South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho started his film career back in 2006 with a series of animated shorts and TV series and it was ‘Seoul Station’ in 2016 that caught the eye with its story of a group of people trying to survive a zombie pandemic in downtown Seoul. It was from this that he ran with the idea in the same year releasing a feature length film ‘Train to Busan’ which again featured a zombie outbreak bought on by a virus but this time on ….well, a train to Busan with passengers trying to survive the marauding infected. Brilliantly done and garnering critical and commercial acclaim he followed it in 2020 with ‘Peninsula’ and 2026 saw the release of his latest in an unofficial trilogy with ‘Colony’.
A look at the Colony……
Set once again In downtown Seoul, a professor attends a biotech conference only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility and the survivors, barricaded inside the building, must contend with the mounting and unpredictable threat.
It’s another zombie fest with a story that owes much to ‘The Last of Us’ which is no bad thing and like ‘Train to Busan’ its sees a group of people trapped inside a confined space this time a hotel complex as the infected run amok with a several effective set pieces.
Out now the Colony 4K –UHD gives the action a sheen and the disc bonus features include:
- Choreography
- The making of Colony
- Birth of the Infected
All of these are well worth a look but perhaps what is of most interest is the featurette on the choreography. The infected here are not the lumbering brain dead but instead nimble and quick footed and bought to life by a host of gymnasts, dancers and contortionists that bring…um…..’life’ to the infected with them twisting and writhing into all manner of positions as they rampage through the building chasing survivors. It makes for a different spin on zombies in films where over the years they have evolved from, shuffling corpses to sprinting dangers. Colony might not have the guts and gore of Romero’s masterpieces but there’s a lot to like here making it an essential addition for fans of the genre,
related feature : ‘Colony’ film reviewed
related feature : Ian McCulloch reveals how Lucio Fulci treated Auretta Gay on the set of Zombie Flesh Eaters
Here’s the Colony 4K UHD trailer…..
