The Short of It:
While it’s not the greatest story in the world, The Chernobyl Diaries uses one of the best possible locations for a horror setting. The cliches are a dime a dozen and you’ll pretty much forget the characters by the time you walk out of the theatre. The film contains a number of jump scenes, but when you ultimately find out what’s going on, you may be disappointed. It felt like they could have done a little more with it.
The Long Story:
Oren Peli, creator of the Paranormal Activity films, had a hand in writing the story for Chernobyl Diaries, which is interesting when considering that most of his movies so far have been of the found footage variety. While the film starts off looking like it may be entirely found footage, it conveniently changes over to a standard filming setup, which helps the way everything is presented. I’m thankful they went this route, personally. After Chronicle, I’m not sure I could deal with another found footage film.
Chernobyl Diaries centers around six tourists in Russia, who get the divine notion to take an extreme tour through the town of Pripryat, just near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster from the 1980’s. Once they arrive, however, they find that that an armed roadblock keeps them from the city. Undaunted, they locate a back road into town and make their way through, setting up camp for the day. The spend their time walking around the area to take photos and have discussions about what happened here. I’m not sure if the movie was actually filmed in the city, but the landscape did look very good. That may be one of the things that I can take away from this movie that was worth it. The settings definitely worked, even if the actual gore didn’t. After their mode of transport is damaged, they’re left stranded in the area and searching for a way out. That is the entire plot of the film. The characters don’t count (save that two are related), and the mystery behind what happened there is non-existant. It’s simply 6 people dropping themselves in a hellish situation and trying to find their way out.
Again, this is one of the coolest places to stage a horror film. Imagine with the fallout that occurred, something or someone had to be left behind during the evacuations, waiting to attack others. The problem with this is the audience already knows this. After so many of these types of films, you expect something out there. I thought they could have made what existed a bit extreme, but the effects were such standard fare that one might say they’ve seen better in any episode of The Walking Dead. There’s low budget, and then there’s The Blair Witch Project, then your typical Sci-Fi channel weekend flick and then you have Chernobyl Diaries. For a first time director, Bradley Parker does okay with what he has, but it’s nothing terribly awe-inspiring.
That isn’t to say that the movie doesn’t scare. Trying to escape a town in the dark can’t be easy, and there are a few jump moments that had the audience screaming, but by the time the film ended, some complained about wanting to get their money back. Truthfully, I myself had to cover my ears a few times in certain moments, but this really needed more overall.
Watch it if it happens to come on late at night, but really, the film just isn’t worth paying for.
When I first saw the title of this film, it already seemed oddly familiar. I thought that it might have been the same film about Chernobyl that I had wanted to see last year, but missed the opportunity. When I read the review, it still seemed familiar, although I now had the impression that it might be the same film.
Well, it turns out that “Chernobyl Diaries” is not the same film that I was thinking about, for that would be “Innocent Saturday”. Apparently, Oren Peli got the idea for “Chernobyl Diaries” from a picture of a woman riding her motorcycle through Chernobyl. This rang a bell in my head, as I recall the woman in question. Several years ago, I visited her website, and looked at the pictures from her trip through the ghost town–eye-opening stuff.
Alas, it seems as if all Oren Peli could do with this “inspiration” is make what looks suspiciously like a stock standard frat kid horror movie. Trust me, if I were a filmmaker, and my inspiration were the Kidd of Speed, I’d make something a lot more thought-provoking than a generic horror movie. I’m also surprised by the title of the film. Most people under 25 would have zero idea as to what or where “Chernobyl” is.
Which is rather sad when you think about it.
Which is also exactly why the government and corporations are wringing their hands with glee that people are so distracted by soft issues like same-sex marriage–it keeps them neatly distracted from protesting the real problems of the world. You can live without being married. But bad luck if the food, air and water is unfit for human consumption and you die of malnourishment.
Priorities, people–PRIORITIES.
It’s also why the suits-and-ties love films like “Chernobyl Diaries”. Well, it happened in the Ukraine, so it couldn’t possibly happen in a place like the United States–right? That Soviet technology was so hideously out of date, a product of another era–at least that’s what the pro-nuclear lobby would have you believe.
You know, this film could’ve been set anywhere, but for some reason, they chose Chernobyl. The whole idea of zombies being created by intense radioactive fallout–what is this shit, Oren Peli, the 1950s? Also, check out the idiot who asks “Is it safe?” AFTER they have entered the city. It seems like just another film where a bunch of imbeciles get themselves knocked off one by one–where are the horror films with INTELLIGENT characters these days?
Honestly, this one looks REALLY stupid.
For those of you who want to see a real horror story, check out the Kidd of Speed website:
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/
Erin, you might want to re-post some of these pictures. They are simply amazing, a photojournal of a city frozen in time. And they ought to be enough to make anybody wake up and realise what an atrocity the nuclear industry is.
Mark V – You’ve some great points. While I’m unfamiliar with Kidd of Speed (thank you for sharing that), there was a great HBO documentary called Chernobyl Heart that focused more on the victims of the disaster in 2004, who are still feeling the effects of the radiation out there. It’s pretty devastating. I myself am in NYC, and we have the Indian Point Nuclear Station upstate. We’re well in the radius if it were to meltdown. There are a few people who either recall the incident or at least know the impact if it happened again. Just look at Japan.
As for the movie, I still stand by the notion that it was a great location for a horror film, though executed poorly.