‘Train to Busan’ Director’s New Zombie Movie Was Inspired By a 48-Year-Old Sci-Fi Masterpiece
Director Yeon Sang-ho, best known for the 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan, is returning to the genre with a new film called Colony, arriving in U.S. theaters on August 28. The film trades Busan’s train setting for a sprawling shopping mall while reimagining its zombie threat entirely.
Colony features undead infected with a scientifically engineered fungus that transforms them into a collective hivemind capable of sharing information and coordinating attacks. As the infected horde grows, it becomes increasingly intelligent and organized. Yeon uses this evolution as a stark contrast to his human characters, who descend into panic and infighting as the crisis escalates, creating an allegory about competing responses to catastrophe.
The new film draws inspiration from a 48-year-old sci-fi masterpiece, showing Yeon’s approach of adapting established speculative fiction concepts through his own creative lens. Where Train to Busan drew comparisons to 28 Days Later for its aggressive infected, Colony’s fungal hivemind represents a distinctly different and arguably more unsettling threat—one that grows smarter rather than merely more numerous.