Found footage horror has been very hit and miss since it became an easy way to create entertaining movies. For every big success, and there have been a few, you have to endure many that were made by people who just didn’t realise what it actually takes to put together something genuinely decent. I could name a dozen or so that you should avoid, but I would rather not mention them again anywhere.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is a good found footage horror, and I figured I should state that from the beginning. Based, although not filmed, in an infamously spooky, and allegedly haunted, building in Korea, it delivers many of the expected tropes with skill and panache.
The very basic premise is this: a group of YouTubers want to visit the titular asylum for a night of live-streaming that they hope will boost their viewing figures and gain them a massive amount of internet fame. Things get spooky and odd, and you just know that it’s not going to end well.
Directed by Jeong Beom-sik, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Park Sang-min, this has elements now that are very familiar to fans of this type of thing. You get the initial scares being faked by people who want to create a story they can star in, you get the geographical confusion and madness that stops anyone from leaving, and you get a constant increase in tension and scares on the way to a shocking ending. It’s all handled well enough, and there are some moments here that feature some impressively freaky imagery.
The cast all do well, although very few manage to stand out as individuals from the group. That isn’t really their fault, it is just the way the material keeps people grouped together as the building is explored. Wi Ha-joon is the de facto leader of the group, and that allows him to stand out a bit easier, especially in the many scenes that have him overseeing the footage from a base just outside the building.
This is easily one of the better found footage horrors I have seen in the past few years, but it falls short of being up there with the very best. That’s partially due to many of the tropes now being a bit too familiar and partially due to some sequences that don’t push things as far as they can. It supplies some creepiness and good jumps though, and feels like it has been made by people who care about the quality of the final product.
7/10
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