It starts with a mad scientist. You know, like all good horror should. Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan) warned everybody. He goes live and says he’s gonna release a biological agent that only he is immune to. [How do you do that, btw? Not, the agent thing, the PR thing … How do you announce to authorities your evil plan and assume you have the collective attention of an audience? Does TikTok have a “megalomania” channel that automatically interrupts all other broadcasts? Never mind.] He sticks himself with the vaccine and then injects the zombie agent into the company CEO.
Don’t we all wish we could do that to a CEO or two? Yeah, yeah, I’m not condoning murder. But, seriously, doncha? I can pick out a few faces who would make great rabid zombies. Yeah, we’re all zombies; decry socialism now, douchebag.
The good guy here is Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyan), a recently-canned biotech engineer, currently unemployed because of … reasons. Look, it was all in Korean and I was a little sleepy. Anyway, rabid zombie outbreak in a large office building with a ground floor mall. Police are informed early, so they border up the outside, but this agent couldn’t be more infectious (one bite turns 
anyone rabid). Survivors are gonna have a chore just getting out of the mall, let alone stopping this outbreak.
This is one of those: “Wait. They’re just getting started” horror films, where the danger evolves. And in this case, that word is meant literally, These zombies evolve. Every so often, a gong sounds and the Colony, inspired by groupthink, stops to vacillate and stare while new information gets in. At the start of the film, the zombies are “down on all fours” animals. But the middle of the film, these guys are tool users. Hit ‘em while you can.
Colony is another film from writer/director Yeon Sang-ho, the guy who made the wonderful horror Train to Busan. Colony isn’t quite as good as Train, but it does have similar elements of out-of-control zombies and thoughtful action. I hate horror where the characters don’t think. Oh, I’m certain that happens all the time in real life horror, but I have little use for it on the big screen. Colony is definitely one of those, “what would you do?” films and seems to have several answers to said question based on the character it is asked of. A definite must for horror junkies.
There once was a scientist named Seo
Who needed to pick a bone or two
He infected his boss
Patient zero albatross
And waited for society to become a zoo
Rated R, 123 Minutes
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Writer: Choi Kyu-seok, Yeon Sang-ho
Genre: Thoughtful horror
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Horror junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: CEOs
