Biotech professor Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) and a small group of survivors fight to stay alive during a zombie outbreak. But the infected are evolving, and their only hope for a cure lies with Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan), the twisted genius who created this virus in the first place.
You’d be forgiven for assuming Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho might be done with zombies. After he injected fresh blood into the genre with Train To Busan, the momentum continued with his animated prequel, Seoul Station, but was stopped in its tracks by Peninsula, Yeon’s poorly received sequel. Yet zombies are notoriously hard to put down, even for masters of the genre, it turns out, because Yeon is back at it again with a new undead thriller titled Colony.
Well, in fact these zombies aren’t undead. Not exactly. While previous efforts were less concerned with outbreak mechanics, Colony stands out precisely because of its unique approach to the ways in which these zombies operate. Never mind slow or fast or whatever else you’ve seen before — the zombies born of this specifically engineered virus are connected through a hive-mind, using their collective intelligence to adapt against whatever the humans throw their way. Watching them writhe and spasmodically seize in unison as they communicate is chilling — even more so than what comes next. That too remains horrifying, as the infected trip over themselves trying to reach their victims, running and flipping and crawling with a gruesome ferocity brought to life through the use of dancers and contortionists.
And what of those victims? Scientist Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) and her motley band of survivors are easy to root for, if a tad underdeveloped. The architect of the virus, Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan), is far more interesting, providing a human face to the evils that unfold. Peninsula‘s Koo plays a different role here, bringing his zombie leader to life with a detached, psychotic swagger that might actually have you considering his argument, that these zombies are an upgrade on what humanity has to offer. That the film itself doesn’t delve into this more isn’t so much of a drawback as it is a byproduct of the intense focus on survival, more concerned with running and flipping and crawling to the next set-piece with a near-cartoonish bloodlust and frenzy.
While not as evolved as the zombies themselves, Colony darts around and develops classic tropes, further establishing Yeon as the George A. Romero of today.
