Train to Busan's director is reinventing the zombie thriller again with Colony

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Published Apr 13, 2026, 2:11 PM EDT

Watch the first teaser for Colony, Yeon Sang-ho's latest blood-soaked horror movie

A frightened-looking Korean woman tries to keep emotion off her face while a blood-covered humanoid sniffs at her in Colony Image: Well Go USA

For horror fans — particularly fans of Yeon Sang-ho's stellar 2016 zombie actioner Train to Busan, and its sequel, Peninsula — the recent news that the director has a new zombie movie coming to Cannes this year was a welcome promise of good things to come. The first teaser trailer for Colony has landed, and it's even more of an appetite-whetter.

The movie is set at a biotech conference where a viral outbreak causes law enforcement to seal off the building, leaving survivors trapped inside with a horde of rapidly evolving creepy creatures that used to be human. The first footage emphasizes what "used to be human" means, with the infected crawling on all fours, then learning how to better mimic their human prey.

Train to Busan became an international hit and an enduring cult phenomenon because it both goes back to basics with the zombie survival thriller genre, and gives it a reckless, exciting new energy. Even for people who've largely gotten tired of zombie cinema (hey, that's me!), Train to Busan is a sit-up-and-take notice experience. The characters are great (particularly the hulking blue-collar worker played by Ma Dong-seok, in his breakout role) and the action is frenetic, unrelenting, and breathless. It's exciting every time Yeon Sang-ho comes back to the zombie genre, and this opening teaser for Colony shows a lot of promise.

Colony will hit theaters on August 28, 2026.

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