Colony

I wasn't inspired by the start of this film as it resembled a sort of foaming-at-the-mouth edition of the "Kids from Fame", but once it settles down it's actually quite a decent hybrid of a horror movie and a sci-fi thriller. It's following a presentation by a tech CEO (Kim Jong-tae) who is advancing the theories of communal communication and learning, itself quite a terrifying thought, that the disgruntled "Suh Yeong Cheol" (Koo Hyo-hwan) decides to seek his revenge on that man whom he accuses of stealing his revolutionary ideas and then firing him. He injects him with a serum that sees a remarkable effect on his ertswhile boss and proves contagious to just about everyone he comes into contact with - with this teeth!! This conference is taking place adjacent to a shopping mall so as these now rabid creatures spread that spells trouble for a disparate bunch of shoppers who manage to seek...

*Colony* is so smart and exhilarating, with breathtaking cinematography by Byun Bong-sun. The fact that an outbreak film is doing something different rather than rehashing everything that came before it is enough to warrant a watch. But it’s such a clever spin on the genre, it ends up clawing and biting its way to being one of the best films of the year.

This is another great example of how Koreans understand zombie movies. Just like with Train to Busan this movie does something interesting with the concept rather than just repeat the tropes we have already seen. There is a great deal of urgency in this movie and the actors and directors pull this off very well. The effects are very high class and the overall presentation is highly proficient. I did enjoy this quite a lot, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.

Colony is a marginal departure from your classic zombie flick. While intelligently written, there's not a lot on offer here, aside from a zombie hive mind proposition, that distinguishes this outbreak zombie horror disaster drama from others in the genre. That's not to say it's not worth a look if you like this kind of thing. The acting is excellent; the characters have a genuine depth, offering up predictably human responses, for better or worse, to the unfolding disaster that befalls them. Action is solid too, with lots of zombie thrills but little in the way of genuine scares, backed by solid choregraphy and cinamatics. In summary. Colony isn't doing anything overly new, but its script offers enough interest and excitement to make this film a worthwhile watch.