Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

Six tourists hire an extreme tour guide who takes them to the abandoned city Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. During their exploration, they soon discover they are not alone.

Director:

Bradley Parker (as Brad Parker)

Writers:

Oren Peli (screenplay), Carey Van Dyke (screenplay)

Stars:

Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Olivia Taylor Dudley

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal	...	Zoe
Dimitri Diatchenko	...	Uri
Olivia Taylor Dudley	...	Natalie
Devin Kelley	...	Amanda
Jesse McCartney	...	Chris
Nathan Phillips	...	Michael
Jonathan Sadowski	...	Paul
Milos Timotijevic	...	Russian Check Point Guard
Milutin Milosevic	...	Ukrainian Thug
Ivan Djordjevic	...	Ukrainian Thug
Ivan Jovic	...	Ukrainian Thug
Zinaida Dedakin	...	Restaurant Owner
Ivana Milutinovic	...	Little Girl
Alex Feldman	...	Medic Goldshimdt
Kristof Konrad	...	Medic Grotzky

Storyline

Americans Chris, his girlfriend Natalie and their friend Amanda travel to Europe on vacation. They meet up with Chris' brother Paul living in Kiev, Ukraine. Chris wants to travel to Moscow to propose to Natalie, but Paul convinces the group to first visit Chernobyl with an extreme tourism guide. They meet the guide Uri and another couple who are also going on the tour. Uri explains that because of the radiation levels he can only take them to Pripyat, a deserted city very near Chernobyl. They travel by van, but are stopped by a military checkpoint that makes them turn back. Not giving up, Uri finds an alternative route to the town. The group spends the day taking photographs and exploring abandoned buildings. Uri becomes nervous and decides it's time to head home. However, the van won't start and they discover the engine was sabotaged. Soon they discover that they are stranded, no one knows they are there and that they are definitely not alone.

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Plot Keywords:

abandoned city | abandoned building | chernobyl disaster | chernobyl ukraine | nuclear power plant | 

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Taglines:

Experience the fallout

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, some bloody images and pervasive language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Ukrainian Russian

Release Date:

25 May 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Terror en Chernobyl

Filming Locations:

WWII Army Bunker, Belgrade, Serbia

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,955,307, 27 May 2012, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$18,119,640

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$38,390,020

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alcon Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment, Oren Peli / Brian Witten Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Writer/Producer Oren Peli - who also created Paranormal Activity - strongly defends this movie against claims it was insensitive to a devastating disaster, saying "I found it very sad and fascinating and eerie and creepy... I thought it would be a great setting for a scary horror film. It was never our intention to offend anyone."

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Goofs

The power plant is shown as being located very close to the town of Pripyat and visible in plain sight. In reality there's a distance of roughly 4 kilometers (2,5 miles) to the reactor from the closest buildings that visitors are allowed in. Also, almost everything but the uppermost parts of the buildings and the chimney of the plant is obscured by the vast forest southeast of Pripyat even when viewed from the tallest building in town.

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Quotes

Chris: I swear to God, Paul, it's a fucking hazard having you as a brother.

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Screenings: The Worst Films of 2012 (2013)

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Soundtracks

Black Russian
Composed & Performed by Chris Haigh
Published by JW Media Music
Courtesy of 5 Alarm Music

User Reviews

Begins with a promising setup and eerie setting, but quickly falls victim to shoddy camera work and predictable horror tropes.

Chernobyl Diaries a hollow shell of a movie: It has a good premise and the perfect backdrop for a horror flick, but with absolutely no substance. That's the best way I can describe it. The vacant radiation-laden Chernobyl is a wonderfully creepy place for a horror movie to take place. It sets up with a group of friends touring Europe and one of them has the bright idea to go on an "extreme tour" so they make a quick pit stop at Chernobyl. They see an abandoned ferris wheel, they explore the empty buildings, they see the remains of dead animals - it sets up an effectively creepy atmosphere. One of the girls takes a picture and something odd can be seen in a window. Weird, right? Well apparently not weird enough for her to say anything. After they snap a few pictures with the beautifully bleak backdrop of dead trees and industrial smoke stacks, they go back to the tour van. Then the entire bottom of the movie drops.

From there it's cliché city. Cars not starting, people going places they shouldn't, people splitting up when they shouldn't be - everything gets so dumb so quickly it's unreal. You stop caring about the characters after a while because they're making stupid decisions so there's no one to root for. The only character with any personality was the tour guide and he is hardly used, so we're left with six unlikable people struggling to find their way out of the city while getting picked off one by one. It simply isn't interesting. There are no scares and there is little to no suspense. It's just "shhh I hear something..." and then "oh no, something's around the corner" and then they get attacked and it's like 'well yeah, of course that's going to happen'. It's too predictable for it to be scary, and it's too disjointed to make it unsettling. It's just watching and waiting for these characters to die so the movie can end.

The disjointedness mainly comes from the directing. The first shot leads you to believe it's a found-footage movie, but it isn't. It is just shot that way - shaky cam, quick movements, no clear view of anything really. It just makes no sense because we know someone's holding the camera and it acts as a person, but the group of people are oblivious to it so it's like an invisible, mute character that allows us to see through its point-of-view. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to film it that way because it gets noticeably worse as the movie goes on: The more stressed the characters are, the worst the camera work gets. It's incredibly annoying.

Which leads me to believe the only thing the writers had for Chernobyl Diaries was its premise - a group of kids stranded in Chernobyl. Then they were like "well, now that they're stranded in this creepy, radioactive, vacant city... let's just have them run around and get killed off one by one until the end." It's just lazy writing. The entire third act feels rushed, not to mention the horribly anti-climactic ending. Chernobyl Diaries is a flop; uninspired, boring, and worst of all, completely unscary.