When they’re right, zombie movies are shockingly potent. You can sell audiences on fun scares, while also building the movie around the malleable allegory of what a zombie is. Yeon Sang-ho would have cemented himself as a great zombie director with his excellent Train to Busan. But a decade later, he’s back with Colony, another banger idea for zombie filmmaking that vaults him into higher stratospheres. One or two more, and we’re in Romero territory, y’all.
A scientist named Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) calls the police. He says he’s gonna commit a terrorist attack inside the Dongwoo-ri Building at a tech conference. That attack is a bioweapon, turning people into zombies, forcing the South Korean government to lock down the building, trapping everyone inside. Including Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun), a biotech professor urged by her ex husband Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo) to find a new job, Choi Hyun-seok (Ji Chang-wook) and security guard ushering around his paralyzed sister Choi Hyun-hee (Kim Shin-rok), as well as other stereotypical humans: chief of police searching for Young-cheol, toxic teenage friend group, retired ex marine, rich business man, etc. Certainly LOTS of nameless faces for Seo Young-cheol to enact his big plan.
The title Colony gives away the gimmick in Yeon Sang-ho’s latest zombie flick. These zombies work more like ants do, creating a web of information transmission they can quickly transmit to one another, with emphasis on the web. The info can be helpful and teach these zombies something good (don’t attack cardboard cutouts, follow a smell), or something bad (all fur coat wearers are humans). And more importantly, collectively target their aggression towards the latest info target. Slick Sang-ho, well done. On top of that allegory, there’s also heaps of other thematic things going on too: how does one behave in a crisis? Who’s best equipped for a high pressure situation? Why is a government response unable to meet the moment of this outbreak? Science vs. Nature. All good questions, all integrated wonderfully into the larger tale Colony is trying to tell to make those zombie bites a little extra bloody for us to chew on.
I’m also completely underselling the horror stuff here, which is electric. Yes, these ant zombies they are driven mad and go crazy stupid initially. The scene of them rampaging in the building’s mall is terrifying as you might expect. But when one zombie learns something, they all collectively freeze, raise their heads into the air, transferring useful information from one zombie to another. The first time you see this happen, it scares the bejesus out of you, as all the zombies in unison turn skyward. And even after the first, it’s a perfect interstitial between attacks, resetting the board but also unsettling the audience at the same time, knowing something is going to shift. Yeon Sang-ho really diversifies the action as well, giving us narrow quiet escapes, big chase sequences, and heroic last stands. Good counter attacks by Jun Ji-hyun’s scientist, end up recountered by the wonderfully menacing Koo Kyo-hwan, who I don’t think ever blinks here. Each remix has you more and more jacked up in your seat ready for what’s coming next. Colony builds until the big finale, a bit heinous, but damn if it isn’t hella effective teasing the sequence early on if you’re paying attention, and then wrapping up pretty much right after it’s over.
Only time will tell if Colony has as great a lasting reputation as Train to Busan. For my money, it’s at least in the ballpark and that’s better than most zombie fare out there. It is missing a bone temple though. Let’s try to have Danny Boyle and Yeon Sang-ho meet up, to create the most unholy, incredible zombie movie ever made? I believe in the partnership!