The horror movie that was sued by a haunted building for giving it a bad rap
The idea that ghosts roam the earth alongside us, never truly able to rest, is something we’ll likely always be sceptical of: why do you think horror movies are so popular?
As technology has continued to become more impressive, it’s become easier than ever to fake footage of supernatural beings, but there are some stories and pieces of evidence that are just too hard to ignore.
Maybe you have your own story that you’ve yet to find an explanation for, or perhaps an old family tale of seeing unexplainable figures has been discussed for as long as you can remember. While there is literally no scientific evidence to back up the existence of spirit things under floating white bedsheets, our ability to convince ourselves that what we’ve seen could only be explained via supernatural means has kept people flocking to supposedly haunted locations for decades.
According to various ghost-hunters, one of the most haunted places in Korea was the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, a since-demolished building that attracted countless eager fans of the unexplainable in the hopes of spotting some spectral presence or recording the sound of some mysterious footsteps from unseen entities. A popular abandoned destination for YouTube ghost-hunters to flock to, its origins have long been shrouded in mystery, with some claiming it was built in the 1980s, while others cite its inception dating back to the 1960s.
Host to countless patients over the years and officially closing down when the owner passed away in 1996, the building, located near Seoul, remained empty for decades, where it gathered dust and reportedly housed various ghosts. In 2018, the same year it was smashed to pieces, a horror movie based inside the building was released to widespread success, but this only caused those trying to sell the former hospital to lose all hope. Who was going to buy a property that had become the setting of a found-footage ghost film based on the building’s supposed hauntings?
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum featured largely non-actors and followed in the tradition of movies like The Blair Witch Project by trying to trick audiences into thinking that this was a real found-footage account of a group’s attempt at capturing ghosts. After all, enough people were making similar videos on YouTube, anyway, perhaps the film could convincingly come across as real?
Despite its success, the sellers didn’t want the movie to be screened in theatres and soon filed a lawsuit against it, but were inevitably out of luck with the case. Most of the scenes were shot elsewhere, and besides, not everyone believes in ghosts, and if someone really wanted to, they would buy it.
Thus, the former psychiatric hospital was demolished, leaving its supposedly creepy history just a memory, forever immortalised in the form of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, which has become a pretty popular entry into the found-footage genre. While some critics were less impressed, finding the concept tired and unoriginal, the movie is certainly the kind that will satisfy your urge to watch something that’ll leave you needing the lights on when you go to bed.
