Colony (2026) - a pretty good action horror for zombie lovers

I watched the new Korean horror "Colony" yesterday, and I want to share how I feel about it.

WARNING: while I'll try to not spoil much, there might be some minor, accidental spoilers after all.

I like Korean horror. The Wailing is probably in my all-time top 5, also Svaha, Train to Busan, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil, Exhuma, and some others.

Train to Busan is one of the very best zombie movies ever made for me, so I kinda had high expectations after seeing the trailer for Colony, which in parts showed a similar vibe.

The movie is very well done. Acting is good, camera work and sound are good. Special effects and visual design are excellent.

This is very clearly an action movie. Don't expect a slow burn, carefully developing the tension or anything like that. Everything unleashes rapidly and doesn't stop until the very end. There are really close to none slowdowns. Shit just happens all the time.

The story, dialogues, motivations, and characters are very comic-booky to me. It doesn't really try to be naturalistic and believable, it's all cranked up to 11 and kinda silly at points - just like a comic book would be. The motivations and actions of the main antagonist also don't make sense fully, but in these type of movies I feel there is no point in trying to dissect this stuff - it is what it is.

Creature design was interesting - which is needed honestly because zombie trope is so played out that it becomes very hard to interest anyone with it. The closest thing to a zombie idea I can think of would be a mix of "The Last of Us" and "Cell" novel by Stephen King. This also obviously is a spin on more modern "infected living people" and not the classic but almost forgotten "living dead" trope. And it's the "fast types" here.

While the movie itself tries to hint at having a second meaning, some social commentary etc. I think it's really not that important here and it's best viewed just as a wild, over the top action movie.

Brutality and gore are surprisingly not on a high level, especially compared to some other movies like Train to Busan, which was more visceral, and even more so for one of my other favorite modern movies in this genre - The Sadness. Infected designs are graphic, but there are no shots of super wicked brutal stuff happening with details really.

Overall yeah, it's not an instant classic, but a very solid action movie set within a horror frame. Worth watching with popcorn and beer for sure.