Colony (2026) follows Yeon Sang-ho’s earlier zombie work thematically rather than continuing any direct storyline. It’s a standalone film, but it still comes with expectations. This is the director behind Train to Busan, Seoul Station, and Peninsula, so the comparison is inevitable.
It never reaches the emotional highs of Train to Busan, but in a genre that feels worn out, it still holds up. Especially next to Peninsula, which came and went with little impact and is now largely forgettable, Colony at least feels like it has more meat on the bones.
The zombies are the highlight. Not a horde, more an infestation: fast, grotesque, and linked through a hive mind. Body horror comes through in the infection as it adapts into something collective, with the infected moving less like scattered monsters and more like a single organism. It’s less a gore-fest and more a horrific spectacle, with the focus on movement, scale, and how the infected operate together. The way they coordinate is properly unsettling, with violence that leans more visceral than excessive.
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There’s a clear thematic thread running through it. Yeon Sang-ho’s ideas around AI, social media, and collective thinking are reflected in the infected, which behave less like chaos and more like a system running as one. It touches on ideas of group behaviour and the loss of individuality within a shared mindset.
Jun Ji-hyun (My Sassy Girl) is solid in a straightforward role. The cast do the job, but the writing keeps everything surface level, so nothing really lands emotionally.
Still, Colony has a clearer sense of intent and identity than you’d expect from a tired zombie entry. While not everything lands, the film is at least trying to push the genre somewhere new.
Brutal, grimy, and thematically aware, but still firmly within familiar zombie territory, Colony even winks at a potential sequel where some of its ideas might continue and mutate into something more.
