Upon its release Chernobyl Diaries was not screened in advance for critics. This practise normally indicates that the distributors know that their film is a stinker. However regardless of this and the associated controversy the film courted it returned over thirty seven million at the box office alone from a meagre budget of one million dollars. But then it doesn’t hurt to advertise your product as being from the creator of the phenomena that was the original Paranormal Activity. That’s bound to bring in some paying punters.
The associated controversy was valid – should such a shocking tragedy as Chernobyl be the basis for a horror film. Chernobyl Diaries has been deemed a shameless, sensationalistic and insensitive insult to the hundreds of thousands of people that are still suffering the effects, lost loved ones or live close to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and society.
For those readers unfamiliar with the tragedy a nuclear reactor exploded in Ukraine showering the surrounding area on fallout leading to the forced-relocation of more than 350,000 people and a death toll that is disputed and varies widely between nine thousand and one million. Writer/producer Oren Peli refuted the claims against his picture and argued that the film was made with the utmost respect for the victims. This is a hard pill to swallow when the victims depicted in the film are flesh-eating zombie mutants.
American youngsters Chris (Jesse McCartney), his girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley), and their friend Amanda (Devin Kelley), are having a fabulous time travelling across Europe. We know this because the film opens with a montage of the three of them gurning near famous European locations and having fun. Chris is building up to proposing to Natalie when they visit Russia but first they stop off in Kiev to visit Chris’ bossy, over-bearing brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski). Paul is what’s known in English colloquialism as a ‘tit’ and it’s because of him that very bad things end up happening to them all. He is also very tiring to watch and nearly contaminates proceedings before they have really got anywhere.
Paul convinces them that some ‘extreme tourism’ is just what they all need so before Chris can propose to Natalie they venture off to Chernobyl, along with agreeable backpacking couple – Norwegian Zoe (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and Australian Michael (Nathan Phillips) – courtesy of tour guide Yuri (Dimitri Diatchenko). Yuri has sneaked the six of them in so no one really knows any of them are there. One discovery of a large, mutated fish later and a few hours spent looking around the ruins of Ukrainain town Prypiat, evacuated back in 1986 and home of the long-abandoned Chernobyl nuclear reactor and those that worked there, they find that they are unable to leave as the wires in the van have been chewed through and there is no response to radio calls for assistance. As night closes in events take a terrible turn for the worst both for the characters and for the viewer.
Based on The Diary of Lawson Oxford by Peli you start off expecting Chernobyl Diaries to follow the same ‘found footage’ format as per his Paranormal Activity– it doesn’t. After an initial flirtation with the format at the beginning when the characters are filming themselves on their travels it reverts back to standard filming practices. In reference to the source material and the film’s title you’ll be hard pushed to find any nod to a diary so what’s that all about?
Visual effects supervisor Bradley Parker (Let Me In, Fight Club) makes his directorial debut with Chernobyl Diaries and to his credit he does a decent job whilst the material allows him to. He builds up the suspense nicely also capturing the still eeriness of the setting. However the chilling atmosphere soon dissipates when the script panders to the norm with the characters falling into the usual tedious trap of doing increasingly stupid things as events around them becoming increasingly more unrealistic and farcical.
Chernobyl Diaries is yet another xenophobic take on the world outside of the United States in much the same way that Eli Roth’s Hostel was – venture outside your home turf and something horrible will happen to you. However where Hostel was more comedic and over-the-top (well, to me it was) Chernobyl Diaries has its grounding in an appalling event leaving a far more repugnant bad taste in the mouth. As the characters become increasingly more irritable – the elder brother is the exception in that he manages to be annoying right from the start – even an agreeable performance from regular genre visitor Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek, Dying Breed) and a decent initial build-up of suspense cannot disguise this exercise in mediocre story-telling from being a huge insult to those who suffered or died in such a tragic event.