Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum 2018

Two boys livestream themselves exploring the abandoned Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, where rumor states that the hospital’s ping pong-loving Hospital Director murdered all the patients before disappearing. The two head to Room 402, the intensive care unit, which no one has ever managed to open. After the sound of a ping-pong ball is heard, their livestream abruptly ends, with a fleeting glimpse of a Ghost face.

Ha-joon, the owner of the YouTube channel Horror Times, investigates the hospital and pulls together six participants—three women Ah-yeon, Charlotte, and Ji-hyun—and three men Sung-hoon, Seung-wook, and Je-yoon—to join the livestream. He stays at a base camp nearby to oversee the broadcast.

To spice things up, Ha-joon, Sung-hoon, and Seung-wook have prepared fake scares for the women and viewers to react to. Once inside, the group makes a few “discoveries” (staged in advance) to up the tension. Outside, the camp’s propane burners turn on by themselves. Ha-joon’s equipment fails, temporarily cutting him off from the group.

Je-yoon and Ah-yeon attempt to open Room 402 while Ji-hyun and Charlotte explore the common room, where closets with holes in them line the walls. When Ji-hyun places her arm inside one, it is pulled and scratched. Frightened, Ji-hyun and Charlotte bail out and leave the asylum.

Meanwhile, Ha-joon watches footage of all six participants together and becomes unsettled, unsure who filmed it. Nevertheless, he convinces Seung-wook and Sung-hoon to continue the scripted livestream, promising them higher pay. In the supply room, they encounter objects moving by themselves, and Seung-wook is knocked unconscious. Sung-hoon is dragged out of the room and also struck unconscious.

Outside the hospital, Ji-hyun and Charlotte repeatedly see the marked tree, and realize they are walking in circles. Ji-hyun falls into a trance and her eyes turn black. Terrified, Charlotte flees toward the camp but finds herself back inside Room 402. After several scares, a naked man appears and drags her into the darkness.

Sung-hoon wakes and runs to Je-yoon and Ah-yeon, who are still trying to open Room 402. He admits to them on camera that some earlier events were staged, but now real paranormal forces are happening and they must rescue Seung-wook. A ping-pong ball is suddenly thrown at them, followed by Charlotte’s screams from inside Room 402. The group’s infrared cameras detect a presence as the door finally opens.

Sung-hoon, Je-yoon and Ah-yeon find themselves trapped in a dark, water-filled room with no exit. Ghostly apparitions surround and possess them one by one. Ha-joon, seeing his view count nearing one million, enters the asylum to investigate but is strangled to death by the director’s ghost. Seung-wook wakes up strapped to the wheelchair and is dragged into Room 402.

The livestream is revealed to have ended abruptly after Sung-hoon admitted it was scripted. Unaware of the paranormal events inside the asylum, viewers mock the failed stream, which had only peaked 503 viewers, far fewer than the near-million Ha-joon saw on his screen.