A MOVIE A DAY CHALLENGE #004: Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
Director: Bradley Parker
Stars: Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski and Olivia Dudley

“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.”
From IMDB

So I sat in the theater, with not a whole lot of expectations. After seeing the trailer numerous times I thought I was just in for another “found footage” re-hash of Paranormal Activity.” After all the screen play was written by Oren Peli the same man behind the Paranormal Activity films.

Even with expectations low, I was still disappointed.

First thing I was surprised about despite the look of the trailer this is not a found footage film, although director Bradley Parker went out of his way to make you think otherwise.
Poorly lit scenes, unnecessarily shaky footage, and point of view shots all give you the feeling of a found footage film. I really don’t know why they did this except maybe to trick some of the more stupid populace into believing that this is somehow connected to the P.A. films.

So what’s it about? Just like the small synopsis cribbed from IMDB says six tourists visiting Russia decided to go off the beaten path by hiring an “extreme” tour guide to take them to an abandoned city that was evacuated years ago because it laid so close to the Chernobyl power plant that melted down killing thousands of people.

So what lives inside this dead city? ..:: Spoiler Alert ::.. Believe it or not, radioactive mutants. Doesn’t seem so scary does it? Well it’s not.

Very little time is given for character development and with the cast not truly fleshed out, it’s not so terrifying when one gets caught by a mutant. Some scenes are decent enough with that “make you jump” surprise quality, but are few and far between and for the most part you see where things are headed long before they take place.

I saw this in a nearly empty theater, on the second day of its release. I guess word might have gotten out that it really sucked, so I can’t really comment on the atmosphere of the live audience like I usually do when I see a movie.

All I have to go on is my opinion that this sucks, and what my 13 year old son said “dad, it’s a stinker.”