Seoul Station

In a terrifying taster of things to come, this animated prequel to 2016 zombie epic Train to Busan charts the outbreak of hungry hostilities in and around the South Korean capital's rail terminus. The focus here is on a runaway girl (voiced by Shim Eun-kyung), desperate to avoid the swelling numbers of infected who abruptly appear, while her weedy, whiny boyfriend (Lee Joon) and estranged father (Ryu Seung-ryong) frantically search a city that's going totally to hell. Busan director Yeon Sang-ho revisits the edgy, unflashy animation of his 2011 drama The King of Pigs, and that style suits the unremitting bleakness of the tale and his trenchant observations about poverty and homelessness in contemporary Korean society. Though not on the nerve-shredding level of its hit, live-action predecessor, the rabid attentions of the undead throw up all kinds of dire situations and the climax in a luxury apartment block is genuinely unsettling.