Fantasia 2026: Colony

I'd be lying if I said I've kept close tabs on Yeon Sang-ho's career beyond Train to Busan. I've got his animated features, The Fake and The King of Pigs, sitting in my watchlist, and I know he's had a solid run on Netflix, despite the negative buzz I've caught from a distance, but honestly, I hadn't gone back to his work since that zombie film, I never even saw Peninsula. With Colony I found some of that same magic I felt back with Train to Busan, but also a few things that don't quite land, or that don't feel as polished as they did in that film.

The director returns to the zombie genre, except here, instead of a simple infection, we get a virus with a kind of collective consciousness that opens the door to some genuinely interesting visuals: every time the zombies receive information, they convulse in this moment of ecstasy or distraction while processing it. That also sidesteps the most predictable version of this genre, because on top of that collective evolution, there's an actual mastermind behind it all, which makes the threat feel palpable and ongoing, more entertaining than the gimmick we've already gotten used to.

Same as what happened with Train to Busan, I really like how well-established the characters are right from the start, their personalities, what they can and can't do. I do have my reservations, though I'm not sure I can fully unpack them: I don't feel they have quite the same charisma, or that you attach to them the way you did with the characters in the original Korean film. That said, they do have their moments to shine, and in a way, we do end up with something at stake with them. The problem is that, with so many of them, and with a plot that's a bit more complex, an antagonist (Dr. Suh Young-cheol) plus an outside team investigating from beyond the building, that emotional investment Train to Busan pulled off gets a lot harder to sustain.

I think that's exactly what works against it. Even though the director's used a similar structure before, splitting the story into two separate threads, what's happening inside the building with the zombie colony and the resentful scientist acting as antagonist, and what's happening outside with the secret agents and the head investigator, means that second half sometimes feels like excess, without adding much to the main action. Even though the director ultimately makes it work, it is distracting at times, especially since, like I said, we've got a lot of characters who, even when well defined, never really get the room to evolve beyond what you'd want to see from them.

Even so, the production remains flawless: huge sets, action sequences that sell themselves through the makeup and costume work, plus that near-insect-like touch, a white slime shared between the zombies and the newly infected as a form of communication. Honestly, it stays fresh and entertaining, and if that's what you're after in a horror film, or at least from the director who once hooked all of us with Train to Busan, I don't think Colony will let you down either.