Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

Two teen boys sneak into the abandoned Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital to livestream their exploration. Rumors say the director murdered patients and disappeared. They head toward Room 402, the sealed intensive care unit.

Ha-joon, owner of the Horror Times channel, recruits six participants for the expedition and oversees the broadcast from a nearby base camp. He plans to spice up the stream with staged scares to boost viewership. The team prepares to broadcast the exploration live.

Inside the building, the group performs a few pre-planned discoveries to heighten tension for the audience. The participants react to each cue as the crew promises bigger shocks. The line between fiction and terror starts to blur for viewers.

Outside the hospital, the camp’s propane burners turn on by themselves, adding a foreboding din to the night. The ominous sound underscores the sense that something beyond mere tricks is unfolding. This eerie ignition amplifies the fear for both participants and watchers.

Ha-joon’s livestream gear falters, briefly cutting him off from the six inside. He worries about losing control of the broadcast as events unfold. The disconnect deepens the mystery about what is real and what is staged.

Je-yoon and Ah-yeon try to force Room 402 open while the others explore the common room. They discover closets with holes in them to probe the unknown. The group senses something unsettling lurks behind ordinary fixtures.

When Ji-hyun places her arm inside a closet hole, something grips her and leaves a scratch. The others grow frightened and retreat from the area. Tension spikes as the supernatural possibility becomes frighteningly real.

Ji-hyun and Charlotte exit the building, only to realize they are walking in circles, guided by a repeating landmark. Ji-hyun falls into a trance, her eyes turning black as fear takes hold. Their escape attempt seems increasingly futile.

Charlotte tries to flee toward the camp but ends up back inside Room 402. A naked man suddenly appears and drags her into the darkness, signaling a shift from staged fears to something truly malevolent inside the hospital.

Sung-hoon wakes, rouses Je-yoon and Ah-yeon, and admits some earlier events were staged. He warns that real paranormal forces are now present and that they must rescue Seung-wook. The mood shifts from entertainment to survival.

A ping-pong ball is hurled at the group, followed by Charlotte’s screams from Room 402. Infrared cameras detect a presence as the door finally opens, revealing the growing danger inside. The line between camera and reality blurs further.

Sung-hoon, Je-yoon, and Ah-yeon find themselves trapped in a dark, water-filled room with no exit. Ghostly apparitions surround and attempt to possess them, intensifying the peril for the trio. The other investigators watch in horror as the situation deteriorates.

Ha-joon enters the asylum to continue the broadcast and is strangled to death by the ghost of the director. His death marks the collapse of the fake-scare premise and confirms the haunting is real. The live feed becomes a witness to a true nightmare.

Seung-wook wakes up, finds himself strapped to a wheelchair, and is dragged into Room 402. With the others ensnared by supernatural forces, the fate of the crew hangs in the balance as the building seems to close in around them.

The feed abruptly cuts after Sung-hoon admits the earlier events were scripted. Viewers mock the failed stream, which peaked at 503 viewers, far below the supposed millions seen by Ha-joon on his own screen. Inside the hospital, real horrors unfold beyond the audience’s perception.