Sequel just about stays on right track Action takes precedent over horror
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Train to Busan was one of my favourite films of 2016.
A real sleeper hit, the South Korean horror flick was a relentless exercise in breathless terror.
It didn’t immediately strike me as a film that warranted a sequel but when you are dealing with the zombie apocalypse there are always a whole host of potential storylines and directions to go in.
Set eight years later, Peninsula focuses on a new batch of characters, led by soldiers Jung Seok (Dong-won Gang) and Chul-min (Do-yoon Kim) who are recruited by Chinese mobsters to retrieve millions of dollars from the quarantined peninsula.
Returning writer-director Sang-ho Yeon and co-scripter Ryu Young-jae (making his filmmaking debut) take the Aliens and Terminator 2 approach of turning up the action dial to 11 in this follow-up.
Set-pieces take precedent over suspense as our antagonists are dropped into hell on Earth with the undead seemingly lurking behind every corner.
South Korea has become overrun by zombies, which gives Sang-ho the excuse to go wild with everything from a car chase to a multi-limbed “rat king” rearing its hideous head.
The movie barely pauses for breath and while this ensures your full attention throughout, I couldn’t help but miss the one-on-one relationships and heftier emotional ties of the original; none of the new characters register as much as the first’s Seok-woo, Su-an, Sang-hwa and Jin-hee.
As a horror fan I would have preferred Peninsula to adhere to its predecessor’s claustrophobic scares but it still works as a bombastic companion piece.
Lets just hope Sang-ho doesn’t fall into the Walking Dead trap of overloading his apocalyptic world with more spin-offs than CSI.