The Colony
Directed by Jeff Renfroe
- action
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature.
What it’s like
Grey-blue and bleached, the look is frozen white daylight outdoors and sodium-yellow or fluorescent gloom underground, with the palette draining toward slate and rust as the survivors' supplies thin. Much of the film is handheld and close, pressing into cramped corridors, sealed doors and faces mottled with cold and fear, while the wide shots of a buried, ice-crusted city give the sense of a world that has gone silent. The score leans on low synth drones and pulsing bass, with long stretches of wind and metal groaning under pressure. It is a tense, bleak, sealed-in sort of experience, best suited to a late night alone when you want dread and claustrophobia rather than comfort. Violence is frequent and often brutal: there are shootings, fights and graphic gore, including cannibalism and scenes of starvation and cruelty that land hard. Its people are hardened and frightened, and the arcs follow a few men slowly forced into harder choices as the colony's order collapses. It is for viewers who enjoy survival thrillers and grim post-apocalyptic dread, not for anyone wanting something gentle.
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