The Colony (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror/Sci-Fi	Trailer-Eagle Entertainment trailers x 6 for other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	90:22
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jeff Renfroe
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Laurence Fishburne Bill Paxton Kevin Zegers Atticus Mitchell Charlotte Sullivan
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Jeff Danna

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     In the not too distant future mankind attempted to manipulate the weather. The result was a disaster: the Earth froze under a perpetual blizzard and those humans who survived the freezing conditions, the snow and lack of food took shelter in isolated underground bunkers, termed colonies. One such bunker is Colony 7 led by ex-military officer Briggs (Laurence Fishburne); they have become self-sufficient, growing their own food and husbanding seeds until the time the weather improves. However, their numbers are dwindling as any illness, even the common cold, is deadly. As a result anyone who becomes sick is quarantined for a short period to see if they improve. If they do not they are given a choice; a walk into the icy wilderness or bullet. Mason (Bill Paxton) is in charge of this process. He has become increasingly suspicious about anyone who shows signs of illness and starts shooting sick people without giving them the choice of walking.

     When the colony receives a distress call from Colony 5, another not too distant colony, then silence, Briggs, Sam (Kevin Zegers) and Graydon (Atticus Mitchell) go into the icy wasteland and blizzard to investigate. However, Briggs disapproves of Mason’s actions and names Kai (Charlotte Sullivan), the woman in charge of the ration store and Sam’s girlfriend, as the colony leader in his absence.

     When the three arrive at Colony 5 they enter the spooky corridors to find them empty of people although blood is splattered everywhere. They quickly discover that Colony 5 has been overrun by feral, cannibal humans who have been killing and eating the colonists. They escape, but are tracked back to Colony 7 by the ferals; the greatest threat to the survival of the colonists is no longer the weather, but fellow humans.

     The Colony is a low budget film that does not quite know what it wants to be and throws together a number of genres. It is initially a sci-fi apocalyptic survival drama, with some consideration of the rules under which human society may survive, before becoming in the second half a gory and bloody horror film. Indeed, in one sequence a man has his head cut in half, fully justifying the DVD’s MA rating. As such, The Colony draws from films as diverse as The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Aliens (1986), Serenity (2005), and most zombie films. This change in the plot also means that a number of subplots, such as the conflict between Briggs and Mason, the take-over of the colony by Mason and the relationship between Sam and Kai, are not developed to any extent, lost in the blood and violence of the second half of the film.

     This is not to suggest that The Colony is without interest. The cast of Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton and Kevin Zegers is very strong for a low budget film and all are good to watch do their thing. It also looks like a film with a bigger budget: the interiors of the film were shot in the newly decommissioned underground complex of the North American Aerospace Defence Command at North Bay, Ontario, giving the production access to cavernous rooms and echoing, pipe filled corridors that look real, because they are! The exterior sequences, featuring a snow covered landscape with destroyed buildings and a bridge, obviously use extensive CGI, but I must say that for the budget it looked pretty good.

     For all its unevenness in plotting, The Colony fits a lot into its short running time, excluding the credits, of 82 minutes. It has a good cast, the interior sets are impressive and the CGI not too bad although director Jeff Renfroe, primarily a TV director, is not above throwing in sweeping camera pans and jerky, hand held cameras in the action sequences which are, indeed, frenetic with a lot of blood and gore.

Video

     The bad news is that The Colony is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, cropped from the original release ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     I guess the cropping was not so noticeable in the interior scenes, although often faces seem half out of frame or conversations occur between characters in which one participant is partially seen. However, the main loss is in the widescreen vistas of the snow covered landscape, often with tiny figures surrounded by the ruined buildings. I don’t know why our release is cropped when the proper 2.35:1 ratio is available on the Region 1 US DVD.

     The film has two very distinct colour schemes. The exterior sequences are icy white and grey, with no colour. These scenes are sharp with decent detail and look spectacular. The interiors are different. Shot with digital cameras, many of the interiors have an obvious yellowish tinge which gives the scenes a distinctly glossy look; when there are reds (such as blood or the flare) or yellow (on walls or explosions) these colours are accentuated. Skin tones are affected by this yellow as well, although brightness and contrast are consistent.

     There was occasional motion blur with movement and in a number of darker scenes circular banding appears making the colours not solid – see 34:11 for example. Digital noise reduction was also evident in a number of scenes, making them look quite grainy and meaning that shadow detail varied. There was also some shimmer towards the end of the credits.

     There are no subtitles.

     The layer change at 42:17 caused a noticeable pause in the middle of a scene.

     A print that has a number of issues, not least being an incorrect aspect ratio. One mark is deducted from the video score as per site policy.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of English Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps or English dts 5.1 at 754 Kbps. I listened to the dts and sampled the Dolby Digital. Both were good although to my ear the dts was crisper.

     Dialogue was always clear and centred and during the exterior scenes the wind is a constant presence in the rears. During interior scenes such as the search in Colony 5 there is in the rears the music, the hum of machinery, half heard voices and the dripping of water which helps builds a tense atmosphere. When the action commences the entire sound stage is utilised for gunshots, debris, impacts and explosions. The sub-woofer added an atonal bass to tense sequences and gave appropriate support to explosions, impacts in hand to hand combat, the music and the crash of debris.

     The orchestral score by Jeff Danna was effective and not overused, so it did not become intrusive.

     I did not notice any lip synchronisation issues.

     This is a very good enveloping audio track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailers

     On start-up there were trailers for Gallowwalkers (2:07), Outpost III – Rise of the Spetsnaz (1:40), Why Stop Now (2:11), The Machine (1:36), Virginia (2:13) and CAT.8 (1:51). They can also be selected from the main menu.

     The Region 1 US release of The Colony contains a short (10 minute) set of cast and crew interviews. More importantly, it is in the correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The US release is thus the preferred option.

     The Colony is a sci-fi apocalyptic survival drama / horror film that borrows heavily on better films but boasts an excellent cast including Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton and Kevin Zegers. For a low budget film the interiors and exteriors are impressive and the film fits a lot into its short running time.

     The video has issues but the audio is very good. Trailers for other films are the only extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall