Movie Review: CHERNOBYL DIARIES

So this is your basic adventurous group of tourist who want to explore off limited areas seeking a thrill. And naturally, we all know the outcome.... Disaster. Well if you guessed that much then you've seen this movie already. Save your money and wait for it to become a part of HBO or Showtimes list of re-run movies.

The film starts out with a group of tourist, 2 guys and 2 girls, who originally wanted to go to Moscow but ventured off to Pripyat, a city next to Chernobyl where the former workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor use to live, to do some extreme touring. After protest the entire group agreed that Pripyat would be a better location to do sight-seeing than the original destination. They meet up with an extreme tour guide, named Uri, who offered to take them to Pripyat. They are accompanied by two other tourist who claim to be celebrating their honeymoon. Upon arriving to the checkpoint guarded by government army officials (yes this "abandoned" city has a checkpoint) they are denied entry. The tour guide claimed that there was more than one way into Pripyat and enters through an unguarded entrance. They tour the creepy, deserted apartments, playground and schools and after almost being attacked my a giant brown bear (yes that's right I said a BEAR) they decided to leave. Apparently something doesn't want them to leave (maybe the bear) because when they returned to the van the spark plug wires were pulled out. (Kinda get where this is all going?)

Overall I was not impressed. The camera work was mediocre but I'm assuming that's the look the director was going for. The movie dragged in the beginning and half way through I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I also found it very insensitive to the families who experienced and are still suffering from the aftermath that took place at Chernobyl. Although 25 years may seem like a long time, the events that took place are still fresh in their minds. It's sad that this director chose to use mutant humans who were infected by the high radiation levels to be the "monsters" in his film. Even though the "mutants" are rarely shown (it's more of shadowy / half blurred figures) they are still the "bad guys" of the film. For anyone who is familiar with the events that took place on April 26, 1986 I advise that you DO NOT SEE THIS FILM as it will upset you that someone could make light of one of the worse nuclear power plant accidents in history.  

Being that this is the same director who did Paranormal Activity, I'm a little disappointed. The sketchy, hand-held camera worked great in Paranormal Activity but not so much in this movie. It became annoying and not once did I get the "Holy crap this is a true story" or the documentary effect. The "scares," and I use the term lightly were very few leaving me wondering if this movie was miscatergorized as a horror film when it should've been a suspense / thriller. The blood and gore was very realistic (the highlight of the movie) but the acting was very "blahhh" especially toward the end.

If you didn't see the trailer for CHERNOBYL DIARIES check it out below. Once you see this there's no need to go see the movie (trust me, these are the highlights of the film).

Please don't waste your money like I did.
I mean, it's a problem when the movie goers start clapping just because the movie is over.


-My world is SQUARE, what about yours?