South Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho directed two of the most influential zombie action flicks with Train to Busan and its massive sequel, Peninsula. He returns to the genre with another critically acclaimed horror-thriller, Colony, which plays a lot like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, only much larger and with more of a brain (Mmmmm brains!) behind it. Premiering earlier this year at Cannes, the film is further proof that Sang-ho is among the best at bringing artistry to zombie chaos, even if it’s not quite on the level as his best work.
The premise of Colony is pretty simple. A seemingly ordinary biotech conference touting new advances in communication becomes ground zero for mayhem when disgruntled scientist Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) unleashes a virus into the building that transforms its victims into raging, uncontrollable zombies connected to a hive mind. The psychotic Seo has injected himself with the only vaccine, meaning they can’t just outright kill him for what he’s done. The infected are therefore seen as victims who can possibly be cured, hamstringing police as they try to stop the violence. The authorities also have to deal with the possibility that Seo has something even more sinister up his sleeve.
Typical of the genre, Colony follows a group of survivors from different backsground as they try not to die or become infected themselves. The film largely takes place inside of a sprawling office space, allowing for longer, more elaborate action sequences. And since these zombies run around freely and attack like wild savages, the pacing is brisk and keeps you on your toes. Sang-ho employed contortionists to literally twist themselves into knots capturing the infected’s freakish mobility.
There’s a diverse array of characters, with some getting more attention than others. Former biotech professor Kwon Se-jeong (Gianna Jun) attended the conference because her ex-husband, a real sweetheart, dragged her there to help her get a new job. Security guard Choi Hyun-seok (Ji Chang-wook) is the best equipped to survive this apocalyptic madness, but must also look out for his paraplegic sister Choi (Kim Shin-rok) who is trapped there with no way to get around on her own. There are many other familiar archetypes: arrogant rich dude, an altruistic older man looked down on for his age, a bullied teen and her tormentors, as well. One of those bullies is a whiner who is always a risk to get the others killed.
The title Colony is a bit ironic. The infected, who are seemingly unhinged and uncontrollable, operate with a singular purpose given to them by the hive mind, the origins of which are unclear. They act in contrast to the survivors, who are fully capable of rational thought and problem solving. However, its this freedom of thought that causes them to act at cross purposes, disrupting the unit as they begin looking out for themselves.
As the survivors’ clique crumbles, Colony actually grows in suspense because new layers are added to the conflict. A tragic death causes a ripple within the group that ultimately plays out as a quest for vengeance, complicating the remaining survivors’ hopes of getting out alive. Another factor hindering any chance of containing the virus the inherent mysogeny of the men in charge, who are more than willing to assign blame to the female experts when things go wrong, and to ignore them when the data conflicts with what is politically expedient.
Clocking in at around two hours, Colony doesn’t quite have the steam to keep operating at such an intense level. Sang-ho’s screenplay leans into modern fears of artificial intelligence and global pendemics, but with only a couple of exceptions its characters lack the depth seen in his previous films. Still, Colony is a breathless experience and another successful zombie epic for Sang-ho, who keeps finding ways to tick this well-worn genre to new places.
Colony is open in theaters now.
