MOVIE REVIEW - Chernobyl Diaries

The maker of the very successful Paranormal Activity movie series is back and this time it's The Chernobyl Diaries.

The bulk of the audience going to see this horror flick were not even born when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded and caught fire in 1986. Although this movie tries to explain the whole thing quickly with dialogue, they don't really catch the horrific event that it was. And the former Soviet Union's complete and utter botching of everything. From the plants terrible design, to the efforts to keep this quiet and of course the failure to tell it's own citizens that part of the world had just been destroyed - forever.

This factious story, is about a group of young people who are traveling the world, seemingly after college. They decide to try some "extreme vacationing" and find this seedy Russian travel agent. The agent, former Russian military, claims he can take them to the city of Pripyat, 2 miles from the destroyed Chernobyl reactor. Both of course are totally abandon. They are in. Once they go there, they learn that all is not abandon, and something starts to hunt them down, one by one. What are these things, and can they escape?


First of all, this is a great idea for a scary movie. The idea of visiting a place that was once a bustling city of 50,000, find it completely vacant, and next to this forgotten place, is pretty scary stuff. I have to admit, that they do capture the desolation of this Godforsaken place very well. Much of this was filmed in Hungary, and Serbia, but there were backgrounds taken on location, and that works well here. The scariest moments in this movie though, have noting to do with the "things" that are hunting them down. But the extreme barren country and being trapped in it - are.

It becomes clear that these things are human in some form. Zombie like. One can only assume that these are horribly radiated, affected people who either didn't make it out of Pripyat in 1986, or have been sent back there for some ridiculous reason to rot, fend for themselves and die. I would have rather seen them come up with some other reason why these kids couldn't leave the city, and go in that direction. Something more creative. The scary part was being trapped, not being hunted by "zombies." But zombies are easier I guess.

But this movie does a number of things well. It is suspenseful, and it does make you feel totally isolated, and that is its strength. It's relatively short, and the hand held camera technique is not overly herky-jerky and doesn't fatigue you like movies past. It zips along too and doesn't wear out its welcome. Plus the bulk of its story line is completely original. Although in the same form as Paranormal Activity, some may feel short changed by a lack of real payoff. They try to explain away some things, and the ending is quick an sudden, yet again.

Chernobyl Diaries. Very original story, and pretty darn good for this kind of movie.