Colony

You’d have to wonder what the South Korean tourism board makes of ferocious filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho. Catch public transport in downtown Seoul (Train to Busan) and you’ll be attacked by zombies. You’re no safer attending a biotech conference in the sprawling metropolis in his latest braindead maelstrom.

Flipping the action from horizontal to vertical, this alternate spin on the time-honoured action/horror/comedy tropes plays out in a towering edifice that’s equal parts prison for corporate slaves and never-ending shopping mall for those shackled to late-stage capitalism.

It’s into this more more more Babel that sharp bioscientist Kwon Se-jeong (Gianna Jun) walks. A mega-brain, she’s nevertheless no use at reading a room and has a habit of driving folks away with her prickliness. She’s coaxed by her colleague and amicable ex-husband, Han Kyo-seong (Go Soo), to play nice and maybe rustle up some sort of future security in her gig. Theirs is a purely platonic bond – he’s very much in love with his new wife (Shin Hyun-been), also a scientist, and daughter. Then vengeful scientist Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) unleashes a real-time experiment in terror, sparking a rapidly spreading outbreak of frothing infected in the process. 

What makes this a fun night out is how well the mayhem is staged

With the authorities locking the building down and ringing it with busloads of heavily-armed riot cops, dynamic duo Se-jeong and Kyo-seong are left to rally a rag-tag band of generic survivors of varying degrees of uselessness to the cause.

There’s not a great deal that’s new here, though the idea of the zombies rapidly evolving with the aid of fungi-like mucus and an ant colony’s hive communication is well deployed. But what makes Colony a fun night out is how well the mayhem is staged. With reality-draining CGI often denuding horror’s bite these days, it’s a delight to see so many practical effects in full, goopy effect. Jeon Young’s startling creature choreography is next level, as our heroes battle their way to the tower’s rooftop by capturing the villainous Young-cheol, whose maniacal bio-hack plan has transformed him into a walking antidote who can harness this monstrous mob with mind control. 

By the time Colony’s un-Die Hard action swoops into its epic finale, you’ll be whooping and hollering like one of the undead horde.

Colony screened at the Sydney Film Festival.