NJ’s Infamous Overbrook Asylum: What Happened? (WATCH)

CEDAR GROVE, NJ — Just in time for Halloween 2017 comes a tale of an abandoned county mental hospital – surrounded by a fog of local legends - in the quiet, suburban town of Cedar Grove.

Welcome to the newest chapter in the legend of the Overbrook Asylum.

Joel Nadler, a recent graduate from the Metuchen school district and an Eagle Scout, now attends Goucher College where he studies communications and media as well as historic preservation. But it wasn’t long ago that he was engrossed in a video project about the now-defunct asylum, which has inspired countless local myths and fueled many an illegal urban exploration trip to the site.

• See related article: Essex County Plans $11M Park At Overbrook Hospital Site
• See related article: Overbrook Hospital: Book Adds To Mythology Of Cedar Grove's Infamous Asylum, PHOTOS

Through archival photos and current footage - including interviews, on-the-ground angles and aerial views – Nadler’s film takes viewers through the history of the facility and its relationship with the town it called home for decades. The original musical soundtrack is by composer Jared Forman, who contributed to the Netflix series “Making a Murderer.”

“The film considers our responsibility to the memory of an important public institution that has outlived its usefulness,” Nadler said. “I made the film because I knew that the old Essex County Hospital would be demolished, so I thought an important way to preserve its rich history was to make a documentary.”

Watch the film below.

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Photo: YouTube, via Joel Nadler