Charming Casualties: Gonjiam - Haunted Asylum (2018)
My dear readers, I don’t mean to expend precious space on what amounts to little more than a boast but I must say, each day that I am able to busy the old lemon with the business of critiquing the horror genre is a joyous one indeed. Rosy though it may seem at the day's outset, it is, of course, not a life entirely without hardship. Our financial liquidity, for example, leaves something to be desired. As I mentioned previously, Penny and I made an unsuccessful attempt to mortgage our estate and more recently, I was alerted to the fact that there is a somewhat disreputable but quite robust market for human organs, as some people apparently have trouble acquiring them through traditional medical routes. Naturally, I assumed the family collection might fetch a handsome price at such an underground bazaar but sadly, it was revealed to me that they are exclusively interested in fresh specimens and that the selection my ancestors so carefully assembled was of little interest.
The group is rather chipper about possibly encountering murderous ghosts
The boys of the Horror Times also know the lengths to which one might go to sustain oneself in horror-themed professions. This fresh-faced trio, led by squad captain Ha-joon (Ha-Joon Wi), has made a business of braving haunted locations while heavily outfitted with camera equipment and hand-picked civilian volunteers. Their latest conquest comes by way of CNN’s “7 Of The Freakiest Places On The Planet,” the absolute definitive resource for serious-minded students of the paranormal. The Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, shuttered and abandoned after a rash of mysterious patient deaths, is the location they hope will attract an audience of one million strong.
Unfortunately, these boys of the Horror Times aren’t entirely on the up and up. It seems online video “views” are of far more importance to them than an honest bit of supernatural exploration and none of them are above staging a few spooks in the hopes of turning internet traffic in their favor. But their perfidious approach to spirit videography is hampered by the presence of actual spirits, some of whom do not seem particularly shy about appearing on camera. When it becomes clear that the group isn’t entirely in control of their environs, it is up to the captain to steer them back on course.
Night vision rarely reveals anything one really wants to see
I always find that with casualty-heavy films like Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, the best approach is to introduce us a cast in which we are reluctant to lose a single character, knowing full well that we will watch the majority of them meet some unenviable end. Perhaps it is their bubbly approach to excavating a crumbling mental institution but I for one could hardly bear to see any of them perish, not even those mischievous swindlers of the Horror Times. The group’s earnest affection for all things unsettling won me over in an instant. What a strange thrill it is to see this bright young bunch in the claustrophobic confines of the found footage sub-genre, terrorized and steadily eliminated from the ranks of the living. I dare say, at times it makes films with less likable murder victims seem hardly worth the trouble.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum runs 95 minutes and does not possess a certified rating in the United States.
