‘Colony’ (2026)

‘Colony’ follows Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) an ostracised and unemployed biotechnology professor as she attends a presentation delivered by Chains Bio. Accompanying her is her ex-husband Han Gyu-sung (Go Soo) who encourages her to introduce herself to the company’s CEO Kang Woo-chul in order to secure a job.

Meanwhile disgruntled scientist Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) confronts Woo-chul after the presentation, accusing him of plagiarising his work. Infecting Woo-chul with mutated slime mold, Young-cheol begins an outbreak, transforming the infected into a horde of dangerous drones, looking to convert everyone around them.

Wasting no time, ‘Colony’ glides into zombie action almost at the 10-minute mark. Having gotten the exposition heavy start out of the way, we’re left with a sinister antagonist in Young-cheol, a capable if unwilling leader in Se-jeong, and an assortment of ragtag survivors, all trapped in the one building and planning their escape.

With a novel concept in the kind of zombies that form the ‘Colony’, we’re introduced to the spread of a bioweapon that allows the infected to spread information amongst themselves in real time through mycelium, allowing them to constantly evolve and adapt when completing a task and learning from their mistakes.

Haunting and unexpected, especially during the first time it is shown, when learning, the members of the horde raise their heads, drop their jaws and screech in unison as they share what they have learned. Truly one of the outstanding aspects of the feature, it is great to see how writer and director Yeon Sang-ho has added to the pantheon of types of zombies, making this a worthy addition to the already flavourful well of existing ghouls.

In addition to the terrifyingly high degree of swarm intelligence the infected possess, the film delivers a handful of unsettling scenes where the contagious contort their bodies to such an unsettling point, it may make one squirm in their seat.

With all of the above in mind however, the film is not without its flaws. With how prevalent communication is in our day and age, cell-phones are usually conveniently dismissed and done away with in modern horror by reason of network outage or other similar excuses to render the oh-so-convenient comms unusable. ‘Colony’ goes the other way initially, where our survivor group figure out that they too can communicate without the horde knowing what they’re up to. Refreshingly and pleasantly surprising, the film eventually undermines itself and betrays the survivors when they conveniently bicker amongst themselves and render the previously established advantage unusable, arguing audibly and betraying their own chances at survival.

Another qualm that cannot be forgiven arises from the pastiche of familiar zombie movie tropes that are used in the film. A smattering of new ideas is not enough to create a novel film when all original concepts are overshadowed by common tropes that, overall, drag on for too long and render the viewing experience too burdensome to be considered exciting.

Ultimately the villain’s plan to eradicate miscommunication via creating uniformity through infecting the masses to create a singular and invariable society falls flat as the notion of individualism and identity are not explored. The final showdown between Se-jeong and Young-cheol is much too short and too underdeveloped in terms of any meaningful discussion regarding collectivism, resulting in a stymied back-and-forth on the ethics of what Young-cheol is trying to achieve, never quite addressing the morality of his actions.

With too many recognisable clichés and predictable outcomes, ‘Colony’ introduces us to a world of goo-covered swarms that pose a credible threat, especially perhaps due to the imperfect nature that humans possess. Without genuine debate on the principles and values that support why the horde is preferable or to be rejected, the film offers too little by way of excitement and terror to justify its excessive runtime.

Score: 1/4