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# Colony
- URL: https://www.afterimages.film/colony/
- Published: 2026-10-16T03:11:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T03:11:14.000Z
- Description: A unique zombie concept and exhilarating action make up for a convoluted story with thin characters.
- Author: Dennis Ramirez
- Tags: Impressions, First Time Watch, In Theaters, 2026, Score: 7, #rating-7

### Review

It's a busy day at the towering multi-purpose Dongwoo-ri Building. Kwon Se-Jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) meets her ex-husband, Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo) for a biotech conference. He wants to connect her with Kang Woo-chul, the CEO of Chains Bio, in hopes of getting her a job, since she's been blacklisted by her previous one. They watch as Woo-chul presents Chains Bio's work with slime molds and how studying their communication networks can advance healthcare, showcasing a paralyzed rat walking after treatment. Meanwhile, security guard Choi Hyun-seok (Ji Chang-wook) meets his sister Choi Hyun-hee (Kim Shin-rok) in the building's indoor mall, and mulls a potential camping trip. In a nearby restaurant, two delinquent students bully Lee So-eun into paying for their lavish lunch.

Earlier that day, scientist Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan) called the police to warn of an impending bio-terrorism attack that he himself will be responsible for. This attack is field research for a new virus he's created, which he hopes will herald the evolution of an improved humanity, at any cost. The virus is unleashed, the building is locked down, and all of these disparate stories collide, guinea pigs in an experiment that means a horrific doom for the world should it succeed.

*Colony* is a return to form for director Yeon Sang-ho, who set the zombie genre on fire with 2016's *Train to Busan*. This kinetic "zombies-on-a-train" thriller perfectly wed its gruesomeness with compelling characters, creative use of the setting, and genuine emotional stakes. While his subsequent work didn't replicate the sensation of *Busan* (which had a disappointing sequel in 2020's *Peninsula*), he's shown a knack for creative high-concept takes on horror and psychological thriller conventions.

That continues here, as *Colony* takes elements of *The Last of Us's* fungal zombies and *Dawn of the Dead's* fast zombies and evolves them into a concept best discovered for yourself. It's enough to say it allows the threat to escalate constantly, with unique visuals and sound design not seen before that adds to the scares. The makeup and stunt choreography teams also deserve a special shout-out for bringing the concept to life.

Koo Kyo-hwan is the standout performance here as the villainous Young-chul. A good mad scientist is hard to come by these days, and Kyo-hwan's is as charismatic as he is sociopathic. Nothing that happens in the movie can wipe the self-satisfied smirk off his face, and Koo fully sells Young-chul's megalomania as dangerous instead of cartoonish. Jun Ji-hyun is also noteworthy as Se-jeong, with strong action chops to match her character's intellectual fortitude.

*Colony* deserves praise for its inventiveness, but the story gets too convoluted for its own good, especially when it introduces events outside of the main building. The external scenes aren't superfluous and eventually converge, but they interrupt the pacing, feeling less like a breather from the action and more like a diversion. They also add to an already large cast of characters even though we barely know the ones we have. *Train to Busan's* strength was making us care about who we're following on the train before the carnage unfolds, even with its own large cast. *Colony* tries to inject dimensions beyond the standard "how people react in a crisis" archetypes, but they are thinly sketched or completely unnecessary, as with Young-chul's motivations. The complexity of the zombie concept also requires occasional annoying audience hand-holding from Se-jeong, who remarks on revelations already communicated effectively visually.

*Colony's* novel concept, Young-chul's smug villainy, and the exciting action set-pieces that emerge from both make up for any of the film's shortcomings. It doesn't reach the bar set by Train to Busan, but it's a worthy new addition to the zombie canon, and a ton of fun to boot.

![Colony](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/tN799oUR0f1gUKDYdMNrDaY7I51.jpg) 

Director

#### Yeon Sang-ho

Budget

##### $12M

Release Date

Released

##### May 21, 2026

Runtime

##### 2h 3m

[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW6dpj1uCK8&ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34385135/?ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://boxd.it/QXtO?ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1375646/watch?locale=US&ref=afterimages.film) 

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