Colony, 2026.
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Starring Gianna Jun, Ji Chang-wook, Koo Kyo-hwan, Shin Hyun-been, Kim Shin-rock, and Go Soo.
SYNOPSIS:
Professor Se Jeong attends a biotech conference, only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed.
When Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan hit back in 2016 it was met with universal praise for its mixture of gory zombie action, fast-paced storytelling and character-driven narrative that pulled on the heartstrings to add some depth to the bloody violence. That movie’s sequel, Peninsula, arrived in 2020 and, along with another virus that same year, was met with a less than ecstatic response, but after indulging in some detective-based drama for Netflix and a couple of other projects, Yeon Sang-ho is back in zombie(ish) territory with Colony, but can he repeat the critical and commercial success of Train to Busan?
Headstrong scientist Kwon Se-Jeong (Gianna Jun) has been invited to the commercial Dongwoori Building to apply for a job. When she arrives with her ex-husband Dr. Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo), Chains Bio CEO Kang Woo-chul is giving a conference about bio organisms and how certain types of slime and bacteria communicate with each other as a collective intelligence, but afterwards he is the victim of disgruntled former employee Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan), who has his own theories on evolution, collective intelligence and bio-weapons, and injects the company boss with a green liquid that turns him into a raging mutant who spreads infection by biting, turning all of his victims into mutants.
Seo Young-chul himself is immune as he has already injected himself with a vaccine, but as the creatures take over the building a small band of survivors – including Professor Kwon – try to work out how to evade the monsters, whilst government officials on the outside close off the building. The professor realises that the mutants are communicating in a similar way to ants and works out that they can trick the mutants with pheromones in perfume, but the creatures are evolving and working as a hive mind, and when Seo Young-chul willingly lets himself get bitten he becomes able to see through the eyes of the other mutants and is able to control them. In a battle to get to the roof, the survivors must keep Seo Young-chul alive and evade the mutants, but it isn’t going to be easy as he communicates with the creatures to let them know where the humans are.
As with Train to Busan, the individual parts that make up Colony are not particularly original when you break it down, with 28 Days Later and [REC] being the obvious reference points given how we are now dealing with infected rather than traditional zombies, and the idea of a whole building being under quarantine with a cop inside whilst the authorities sit outside and won’t risk a straight forward rescue. However, there is very little that is original when it comes to zombie/infected movies and so it is what you do with the material that counts, and on that basis Colony is an exciting, action-packed survival horror movie. But there are issues.
And those issues mainly come with the script. It shouldn’t really be an issue in a move such as this but if your antagonist was a bio-terrorist and was looking to cause mayhem, surely releasing the virus outside in the general population is more effective than inside a building that has limited space and will get quarantined? If you can get over that piece of real world logic – and you have to otherwise you can’t really accept the rest of it – then you have to try and work out the science behind what Seo Young-chul is doing, and although it is totally daft and veering into superhero serum territory, there are a few little sub-plots and story beats that we have seen in other zombie movies – Train to Busan included – that seem to be there to distract you from thinking too much rather than creating character arcs.
Of course, Colony is a zombie movie at heart and shouldn’t be thought about too much, but the slick filmmaking style and underlying sense of existential doom are all working together to try and give the movie an apocalyptic edge that isn’t that far removed from what we see in the news these days, so there is an air of Yeon Sang-ho trying to reflect the current state of the world.
As for what else he is trying to comment on – because zombie movies have to have a social commentary, don’t they? – then that is a little vague as there are various readings you can apply to the different characters and what they are doing. The hive mind mentality is the biggest idea running through the movie, and with characters blaming the media covering the outbreak for why they can’t escape the building there are little digs at establishment entities throughout, including the inept government officials whose motives aren’t always enacted for the best when it comes to protecting their citizens.
Nevertheless, taken at face value Colony is a solid zombie/infected movie that looks fantastic, the combination of CGI and practical effects working perfectly to create a very wet and oozing landscape of bodily fluids, and credit must go to the dance troupe who were hired as infected extras as their distorted bodily movements add a real sense of the uncanny, especially when a few infected join together to create one sensory whole; not in an Evil Dead Rise way but something more organic that fits in with the science we’ve been told.
The central idea of collective intelligence is an interesting one and the filmmakers do just about pull it off, as long as you are prepared to accept certain things and just roll with it, and although it does feel like they didn’t quite know how to end it with a climax deserving of such a plot, when compared to mainstream crowd pleasers like the recent 28 Years Later movies Colony wipes the floor with them just by being more dynamic from the off and sticking with that pace all the way through. It isn’t quite Train to Busan when it comes to telling a totally satisfactory story but, underwritten script aside, Colony is still an infectious treat.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
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Chris Ward
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