Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)

Director: Beom-sik Jeong

Starring: Seung-Wook Lee, Ye-Won Mun, Ah-yeon Oh

The crew of a horror web series travels to an abandoned asylum for a live broadcast. It soon encounters much more than expected as it moves deeper inside the nightmarish old building.

I certainly never expected the found footage genre to survive this long. ‘Gonjiam’ proves it is very much alive still.

I enjoyed this film due to the film’s antagonist wanting to achieve ‘views’ no matter what. This is unfortunately what society has become – to get as many views or likes as possible. Thanks to platforms like YouTube, it has also become a profitable business, hence people going out there doing silly things for the sake of views, and money, off course. This film effectively raises this issue.

As for the found footage effect, this film was more realistic than most other found footage films thanks to clever photographic gadgets that made it that much more believable. Showing footage from six individuals as well as fixed cameras added to the credibility of the footage.

Sadly, though, after a very promising start, the film becomes nothing more than a cliched possession movie towards the end. What a pity…

In Korean.

Would I watch it again? No.