COLONY -- It's No Train to Busan, But It's Still a Fun Ride!

Review by Steve Barton II

Zombies in pop culture have had quite the lifetime of highs and lows. While many people may consider George A. Romero to be the father of zombies in film, he didn’t actually make the first one. White Zombie with the incredible Bela Lugosi was released in 1932 and while they weren’t exactly the zombies we know today, they still had the basic premise of being mindless, undead beings moving slowly in an eerie creep. After Romero’s modernization of zombies with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, the zombie craze infected pop culture and its had a prominent impact on the horror genre since. While the subgenre isn’t as popular as it was 10+ years ago with The Walking Dead, the hunger for zombies still isn’t satiated and it’s a worldwide phenomenon. 

Yeon Sang-ho is a South Korean filmmaker who was heavily inspired by Romero along with others and created the modern classic Train to Busan back in 2016. With that film having a perfect balance of horrific violence and terrific characters that bring emotional tension, it’s highly regarded as a masterpiece and one of the best of the genre. From that success, Sang-ho has directed several films since, but the zombie subgenre is always the home he comes back to. Colony is the newest addition to Sang-ho’s zombie film series where we follow a professor Se-jeong (Gianna Jun) as she’s trapped in a conference building with a rapidly mutating virus and hundreds of people are already infected. With Se-jeong and a small group of survivors sealed into the building to stop the spread, it’s up to them to help find the cause of the infection and find their way out.

Due to Colony being birthed by the same mind as Train to Busan, this film had preconceived expectations before it was ever screened. Surely, many people will expect the brutal horror and emotional depth, but Colony only delivers on one of those. After making zombie movies for almost 10 years on and off, Yeon Sang-ho knows how to shoot and direct zombie action to make it look intense and realistic to where it gives you a physical reaction. While there are quite a bit of digital effects being used, the practical effects and the sets themselves are incredibly well designed and executed. The part that’s missing is making the characters feel real or relatable in almost any way. Unlike Train to Busan, Colony doesn’t have a main character that you may dislike at first and slowly become more familiar with who they actually are and connect deeply like Seok-woo and his daughter. They attempt to give Se-jeong some emotional stakes right away with her divorce and working with her ex, but she doesn’t deliver on the same emotions as Seok and his journey. Se-jeong and the rest of the survivors are very one-dimensional in Colony and it makes it hard to get invested in their relationships or their journey through the chaos.

Colony doesn’t reach the same heights as Train to Busan, but it’s still an entertaining movie that has some creative ideas. Koo Kyo-hwan as the mad scientist Seo Yeong Cheol was the most memorable part of the entire movie with his intense energy without showing too much emotion. Unlike Train to Busan, Colony isn’t as rooted in reality and takes some almost supernatural or science fiction elements that may turn off some audiences. While it may turn off some fans, others may notice that they do borrow some elements from the original idea of zombies and how rather than a virus, they were controlled by a being using voodoo. Colony does an odd combination with the original and modern zombie concepts and it makes for an interesting and entertaining experience.

Colony begins to infect theaters August 28th!

Rating: 3.5/5