Colony

by Mike McGranaghan

Director Yeon Sang-ho is best known for his harrowing 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan. That movie is considered a classic within the genre. His newest effort, Colony, is just as good, and possibly even more fun. Even if you think you’ve seen it all when it comes to contagion stories, there are elements here to surprise you.

The story is like 28 Years Later meets Die Hard. Disgruntled scientist Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan) announces that he is going to unleash a virus upon the Dongwoo-ri Building, where he used to work as part of the Chains Bio company. He does this by infecting the CEO, who then spreads it to others via bite. The office building, which has an upscale shopping mall on the ground floor, is immediately sealed off, leaving everyone inside quarantined and potentially susceptible. That includes Kwon Se-jeong (Gianna Jun), a visiting professor hoping to land a job. She finds herself teaming together with her ex-husband, a security guard, and his disabled sister to fend off the rapidly multiplying flesh-eating infected.

There’s also a catch: Seo Youjng-chul has injected the sole vaccine into his own body, so catching him may be the key to containing the outbreak.

Early scenes take place in the shopping mall part of the building. Yes, we’ve seen that before in George Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead. Colony puts a spin on it, with Se-jeong devising ways of tricking the hordes. Every so often, there is a ringing noise, at which time they simultaneously lift their heads to the sky and open their mouths wide. She deduces that, like ants, they are behaving as a colony with shared intelligence. If the source of that intelligence can be fed false information, it could increase their odds of survival.

Yeon Sang-ho stages one dazzling action sequence after another. From the daring shopping mall escape to a scene where our heroes are ambushed by infected people in an elevator, the thrills come fast and furious. It’s interesting how the director has his zombies move. They flail about wildly, running on all fours and leaping over furniture and other objects in their way. The uncontrolled nature of their movements makes them extra creepy, as does their abrupt mutual pausing. A relentless pace drives Colony to an absolutely insane finale that cranks all the bloody chaos into overdrive.

The action is virtually non-stop. When it does pause, it’s to bring a little humanity to the mayhem. Particularly touching is the relationship between the guard and his sister. He literally carries her around on his back because she can’t walk. Their arc pays off emotionally. The dark side of human nature is represented, too, with supporting characters occasionally taking underhanded measures to save themselves. A disaster like this brings out both the best and the worst in people, a fact the film openly deals with.

Contagion thrillers by nature tend to be pessimistic. They generally focus on what mankind did to bring about the central calamity. Colony is a little different, in that it’s ultimately an optimistic tale. Se-jeong uses her scientific knowledge to prevent a bad situation from becoming worse. She demonstrates compassion in the midst of fear and panic. The movie’s final shot may utilize a familiar horror trope, but that doesn’t detract from the idea that intelligence is a formidable weapon in the fight against evil.