Chernobyl Diaries

Director: Brad Parker
Cast:  Jesse McCartney, Olivia Dudley, Jonathan Sadowski, Devin Kelley

When Chernobyl Diaries begins, you fear that this is just another film which is seen behind one of the character’s camcorder. Considering the producer and co-writer is Oren Peli of Paranormal Activity fame, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking so. Yet, you are proved wrong after the first five minutes.

Paul (Jonathan Sadowski), Chris (Jess McCartney), Amanda (Devin Kelley) and Natalie (Olivia Dudley) are four young American tourists exploring Europe and looking to get the most out of their trip. In Ukraine, they come across an extreme tour company who takes them on a tour of the abandoned city, Pripyat, which is where the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster took place over 25 years ago. By very bad luck, they are stuck there without anybody knowing that they are there and find that there is other dangerous phenomenon there besides radiation.

Chernobyl Diaries starts off so strong. When the tourists enter Pripyat, the film becomes intriguing. Although the film wasn’t actually filmed on location and in Serbia and Hungary instead, the landscape of Pripyat is amazing. It is extremely eerie, but the abandoned city has some mysterious and disturbing type of beauty.  In particular, the scene with the abandoned ferris wheel, dodgem cars and children’s playground is particularly intriguing.

The cinematography and recreation of Pripyat is probably the best thing about the film. The horror that is part of Pripyat is actually quite dull. The images of this evil don’t really tell you much about it. It really is quite a let-down and nothing new. The scariest scene involving the little girl, makes no sense at the end of the day and is completely out of place. Chernobyl Diaries is suspenseful in parts, yes, but not particularly scary.

The young cast is that of a typical B-grade horror flick and nobody particularly stands out.

According to Imdb.com, Peli decided to make a film about Pripyat after seeing a photo blog by a girl who travelled through Pripyat on motorcycle. He would have been better off making a documentary rather than a horror film about it, but we all know that isn’t Peli’s style. Such a shame, because the film and it’s concept have so much potential.