Six twenty-somethings take an extreme tour to the Chenobyl nuclear reactor. A day of sight seeing and romantic picture taking turns into a night of despair as the group realizes they are not alone. Written by Oren Peli, creator of the Paranormal Activity franchise and directed by first timer Bradley Parker, the film takes us to a barren, creepy landscape that we have never seen before. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t do the same. We go to a foreign location, our car breaks down, there are things trying to kill us. The great thing about this simple story line however is the fact that it gets us right into the action.
Oren Peli gives a nod to the found footage genre, having his characters document their trip with a handheld video camera. This device worked well because it established the characters and got us into the story quickly. The acting is good overall, there are some hot babes but I’m not sure the script offered much in character development. Dmitri Diatchenko gives the most rounded performance as an ex special forces dude who is now a tour guide badass. You can tell he really feels bad for the people that died at Chernobyl and in turn you really feel for him.
Director Bradley Parker is best known for his visual effects work on movies like Fight Club, Red Planet, and Let Me In. He chose a minimalist approach to the gore and mayhem, letting us imagine for ourselves what lurks in the toxic darkness.
Chernobyl Diaries is Rated R for violence, some bloody images and pervasive language and has a run time of 88 minutes. It gets a 3 out of 5 on the gore score. It’s not a great film but it’s definitely worth seeing. The gore we do see is good, it’s got hot babes, had scary moments and overall kept me entertained.
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