Director: Jeong Beom-sik
Year: 2018
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Gon-ji-am
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Attempting to get more viewers, the crew of a popular horror web-show decide to visit the Gonjiam asylum to film their latest episode, but as they move further into the nightmarish old building they begin to encounter much more than expected inside the place where the ghosts come to life.
Review:
This here proved to be a truly enjoyable effort. Among the most impressive elements featured here is the overall atmosphere and sense of dread established by the titular hospital. The setting is simply marvelous, looking exactly like the foreboding setting that's to be expected here. The long, dark corridors leading into the distance, blood-smeared writing along the walls and a general air of decay and abandonment permeate the building which is exactly what should be found in a location where they're investigating and helps to let the later ghostly happenings have even more of an impact coming in a creepy location to start with if it's occurring in a setting that's creepy.
Once that ghostly activity starts, the film truly lets loose with abandon. Under the guise of the reality show shoot, this style affords the film a frantic zig-zag style of shooting that logically works out the various dips around the asylum showing the various interactions. As this generates the usual stand-byes in flickering lights, power going off and on at the most inopportune times and slamming doors no one is near, this one still offers up some some surprises. A fantastic gag with a wig found floating in a pool of water or the freak-outs following the attempt at communicating with the forces inside for their special seance provide the first hints that something isn't right within the asylum, and that's greatly enhanced by the time it moves on into the final half where it ratchets up the tension and scares considerably a slew of impressive tactics from arms being pulled into holes that lead to nowhere, being manipulated by forces that are clearly not visible around them bringing up the far more intense sequences later on.
The finale, which takes place with the gang completely freaking out already, blows the expectations out of the water with some terrifying encounters. Fully believing they’re cursed, the frantic race to get out is halted by the fun ploy of replaying a tactic that was setup to mark their way back to safety and turning into a chilling encounter. The frantic action inside the asylum, ranging from several utterly terrifying encounters with the ghosts inside the asylum offering some fantastic imagery such as the trick with the thermal camera capturing the presence of ghosts the naked eyes don’t which turns into a fantastic callback on the earlier escape out in the surrounding woods and a spine-chilling sequence involving a ghost rushing up behind a victim knowing what’s going on and refusing to move out of its way letting it take him. These are scary, effective and pulled off remarkably which adds to the overall presentation of this one and offers the perfect closing note for this one.
Seung-wook (Lee Seung-wook) on-camera host, one without the hat
Je-yoon (Yoo Je-yoon) male in the backwards cap
Charlotte (Mun Ye-won) one in heels
Ji-Hyun (Park Ji-hon) girl in the hat
Sung-hoon (Park Sung-hoon)
Ha-joon (Wi Ha-joon) one in the tent who stays back
Overview: *****/5
With almost no real flaws to be had here and plenty of strong, noteworthy elements present, this was a truly effective and genuinely frightening genre effort that holds up incredibly well. Seek this out if you’re a fan of Asian horror, a found-footage advocate or curious about Asian attempts at the genre while there isn’t much to dislike here beyond those that don’t appreciate subtitled foreign films in general.
This was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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