Thursday, July 4, 2024

GONJIAM: HAUNTED ASYLUM (2018) (Second Sight Films Limited Edition Blu-ray Review)

GONJIAM: HAUNTED ASYLUM (2018)

Label: Second Sight Films 
Region Code: B
Rating: Cert. 15 
Duration: 94 Minutes 15 Seconds 
Audio: Korean DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen  (1.78:1) 
Director: Jung Bum-shik
Cast: Wi Ha-joon, Lee Seung-wook, Park Ji-hyun,Oh Ah-yeon, Moon Ye-won, Park Ji-hyun, Park Ji-a

In the South Korean found-footage entry Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) the creator of the ghost hunting web-series Horror Times sets out to explore the real-life titular haunted asylum, a very real place which was once labeled one of the seven freakiest places on Earth by CNN. The show is hoping to get their live stream up to a record breaking one-million live viewers, and they pull out all the stops with an arsenal of consumer and professional grade video and audio equipment to document their live excursion into the notoriously haunted asylum. 

The Horror Time crew consists of Sung-Hoon (Park Sung-hoon), Seung-Wook (Lee Seung-wook), and Je-Yoon (Yoo Je-yoon, Extreme Job) as well as the show's creator Ha-Joon (Wi Ha-joon, Midnight), plus they recruit three girl who are fans of the program; Ah-Yeon (Oh Ah-yeon), Charlotte (Moon Ye-won) and Ji-Hyun (Park Ji-hyun), to join them on their frightful expedition. They set-up the backstory of the asylum which was shut down in the 70's after a mass suicide of the patient's there, after which the director of the asylum (Park Ji-a) disappeared, and in the years since there have been rumors that she killed the inmates and disappeared or hung herself, or that the asylum was a government sanctioned torture facility used to disappear dissidents and political rivals. There have also been sightings of ghosts and the sounds of patients wailing in the years since it's closure, plus it's established is the existence of the notorious Room 402, a locked door within the asylum that is said to be cursed, anyone who opens it is doomed, and how those who have entered the asylum say they have heard the sound of a bouncing Ping-Pong ball, which is attributed to the ghost of the former director, who is said to have loved the game. 

We as the audience are also made aware that show is actually a scam, and that Ha-Joon is in cahoots with Sung-Hoon, Seung-Wook and Je-Yoon to manufacture ghostly occurrences in order to spice up the live-feed, but the recruited women are quite unaware of any phoney-baloney. Entering the dilapidated asylum it's a real spook show, the crumbling facility chock full of spooky corridors and dingy shadows. I grew up right next to then still operating Willard Psychiatric Center in Upstate NY, and once in a while friends and I would sneak into the crumbling older buildings of the facility, and it was quite a frightening experience, especially for someone who grew up watching scary films and totally believed in ghosts, an experience that was well captured by the film Session 9 (2001) that I think is oe of the best haunted asylum flicks ever made, still to this day. 

Ha-Joon stays behind at a base camp and operates the livestream while the three guys and three ladies are suited-up with elaborate multi-cam GoPro gear and enter the asylum, it's creepy but I thought the initial set-up and was a bit on the subdued side, I felt this one took a bit too long to get to the good stuff, but it does eventually get there, and when it does, it delivers the found-footage frights rather excellently. The scripted scares do manage to unnerve the young ladies who unaware of their bogus natures as intended, but then things start getting actually creepy. As they make their way through the the crumbling clinic they discover a creepy doll that can be seen in an old photo they find of the patients and the director, and then that doll later seems to re-appear in a different spot, having apparently moved on it's own. When one of the guys grabs it for a closer inspection one of the girl's is convinced that it's a cursed object and that touching it will curse them all, crying hysterically. Some of the girl want to back out and leave, as do some of the guys when things get really spooky, but Ha-Joon threatens to cut them off from an profits profits the live stream makes if they do, but they demand more money to continue. 

Eventually we end up at Room 204, and not unexpectedly it gets real spookshow real quick, two of the girls find themselves lost in the woods but somehow transported into room 402, there's possession stuff happening, object floating, a creepy old guy, and of course the asylum's director has to make an appearance. 

I cannot say that I loved this found-footage entry, but I thought it managed to generate some good haunted asylum chills, the location and set design are fantastic, and the multi-camera angle found-footage style was well-done, but I've just seen too many of these for it to give me any big chills. That's not to say there are not some solid frights, especially toward the finale, a couple of scenes involving one of the girls possessed, black-eyed, and speaking tongues was particularly unnerving, but it felt too long at 94 minutes. The general vibe of this one is The Blair Witch Project and Session 9 by way of Ghost Hunters TV series, but not as atmospheric or terrifying as the first two, and thankfully not as hokey as the latter.

Audio/Video: Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (201) arrives on Region-B locked Blu-ray from Second Sight Films, presented in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. The digital shot film looks solid for a found-footage flick, as it was shot digital using and or emulating different types of consumer and professional grade equipment, a lot of it handheld and shaky, things look fine. There's digital artifacting and compression inherent to the video capture devices quality, but it's all in line with the found-footage aesthetic. Audio comes by way of Korean DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles, again it's meant to be found footage and it sounds like it with some dropouts, clipping and distortion in the higher registers, but it suits the found-footage aesthetic quite well. 

New extras for this set include an Audio Commentary by Mary Beth McAndrews and Terry Mesnard; and the 25-min Fear the Unknown: Zoë Rose Smith on Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. Archival featurettes come by way of the 5-min The Beginning of the Rumours; the 6-min The New Faces, the 11-min The Sanctum of Horror, 8-min The Truth of the Ghostlore, 13-min The Live Recording, 16-min The Press Conference, and the 2-min Trailer.  

This limited edition Blu-ray set arrives in with a Rigid Slipcase with brand new artwork by Luke Headland, inside we get a black keepcase with a Single-Sided Wrap, featuring the same key artwork, plus a 70-page Illustrated Book with new essays by Amber T., James Marsh, and Sarah Appleton, plus cast and crew info, and production credits. Also tucked away inside are Six collectors' Art Cards.

Special Features:
- New audio commentary by Mary Beth McAndrews and Terry Mesnard
- Fear the Unknown: Zoë Rose Smith on Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (24.96) 
- Archive featurettes:The Beginning of the Rumours (4:57), The New Faces (6:13), The Sanctum of Horror (10:58), The Truth of the Ghostlore (7:30), The Live Recording (12:59), The Press Conference (15:55)
- Trailers (2:22) 
Limited Edition Contents:
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Luke Headland
- 70-page book with new essays by Sarah Appleton, James Marsh, Meagan Navarro and Amber T
- Six collectors' art cards

Gonjiam: Haunted Mansion (2018) is not a personal favorite food-footage entry for me, I think it's a bit too predictable and reliant on overly familiar tropes established by better entries, and a bit slow to start-up, but once the spookshow starts up properly the found-footage frights and delights are pretty plentiful. Second Sight offer up a terrific presentation with a solid set of extras and top-notch limited edition packaging, certainly worth owning if you're a found-footage freak. This release is also available as a standard edition sans the Limited Edition packaging, but the same A/V and extras. 

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