Zombie master’s new film flags a modern virus that has already infected us all

The deeper we dive into AI chatbots and social media echo chambers, the rarer independent thought becomes. What should I have for dinner? Ask ChatGPT. Is this book worth reading? Let Reddit decide. It’s a modern-day hive mind, and we’ve all tuned into it.

Yeon Sang-ho, the “master of zombies” who brought us Train to Busan in 2016, is painfully aware of this, and has translated these fears into a new kind of monster – one that has already infected us all.

His new film, Colony, sees Yeon return to the zombie genre, though these creatures are unlike any of his previous creations. A rapidly mutating, mind-controlling virus, unleashed by a disgruntled former biotech employee in a high-rise shopping mall, transforms people into a violent collective, similar to the swarm intelligence of ants. Together, they evolve into a dangerous super-organism intent on recruiting all survivors.

“Zombies represent a fear – an innate concern for society at the time,” Yeon says via a translator.

This began with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), he says, which was interpreted as a political statement on contemporary issues like the Cold War and civil rights. Once Yeon jumped on the zombie wagon in 2016, those societal anxieties had changed, shifting instead to neoliberal selfishness.

Train to Busan follows a father as he travels with his estranged daughter from Seoul to Busan on a fast-moving train. What should have been a simple journey turns into chaos when most of the passengers transform into ultra-violent zombies.

“Seok-Woo, the main character in Train to Busan, is a trust fund manager, which is the farthest-right capitalist alignment you can have for a job,” Yeon says. “I wanted to explore the fear around what happens when a capitalist society comes crashing down. How does this man protect his family and livelihood in these circumstances?”

This film changed the game for zombie cinema. Not only were the zombies deadly, but they were also incredibly fast, setting them apart from the slow, bumbling on-screen monsters that came before. It also paired apocalyptic mayhem with genuine heart, chronicling the breakdown and subsequent resurrection of a father-daughter relationship.

A decade has passed since this film blew global audiences out of the water, and societal concerns have again shifted. In Colony, fears around money and hierarchies are replaced with more existential anxieties like the loss of self.

“I wanted to explore the current trends we see in information being spread and exchanged at such a rapid pace, and how this is affecting our society.