Disgruntled scientist Seo Yeong Cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) stages a terrorist attack on the company that stole his ideas, unleashing a zombie-like infection at a biotech conference that spills over into the attached shopping mall.
Co-written and directed by Train To Busan's Yeon Sang-ho, Colony is a taut, claustrophobic zombie horror actioner from a master of the genre.
While it homages such classics as Romero's Dawn of The Dead and the early years of The Walking Dead TV show, the central conceit - which differentiates it from other zombified movies I'm aware of - is the idea that the flesh-eaters can rapidly evolve via a hive mind connection.
This sees them develop from bestial monsters into a near-human state through the film's two hour runtime.
The idea of zombies as an insect-like colony allows for some slick set-dressing as well as the creatures transform the walls and floors of the mall into their nest - using mucus as their building material of choice.
Parallel to this, Seo Yeong Cheol develops from a fuming nerd into a suave Lex Luthor-level master villain, creating a role you don't usually associate with this sub-genre of horror movies - that of a "head" zombie! When you look at this, combined with the hive-mind element, comparisons with Star Trek's Borg are also unavoidable.
As well as some canny foreshadowing, Colony has it all: from heroism and heartbreak to gore and political cowardice.
The main plot follows conference attendee Professor Se Jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) as she tries to guide an ever-diminishing contingent of survivors out of the locked-down mall.
However, while this is unfolding there is the equally fascinating (if not so action-packed) second storyline about the professor's ex-husband's new wife Gong Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been), another senior scientist, navigating the political minefield of trying to contain the outbreak and find a cure for the infected.
A particularly interesting touch is the fact that, for the longest time, the authorities consider the infected as "patients" and - unlike 99 per cent of other cinematic zombie scenarios - don't start killing them straight away.
Of course, eventually, that approach is overturned - as you would expect - but I thought it was a novel (and probably more "realistic") approach to a zombie outbreak.
Yeon Sang-ho's pacing is spot-on and even though the film runs for two hours it never dragged and, to be honest, I wouldn't have objected if it had carried on for another hour or two.
Co-written and directed by Train To Busan's Yeon Sang-ho, Colony is a taut, claustrophobic zombie horror actioner from a master of the genre.
While it homages such classics as Romero's Dawn of The Dead and the early years of The Walking Dead TV show, the central conceit - which differentiates it from other zombified movies I'm aware of - is the idea that the flesh-eaters can rapidly evolve via a hive mind connection.
This sees them develop from bestial monsters into a near-human state through the film's two hour runtime.
The idea of zombies as an insect-like colony allows for some slick set-dressing as well as the creatures transform the walls and floors of the mall into their nest - using mucus as their building material of choice.
Parallel to this, Seo Yeong Cheol develops from a fuming nerd into a suave Lex Luthor-level master villain, creating a role you don't usually associate with this sub-genre of horror movies - that of a "head" zombie! When you look at this, combined with the hive-mind element, comparisons with Star Trek's Borg are also unavoidable.
As well as some canny foreshadowing, Colony has it all: from heroism and heartbreak to gore and political cowardice.
The main plot follows conference attendee Professor Se Jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) as she tries to guide an ever-diminishing contingent of survivors out of the locked-down mall.
However, while this is unfolding there is the equally fascinating (if not so action-packed) second storyline about the professor's ex-husband's new wife Gong Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been), another senior scientist, navigating the political minefield of trying to contain the outbreak and find a cure for the infected.
A particularly interesting touch is the fact that, for the longest time, the authorities consider the infected as "patients" and - unlike 99 per cent of other cinematic zombie scenarios - don't start killing them straight away.
Of course, eventually, that approach is overturned - as you would expect - but I thought it was a novel (and probably more "realistic") approach to a zombie outbreak.
Yeon Sang-ho's pacing is spot-on and even though the film runs for two hours it never dragged and, to be honest, I wouldn't have objected if it had carried on for another hour or two.
Despite what you may have read elsewhere, however, Colony is not a prequel to Train To Busan anymore than The Uprising tells the origin story of Robin Hood.
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