34/20
A horror webcam crew heads to an abandoned asylum to broadcast live. They soon encounter much more than expected as they delve deeper into the creepy old building. The filmmakers were unable to obtain permission from the South Korean government to film at an actual hospital, so the scenes in the film set at Gonjiam were filmed at the National Maritime High School in Busan, with the production team sticking closely to the hospital floor plan to recreate the exact same exterior and hallways. Charlotte constantly looks to the side when the group is outside the hospital. It is obvious that she is responding by smiling at who she is. References Returning to Home on Haunted Hill (2007) I am usually critical of found footage horror films because they are usually unnecessary and do nothing more to the story. Found footage films usually work better as “regular” films. This is not the case with Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. Thanks to the new state of the art technology and the fact that the actors know how to operate the camera, this film does its job perfectly. There is very little shaky camera and other "effects" that you usually see in found footage, which in my opinion ruins the film. The story itself is pretty standard, 7 young "ghost hunters" end up in an old asylum, mainly for views and profit, which makes it more realistic than other similar films. The pace of the film is quite slow and nothing really happens in the first half, but it's worth it! I was originally going to give it a 6, but considering it is a horror film and one of the scariest in its sub-genre that I have ever seen, I have raised the rating to 7. If you want a scary film without much of a plot, this is the film for you.