching darkness, some of the supposed scares, as in sudden reveals of malevolent spirits, or, in one late scene, a seemingly impossible lesson in "physics" where water is overhead, don't really provide a lot of spookiness simply because not much can actually be seen. Perhaps because of the prevalence of darkness, I didn't really notice anything in the way of banding, which has tended to be a recurrent problem on some Well Go USA releases.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum features an occasionally unsettling DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, but in what might seen as an audio analog to the visual element, since so much of the film takes place in cloistered environments, surround activity can be a little on the tamped down side, and as with the video element, things have been intentionally tweaked here to approximate a live stream, with occasional distortion and the like. There is some good placement of ambient environmental effects during the preliminary scenes in the cafe and camping, and even in the asylum, there are occasional dottings of "echo" effects and the like which add a slightly unreal sense to the proceedings. But quite a bit of the film is "full frontal" scenes of people talking (or screaming incoherently) into their cameras, and as such, surround activity tends to come and go in fits and starts.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:35)

Note: As with most Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that trailers for other Well Go USA releases play automatically after the trailer for this film. Those other trailers also play automatically at disc boot up, but can be skipped via the chapter ahead button on your remote.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Perhaps because there actually was no real "there" there, a more historically based feature on the now legendary Gonjiam asylum wouldn't have been possible. Based on pictures of the place that are widely available online, it did indeed look like a frightening location, but a lot of that was due to simple things like rooms full of garbage and the like. With that in mind, I'd like to propose a high budgeted film shot at my house when my kids are home (yes, that's a joke). There are a few scattered jolts in Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, but I found the film kind of laughably ridiculous a lot of the time, never a good sign for an outing that's supposed to be scaring you. With an understanding that things look and sound intentionally like a live stream, technical merits are fine for those considering a purchase.