Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum-found footage at its finest

After years of watching found-footage horror, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum has been recommended to me repeatedly by other horror fans. I finally had the chance to sit down and watch it this week in preparation for January’s Final Girls meeting in Glasgow, and it far exceeded my expectations.

Firstly, a little information on Final Girls Film Club:

Final Girls is a community group founded by Emma McGowan for women, trans and non-binary horror fans to get together and share their love of the genre. The group meets monthly to discuss a chosen film alongside other activities like the horror book club, theatre and cinema trips. Although I have only been able to attend last year’s October meetup and this most recent meetup, the group couldn’t be more welcoming and if you are a horror fan in the central belt I highly encourage you to get involved.

The cast of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, directed by Jung Bum-shik, is far from a new approach to the found-footage genre. A group of young people visit an infamous haunted mental institution to make content for their live-stream based horror web show and, as expected, paranormal terror ensues. While it rings similar to films like Grave Encounters, its execution is far more impressive. Though some of the scares may rely on classic jump-scare techniques that are frequently over-used in the subgenre, Gonjiam creates dread through it’s life-like character performances. Whilst the group taking a break on their trip to mess around in a lake with various water-sports or grabbing a beer with one and other may feel out of place against the dark second half of the film, it allows the audience (and characters) the time to understand their motives and personalities. Found-footage films work best when the characters feel as life-like as possible, but more often than not they provide us with flat and one-dimensional characters that make it difficult to feel empathy towards them. Gonjiam puts together a group of people who would fit into everyday life and puts them in an exceptional circumstance: a student nurse, a Korean-American influencer and the show’s enigmatic host to name a few. The aforementioned Korean-American influencer Charlotte, played by Ye-Won Mun, is by far the standout performance of the film. Her slightly vapid albeit sensible reactions to the paranormal forces at play around her provide the audience with a character who is frequently absent in horror: the realistic reactor. If you saw a scary attic or basement, would you go check it out? Probably not. If you encountered terrifying supernatural occurrences, would you leave the building? Absolutely. As soon as things get out of hand, Charlotte is the one to speak up and leave, even if that only prolongs the inevitable. Once she is the target of the vicious spirits in the asylum, Ye-Won Mun's harrowed expressions and body language is ultimately scarier than any of the amped up scares later in the film.

When the group's investigation takes a malicious turn, and the scares hit the audience full force, it turns into the found footage flick you’d come to expect from the subgenre. While the blacked-out eyes and elongated limbs of the ghosts in Gonjiam is nothing ground-breaking, my god are they creepy. When watching alone in your flat on a drizzly day in Scotland, its hard not to be immersed in the foreboding atmosphere that the director has created. Dolls that move on their own, sped-up muttering and unnatural vibrations build a cookie cutter atmosphere for fear. Creative camera work (a combination of first-hand go pros and CCTV footage) enable scares to creep in from the corners of your screen before you realise they’re about to strike. With a forth-wall bending final scare, Gonjiam certainly packs a paranormal punch. Although it must be said, the film falls into the trap of showing us too much in its final act. Other found footage films like The Blair Witch Project benefit from not explicitly showing the audience the antagonistic paranormal forces, but rather build tension by eluding to their presence. Whilst Gonjiam certainly excels at building tension and atmosphere for its audience, once the first ghost is fully shown on screen the element of mystery dissolves immediately. In that sense, Gonjiam is another found footage that could’ve benefited from a less is more mentality.

If you’re a fan of found footage, your sure to get a kick out of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. Whilst it may not be breaking the mould set by it’s predecessors in the sub-genre, the film provides solid performances and a healthy handful of scares. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is currently available on Amazon Prime for streaming, alongside other great found footage films Rec and Lake Mungo, if you’re looking for films with a similar style.

If you want to get involved with the Final Girls community events, check them out online at: https://www.finalgirlsgla.com/