The Colony

Year: 2013
Genre: Horror, sci-fi
Director: Jeff Renfroe


Plot: After a malfunctioning weather machine plunges the world into an ice age, underground colonies are built by the remaining survivors. When Colony 5 sends a distress signal, the leader of Colony 7 decides to respond by going there with a small team, only to discover a group of cannibals have taken over.


The gist: It's funny that I had watched this just 12 hours before I saw Snowpiercer, as the similarities are obvious. But The Colony is a horror flick, which is the main difference.

Unfortunately, this film doesn't even come close to being as good as Snowpiercer. Director and co-writer Jeff Renfroe shamelessly borrows ideas from other similar flicks such as 28 Days Later, 30 Days Of Night and more importantly, Aliens. The casting of Bill Paxton is a clear homage to that.

Thing is, borrowing ideas from other films isn't too bad if they can work, but Renfroe doesn't even try to make the best use of them. He merely touches on certain elements like survival of the fittest, leadership, tragic pasts and the possibility of a safe haven elsewhere, but doesn't follow up on them.

His pacing and story telling is also way off as he spends the first 45 minutes or so setting up his plot, which is half the film, then rushes to end it in the final third, with a ending that makes you go "That's it?". 


The good: Kevin Zegers is all right as lead protagonist Sam, with Charlotte Sullivan providing some eye candy as his love interest. At least the rest of the cast, including veterans like Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton, are decent enough with what they're given.

The bad: The script and overall direction, which totally wasted the acting talent involved. The CGI snow was kinda bad since the fakeness was rather obvious. And as mentioned, lack of originality.


Verdict: A bad film that wasted every potential it had. Skip this and watch Snowpiercer. (2.5/5)