Colony finally hits North American theaters on August 28 through Well Go USA, and we got to catch it early at Fantasia, where it played as the Canadian premiere. If you are wondering what we are so worked up about, here is the short version.
This is the latest zombie film from writer-director Yeon Sang-ho, the mind behind the entire Train to Busan saga (the original, the animated Seoul Station, and the live-action follow-up Peninsula from 2020). Colony already came out in South Korea back in May after premiering at Cannes, and it has been doing serious numbers overseas. As Arthur put it:
It’s a fucking huge movie.
The question we kept circling back to is simple. Is the zombie subgenre done? Is there anything left to say with it? We went into this episode with that hanging over us, and we came out the other side with an answer.
Both of us landed close on our scores. Meaghan sat at a very strong 7.5, and Arthur went with an eight. Not a perfect zombie movie, but a smart one, and one that actually tries something we have not seen before. That counts for a lot right now.
A New Kind of Zombie: The Hive Mind and Evolving Infected
The two things that set Colony apart are simple to describe and wild to watch. First, the infected share a hive mind. When one of them learns something, they all learn it. Second, they evolve, and they evolve fast.
At the start, they scramble around on all fours like animals, then they stand up, then they figure out their senses, then they start using strategy. We have never seen zombies work like this, and it rewrites every survival rule you think you know.
The science behind it leans on spores and fungi, which gives the whole thing a touch of The Last of Us. Arthur got a little spooked talking about it.
It’s absolutely wild. I don’t even wanna think about it, it’s so scary.
The infection is gooey, sticky, and it spreads through the building like something alive.
If you like a gooey film, you are in for a treat.
Meaghan warned, and she is not exaggerating.
What we loved most is what the hive mind does to the story. Nobody gets to hide behind one clever trick. The infected adapt, so the survivors have to keep adapting too. You cannot just barricade a door and call it a night. They will figure it out, and they will find you.
Inside the Building: Setting, Survivors, and Smart Choices
The whole film takes place inside one massive mixed-use tower. Retail and a mall on the bottom, an office tower up top, with the biotech conference happening above all of it. When the authorities catch wind of the attack, they lock the entire building down. It has a real Romero’s Dawn of the Dead feel, updated and shinier, but that same trapped-in-a-mall energy runs all the way through.
Meaghan loved the isolated setting. A closed space forces the story and the characters to carry the weight, and this one carries it. The film also moves. You are never stuck on one floor grinding through it like a video game level. There is always a reason to push to the next spot, from the mall to the office floors to the parking garage and back again.
The survivors are worth caring about. Professor Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun, also credited as Gianna Jun) leads, a biotech professor with sharp opinions and no patience for corporate nonsense. Her ex-husband Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo) brought her to the conference, and he is written as a genuinely decent guy, which caught us off guard in the best way.
There is a security guard, Choi Hyun-seok (Ji Chang-wook), who knows the building inside out, along with his sister Choi Hyun-hee (Kim Shin-rok), who happens to be visiting him that day. On the outside, Gyu-seong’s wife Gong Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been) works the problem from her end. Most of these people make intelligent choices, which Arthur cannot stop praising.
I cannot be angry at the screen.
He said, and honestly, he is right.
We also cannot skip the duct tape bit. It sent us straight back to our chat with Ry Barrett (Johnny in In a Violent Nature), who once told us his apocalypse plan was to make duct tape suits for everyone so nobody gets bitten. “That’s actually pretty smart. That’s fucking smart,” Meaghan said, and Colony basically proves the point.
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Seo Young-cheol: The Villain With a Plan
Every good outbreak needs someone to light the match, and Colony has a great one. Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) is a disgraced scientist who used to work for the biotech company that pushed him out. He built the virus, and he holds the vaccine, which means his presence in any scene makes life worse for everyone around him.
His literal existence in scenes complicates matters for the other characters.
Meaghan said, and that is putting it kindly.
What makes him land is that he is not random. There is a real story behind why he does this, tied to his father and his history with the company, and it tracks. Arthur kept coming back to the Thanos of it all.
From his perspective, it made a lot of sense.
Arthur said. You do not agree with him, but you follow the logic, and following the logic is a lot scarier than watching a cartoon. Koo Kyo-hwan plays the maniacal edge without tipping into silliness, and we both thought he was one of the strongest parts of the film.
The Physical Performances That Make Colony Terrifying
This is where Yeon Sang-ho keeps proving himself. The physical work from the zombies is just incredible. The first person to turn does this contortion thing that made both of us wince and lean in at the same time. Bones crack. Bodies bend wrong. It is gross, and it is beautiful.
This has been a Yeon Sang-ho signature since Train to Busan, where the first turn is that young girl whose body folds in ways it should not. Colony pulls the same move, then goes further, because the infected act as one.
They jump, they throw each other, they climb walls, and they share information and react as a single unit. We could not look away. It reminded Meaghan of the dancers in Smile 2, that hallway sequence she is “never gonna get over,” which is very high praise around here. The set design keeps pace too, getting more overtaken and disgusting as the infection spreads, until the space itself feels sick.
Is the Zombie Genre Saturated? Our Verdict on Colony
So, back to the big question. After The Walking Dead and its endless spin-offs, after years of the same outbreak beats, is there anything new left? We think the answer is yes, with a caveat.
The plain old zombie, the standard shuffling bite and spread, that version feels tapped out. We have seen it. But the twists creators are bringing now keep the door open. The Bone Temple did it. 28 Years Later did it. Colony does it, and well!
We put it next to a couple of other recent ones to make the point. We Bury the Dead was fine but had choices that got under Meaghan’s skin. This Is Not a Test felt generic. Colony played like the opposite of that, fresh and mean and willing to swing.
Meaghan even joked that the real subtitle should be “the women have to fix everything,” because the scientists and the level heads carrying this thing to the finish line are mostly women, and we were here for it.
Will zombies ever be Meaghan’s favorite subgenre? No. But Colony is the kind of film that keeps her buying a ticket, because it proves there are still new directions to take the undead.
If you want something that respects your intelligence and still makes your skin crawl, this one delivers. Catch it in theaters starting August 28, and let us know if you fall for the hive mind as hard as we did.