Review No.129: Chernobyl Diaries

If there's one genre that is constantly disappointing in the films of 2012 thus far then it has to be that of horror as, with the possible exception of The Woman in Black, they've all been substandard Hollywood fare with the same old situations repeated ad infinitum. I personally blame Paranormal Activity for the quiet-quiet-quiet-loud-quiet-quiet pattern so I wasn't holding out much hope for  Chernobyl Diaries which is co-written and produced by PA director Oren Peli. Chernobyl Diaries wouldn't be an all-American horror film if it didn't feature some beautiful young people in this case handsome brothers Paul and Chris, the latter played by former teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney, along with Chris' girlfriend Natalie and her friend Amanda. As the opening montage of tourist pictures show us the quartet have been touring the generic landmarks of Europe and are currently in the Ukraine ahead of travelling to Moscow where Chris plans to propose to Natalie. In his infinite wisdom Paul proposes a bit of extreme tourism and for some reason the gang stupidly agrees to follow him to Chernobyl the infamous site of the nuclear bomb explosion. The gang's guide is Uri a typically gruff Soviet with no neck who welcomes the foursome along with a couple of clichéd backpackers in the form of Australian Michael and his new Norwegian girlfriend Zoe. With the seven of them now on the road Uri takes them around the deserted tower blocks of Chernobyl as director Bradley Parker at least builds up the spookiness with the random appearance of a wolf however he soon stops his film from being anything more than a generic horror when Uri's van won't start meaning that the gang are momentarily stranded in the middle of a desolate town. From there it's horror city as the more expendable members of the group are picked off and these pretty youngsters make more stupid decisions as the film goes on before the final obvious revekation is heavy-handedly delivered to the last person standing.

Chernobyl Diaries isn't a complete stinker however I've already seen one film in which pretty Americans get picked killed off in  Soviet country that being alien invasion film The Darkest Hour which was fairly boring. To be fair to Chernobyl Diaries there are some moments that took my by surprise early on but they were then spoilt by horror clichés that have been used hundreds of times before. It's a shame as the central concept is an interesting one and the Chernobyl disaster is touched on by Uri obviously to explain it to the film's target audience who are probably too young to remember when it actually happened however I think the fact that radiation looms large in the air isn't really dealt with until the final few scenes in order to explain who is following the gang. I really don't think that Parker goes out of his way to explain why exactly these kids  are being killed other than that they've decided to come to Chernobyl in the first place however if they'd gone to Moscow as originally intended then they would've surely been finished off by the aliens. Peli's script really doesn't call for much character development as right from the start we realise that everybody here is expendable and surely one of the first rules of a horror film is that you don't reveal that you are about to propose to your girlfriend. While the acting isn't terrible nobody really makes a concerted effort to breath any life into their characters while the backpacking couple as well as Uri are just seen as supporting players who are destined to be finished off. If I'm honest I just found Chernobyl Diaries fairly dull, in some parts even more boring than The Darkest Hour, as scene after scene of people looking terrified while walking down dimly lit corridors did nothing for me. So overall I'd have to say that Chernobyl Diaries has unfortunately not raised my expectations for the horror genre in 2012 and I'm still looking for a film to come and truly give me the shivers.

Verdict: Uninteresting characters coupled with clichéd horror dialogue means that Chernobyl Diaries is yet another entry into the dull year of horror that is 2012 so I feel I'm being generous giving it 3.5/10