COLONY

Unlike the mindless, hyper-aggressive zombies we see in 'Train to Busan', 'Seoul Station' and 'Peninsula', Sang-ho's newest zombies are based on interconnected organisms, like ants and slime moulds, that use collective intelligence and biological secretions to communicate and evolve. While the first few zombies are fast and violent, they don't put up much of a challenge. It's when the colony starts growing that they become a horrifying threat.

Sporadic, violent movements paired with bodily secretions and a desperation to expand their numbers, the zombies are a creative take on the traditional brain-eating monster. Although they begin as stupid, easily avoidable creatures, the collective learning (which freezes the colony as they share information in an eerie behaviour) increases their threat as the movie progresses. As they develop skills to identify humans, it's up to the survivors to stay one step ahead of the evolving mass.

This challenge falls to our protagonist, Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun, TV's 'Kingdom: Ashin-jeon'), an ostracised and unemployed biology professor attending a conference in the Doongwoori where the outbreak has been released. She and the ragtag ensemble of survivors are quickly brought together, their personalities defined and their relationships revealed. While they're each individualised and given their own stakes, their actual role quickly becomes obvious – zombie fodder.

What made 'Train to Busan' the intense film we loved was that we knew who we were rooting for and why they mattered. Its singular focus on a father-daughter duo trying to survive a train ride meant we felt for them in every moment and were immersed in their terror. With so many characters and surface-level storylines, 'Colony' makes it hard to care for any of the characters.

Trying to add moments of tenderness, last-word discussions, and flashback storylines prolong an already two-and-a-half-hour runtime with pointless attempts at character development and audience sympathy. Certain interactions could be cut out completely without the film losing any plot. If anything, it brings the movie into a lull before the action-fuelled ending.

That said, Kyo-hwan's performance as the unhinged, revenge-fuelled and fearless Young-cheol almost had you rooting for the zombies. Almost. His brilliant mind and ability to read the people around him add an extra layer of intensity to an already dangerous situation – letting him infect himself to control the horde, well, that brings the villain to a whole new level. The way he messes with the survivors, toying with their feelings and taking away their control of the situation just by being near them, makes him a truly compelling antagonist.

Outside the zombie-filled Doongwoori building where the survivors are dealing with Young-cheol, we are further introduced to family members protesting the outbreak, researchers attempting to understand the bioattack and emergency personnel handling the situation. These characters are given lacklustre connections to the characters within the Doonwoori building, and – while providing some context about the larger picture – unnecessarily expand this film's runtime with content that could easily be done without. I definitely didn't need a ten-minute sequence of a monkey zombie horde in a lab.

​If you take a step back and consider 'Colony' as a typical, fast-paced action movie with some zombies thrown in for good measure, you'll enjoy it. If you go into a screening with hopes for a tense, horror-thriller, you'll be left with much to desire. The zombies are scary – their movements are unnatural, and when they communicate through the hive mind, it is extremely eerie – but the lack of any fleshed-out characters means you don't really care about the outcome.

As for Sang-ho's zombie movie run – don't fear. This director has found his niche and it doesn't seem he will be breaking out of it anytime soon, with the ending a clear set-up for a sequel. The world created in 'Colony' is interesting, and the unique take on the zombies is something that I would be excited to see explored more, so I hope the next film can return to the high-stakes atmosphere of 'Train to Busan' as these zombies continue to evolve.