Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
Starring Jonathan Sadowski, Jesse McCartney, Devin Kelley, Olivia Dudley, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Nathan Philips, and Dimitri Diatchenko
Directed by Bradley Parker
Had I known that Chernobyl Diaries was co-written by Oren Peli, the writer of all the Paranormal Activity movies, I would've prepared myself for an hour of nothing followed by about twenty-five minutes of jump scares, but I didn't realize that going in. So instead, as this horror film unfolded about six twentysomethings going on an extreme tourist trip to Pripyat, the city that was home to the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in the 80s, I kept waiting for something to happen. Anything. As the sextet along with their Russian guide Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko) explore the city in daylight, I was hoping for at least an ominous feeling to present itself...but director Bradley Parker never achieves a sense of anxiety.
There's not even any tension after the group's van is sabotaged thanks to some wire-cutting. Stuck in the town, night falls, Uri somehow disappears, and American Chris (Jesse McCartney) comes back to the van with his leg slashed up. Chris's older brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) starts to feel guilty for convincing his brother, his brother's fiancée Natalie (Olivia Dudley), and Natalie's friend Amanda (Devin Kelley) to come on this kooky extreme trip and vows to get them safely back. Needless to say, it should come as no surprise that doesn't happen. As the group fights off wild animals and perhaps even malformed and crazed residents of Chernobyl, they must also fight the ever-increasing nuclear radiation that their Geiger counter is picking up.
Like all of Peli's movies, the biggest problem is that nothing happens in this movie for a good fifty minutes. When the action finally begins to pick up, director Bradley Parker doesn't have adequate lensing skills to allow the audience to actually be able to see what is going on. Multiple times I found myself rewinding because pivotal scenes were either too dark or too shoddily staged to get an impression of what was going on in them. For the most part, the acting is fine (and Devin Kelley in her first feature film was nice on the eyes), but that's not nearly enough to recommend this. I don't know why I keep giving Oren Peli more chances because he has proven that he does not have what it takes to craft a solid horror film.
The RyMickey Rating: D+
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