Review of The Colony (2013) by Ola G — 29 Dec 2013

By 2045, humans have built weather machines to control the warming climate due to climate change and global warming. The machines break down one day when it begins to snow and doesn't stop. The humans that are still alive live in underground bunkers to escape the extreme cold. Their challenges are controlling disease and producing sufficient food. Two soldiers, Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) and Mason (Bill Paxton) are the leaders of one such bunker, Colony 7. Briggs, Sam (Kevin Zegers) and Graydon (Atticus Dean Mitchell) travel to nearby Colony 5 after receiving a distress signal. Upon arrival, they find the place covered in blood. They eventually reach a locked door which Sam picks open. Inside they find Leyland, who shows them a message from a group of people who fixed a weather machine and have caused the snow to thaw. The group offers aid to anyone and asks that they bring seeds so they can be planted in the newly thawed soil. Leyland shows them where the signal came from but informs them that a Colony 5 expedition failed to return. Moreover, the expedition's tracks led a group back to Colony 5 and the killing ensued. Briggs, Sam, and Graydon force Leyland to return with them but he pushes them out and locks himself back into his room.The three then begin to explore Colony 5 and approach a room with a fire burning. Here they see a human chopping up members of Colony 5, while others feast on human remains. As the three try to escape, Graydon is killed by the cannibals. Briggs and Sam have to make it back to Colony 7 without leading the cannibals there as well...

"The Colony" is more or less a mish mash B-movie version of "The Thing" and "30 Days of Night", but hardly close to any of the mentioned movies. All I saw was just one gigantic CGI landscape (and not that convincing either) and the recycled plot adds absolutely nothing in this sort of horror genre. The problem is as well that is´s just not scary or exciting. Jay Stone of Postmedia deemed the film had "too many clichés ... and half-developed characters to make us care enough.", which is also a correct observation. "The Colony" is simply a disappointment.