Ten years on from releasing the best zombie horror film of the last two decades, Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho returns with a fresh undead (ish) apocalypse. The zombies of Colony are a different breed entirely – suffering from a viral infection which turns the afflicted into members of a bloodthirsty hive mind. Attending a biotech conference in a hi-tech high rise, Professor Se Jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) finds herself at the epicenter. Quarantined to contain the virus, she and her fellow survivors launch a last-ditch mission to find the man responsible before it’s too late.
Colony is no rehash of Sang-ho’s best film, offering an entirely fresh take on zombie warfare. Taking a leaf out of The Last of Us’s book, its creatures are part fungal infection, part anthill. They’re a terrifying creation, moving quite unlike any other zombie the subgenre has to offer. They’re not an entirely unintelligent bunch either – led by bio-terrorist Seo Yeong Cheol (a magnificently smarmy Koo Kyo-hwan),they’re constantly adapting and updating, posing an ever-evolving threat to Se Jeong and her allies.
As with Train to Busan, the film’s greatest strength is in its character work. Sang-ho has assembled a disparate bunch here, including a no-nonsense cop, former track coach and a gang of terrified students. There’s an attempt to recapture some of the emotion of Train to Busan’s devastating father/daughter relationship in Se Jeong’s connection to her ex-husband, and the sibling duo trying to make it through the day. It’s a valiant effort, but you can’t capture lightning in a bottle twice, and it struggles to find the same emotional core of its predecessor.
One thing which remains up to scratch is the action, and the sense of scale is on a par with that of its 2016 counterpart. Much of it is rather preposterous, but just enough of it sticks to keep the thing from falling off the tracks entirely. A subplot involving Se Jeong’s ex-husband’s new wife is a bit too out-there for comfort, but it does net the film one of its most exciting action beats.
An ambitious, action-packed zombie horror from one of the best to ever do it, Colony is a flawed yet ambitious follow-up to a film which simply can’t be topped. When it works, it really works.
COLONY premiered at Tubi FrightFest on August 27, 2026.
