Colony, 2026.
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Starring Gianna Jun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, 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. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility.
The company responsible for the zombie-like bioterrorism infections in co-writer/director Yeon Sang-ho’s (collaborating with Choi Kyu-seok) Colony is Chains Bio, which might be the fastest shorthand in the history of screenwriting for Resident Evil‘s Umbrella Corporation. Even scientist Seo Young-chui’s (Koo Kyo-hwan) motive, cavalier coolness, and methods seem like they could have come from any one of those game’s cartoonishly over-the-top antagonists, functioning throughout as a final boss capable of psychologically linking and communicating with all of the infected. With a glimmer in his eye and a sort of screen-shaking facial convulsion, he delivers orders to the collective conscience, which usually come down to hunting down the remaining survivors who, in turn, are trying to capture him alive, as his body also serves as the vaccine.
Washing away some of this resounding familiarity is that Yeon Sang-ho, having directed Train to Busan and its serviceable sequel Peninsula, continues his superb craftsmanship in staging thrilling action sequences alongside the undead (they may as well be zombies, covered in white vomit and drawn to turning others through blood contamination and biting) whilst shaking it up; one segment might contain characters desperately tossing around furniture and other such objects to stay safe or strapping a disabled relative to their backs for some unorthodox team-up brawling (this one is a concept so wacky it feels more in line with the hilarious absurdity of Dead Rising games), to knife wielding carnage, to the inevitable arrival of the military wielding high-impact assault rifles.
Given that the infected are technically working together as a unit (if under one collective conscience), that also lends the ability to stage such set pieces as more in line with traditional South Korean action, but with a slight twist in that they are intelligently animalistic, feral, will stack themselves on top of one another, fire guns, and anything else their host plants into their mind. It’s more high-octane carnage one would expect from this filmmaker.
There should be no complaints about Colony in that respect, as it takes place in a humongous mall with various conference rooms where Chains Bio is holding a presentation (locations that more or less are destroyed for real, and excitingly so). The goal seems to have started off as noble, aiming to improve societal communication as a whole, at least until the mutiny bioterror begins. Nevertheless, the homages in the setting are apparent, benefiting from that refreshing South Korean flair and flourish. As such, nearly an entire building of people find themselves under what is ostensibly mind control at the behest of one perturbed scientist.
Ranging from scientists who could do better yet never got their opportunity, a brother helping his sister get some fresh air by doing some shopping, a man between his ex flame and a new family, and several other characters (one of them including a bullying arc), there are also simply too many characters here, meaning that every so often when the film strives to hit an emotional beat, it only halfway registers. This is no fault of their performers (many of whom are regular collaborators of Yeon Sang-ho), but it’s not until the final 30 minutes or so that it is even clear which one of these survivors is the true protagonist. They are all fighting each other for screen time, winning out when someone else dies. This also means that there is a greater sense of focus the longer it goes on.
Tipping the scales in favor of this one though is that villainous performance, which is appropriately silly and maniacal, completely on the same wavelength as the preposterous plotting, especially as his abilities and how this titular colony of infected work together (ants are drawn as a comparison, with the filmmakers certainly making good on that with a stunning visual within the climax that genuinely feels like something new from an oversaturated and tired subgenre, even if the rest isn’t exactly groundbreaking). The plot is nonsensical, and the characters are interminable, but Colony delivers some infectious, ferocious, varied, sometimes inspired chaos, bolstered by impressive stunt work.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
