Cityscapes 'Exorcising' an abandoned mental hospital
A semitranslucent figure stands in the hallway of an abandoned mental hospital in Gonjiam, Gyeonggi Province, that has become the setting of the surprise hit film "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum." / Image courtesy of R. BandunBy Ron Bandun The abandoned mental hospital in the movie “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum” is a real place, but the risks of visiting it are underreported. The threat isn't ghosts, but the living ― police, neighbors, even ourselves. The hospital first surfaced on my radar in early 2010 on a ghost-hunting online cafe named in English, “Masculine Pride.” Their thing was trying to stay overnight in a "haunted" place to prove their manliness. A companion of this writer registered on the site and said we wanted to photograph the hospital, to which the members cautioned us: if we bring our camera gear there, the ghosts in anger will make them stop working. I first visited in February 2010, inviting four or five friends along. It was a 90-minute bus ride from Seoul. Finally we showed up at the front gate, a twisted old metal thing, and walked right in. But the
Apr 10, 2018
