After legions of zombie outbreak movies, it can be tough to find something more exciting beyond the humdrum theatrics of contorting bodies, flesh-munching teeth, and gallons of toxic blood. Colony is a film with clever new ideas about hordes of not-alive humans, but you can also feel the inoculation against mindless retreading being shoved hard into the pale flesh of this decaying movie monster. It’s more mesmerizing to watch veteran zombie director Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) squeeze a few more thrilling drops out of this subgenre, giving it just enough life to stagger a few more feet.

The zombies this time around are more intelligent, beyond figuring out how best to track down their prey. The bioweapon infecting people, developed by the cynical scientist Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan), has a bit more thought behind it. Drawing inspiration from the likes of ants and fungus, those infected become part of a network in which information is relayed telepathically among all the infected within seconds. The unfortunate victims of this outbreak within a city building will have to find ways to outsmart the monsters who learn quickly. Tactics for deceiving the zombies with turned-off lights and mannequin decoys will only work for so long.

Of course, like any zombie movie, the characters are given just enough compelling traits to be more than monster fodder. Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) is an unemployed professor seeking work at a conference, made all the more awkward by the presence of her ex-husband, Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo), who has moved on and started a family. Choi Hyun-seok (Ji Chang-wook) is a security guard who is worried about his wheelchair-bound sister, Choi Hyun-hee (Kim Shin-rok). And there is an assortment of emotional young adults, a desperate businessman, and a spry elder, among others. Some of them defy expectations about when and how they will die, and the ever-evolving drama transforms these people as much as the virus does, making their rescue all the harder for the sympathetic biotechnologist, Gong Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been).

There’s plenty of smarts within the script that unfortunately doesn’t place much faith in the audience to keep up. The virus’s logic is clever, but the film struggles to juggle the transfer of information between characters. The unique discoveries always have to be explained again when the carnage dies down, leading to exposition worthy of a sci-fi B-movie where scientists stand around and give a science lesson on a fake phenomenon with real-world association. This flaw makes it easier to understand Seo Young-chul’s deadly philosophy, born of bitterness about the flaws in human communication. His zombie horde might attack people into becoming the human-equal of an ant colony, but at least they’re able to share crucial knowledge in mere seconds without repeating. Whereas humans might bark about how “this could’ve been an email,” these zombies are all email, all the time.

One area where Yeon Sang-ho still shines bright with zombies is his direction. The tension of the outbreak starting, the bloody chaos that erupts, and the surprising deaths all make for some blood-pumpingly juicy action. That much can be expected from zombie movies that promise hordes of the infected scrambling around corners, clawing at walls, and growling like beasts, wth Sang-ho still trying to make these cliches chomp a little harder where dozens of actors occupy this violent outbreak. The devotion to something less mindless makes these monsters more fascinating, though. Their communication method involves them standing upright and quivering with spread intelligence, improving how the zombies deceive the humans trying to deceive them. They become almost more intriguing than the human characters, who certainly undergo dramatic progression but ultimately end in expected ways, taking predictable paths of sacrifice and revenge. Also, I admire the extra-gooey substance these monsters coat the building with, like a nasty fungus to lean heavier into the association.

Colony has a little more going on in its zombie-outbreak horror, making it more of a brisk jog than a tiresome shamble down this old and blood-stained road. The action works well, and the intelligence is higher than in most zombie movies that hope to find their appeal when the makeup is applied and the blood effects spew forth. Beyond the surface-level satisfaction of watching people scramble to survive tumblers of the dead, the film reveals just how many new and clever developments can be injected into zombie movies with familiar elements. And while the film does go through the undead motions a few times, the dribbles of smarts that ooze out are rather impressive, giving the weathered audience something more to munch on than how best to slaughter your way out of the zombie apocalypse.

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