'Train to Busan' Director's New Zombie Movie Was Inspired By a 48-Year-Old Sci-Fi Masterpiece

The director of Train to Busan's breaks down his new zombie movie, Colony Yeon Sang-ho broke into the movie industry with Train to Busan, a pulse-pounding zombie thriller with emotion and inventiveness to spare. Now, 10 years later, Yeon is back with a brand-new zombie movie that trades Busan's train setting for a sprawling shopping mall and swaps the aggressive 28 Days Later-esque undead from that film for something even scarier. In Colony, which arrives in U.S. theaters on Aug. 28, the undead are actually infected with a scientifically engineered fungus that turns them into a hivemind capable of sharing information. As the zombie horde grows and evolves, they become smarter. Yeon cleverly juxtaposes this evolution against his human characters, who succumb to panic and infighting as the situation escalates. "It becomes an allegory to those contrasting groups," Yeon tells Polygon. Yeon borrows liberally from classic stories like Dawn of the Dead, The Last of Us, and even Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but remixes everything to create a uniquely horrifying addition to the undead canon. In a conversation over Zoom, the director answers three questions about the inspiration for Colon