Crazy To See: CHERNOBYL DIARIES

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Synopsis: Chernobyl Diaries is an original story from Oren Peli, who first terrified audiences with his groundbreaking thriller, “Paranormal Activity.” The film follows a group of six young vacationers who, looking to go off the beaten path, hire an “extreme tour” guide. Ignoring warnings, he takes them into the city of Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, but a deserted town since the disaster more than 25 years ago. After a brief exploration of the abandoned city, however, the group soon finds themselves stranded, only to discover that they are not alone. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

CRITICS SAY: CRAZY TO SEE

  1. Chernobyl Diaries is afflicted with a fatal flaw that damages many horror films: after a better-than-average setup and a promising first half, everything falls apart.
  2. Despite an unlikely setting and a moderately intriguing premise, Chernobyl Diaries proves to be a generic horror flick where young tourists are systematically victimized in unoriginal and not terribly scary ways.
  3. It’s mostly boilerplate horror, plucking visual ideas from better sources and relying on the sick novelty of referencing an actual catastrophe.
  4. There’s a nagging question at the heart of Chernobyl Diaries. It isn’t what, or who, is stalking these kids. After awhile, the answer becomes apparent, leading to a denouement that, while mildly exciting, feels like a ride you’ve been on before.
  5. The novelty of the setting ultimately proves highly effective. Shot mainly in Eastern European locations that effectively stand in for Prypiat, which is now actually a tourist site, the film is highly convincing in its verisimilitude.
  6. Scattered stretches of suspense and a few undeniably potent shocks are not enough to dissipate the sense of deja vu that prevails throughout Chernobyl Diaries, a wearyingly predictable thriller about “extreme tourists.”
  7. In Chernobyl Diaries, directed by Bradley Parker, stupidity is taken to extremes.
  8. You might actively root for their collective demise, if you could rouse yourself to care one way or the other. Go gallivanting in Chernobyl and you get what you pay for, nimrods.
  9. With the faux-verité aesthetics of [Rec], the American-tourists-in-Eastern-European-hell setup of Hostel, and the brain of a mushy radioactive mutant zombie thingie, Chernobyl Diaries is little more than decomposed horror leftovers.
  10. If this horror movie cashes in on the audience that echoes its character’s awareness (“That’s where the nucular thing happened, right?”) then we’re about to learn how low our national academic standards are.
  11. Andy Webster
    The “Paranormal Activity” movies don’t teem with metaphor, and neither does this film, directed by Brad Parker. The original “Night of the Living Dead” left you with plenty to chew on, so to speak; Chernobyl Diaries just leaves you feeling empty.
  12. Mark Olsen
    The lack of suspense and surprise in this dispiritingly rote film becomes its own form of contamination.
  13. Alison Willmore
    The problem with Chernobyl Diaries isn’t that it’s offensive, it’s that it’s dumb.
  14. Clark Collis
    If nowhere near as scary as the original Paranormal, the result is superior to many of the low-budget terror flicks that have arrived since (yes, The Devil Inside, we’re talking about you) and benefits hugely from Dimitri Diatchenko’s performance as moviedom’s Worst. Tour. Guide. Ever.


Source : MetaCritic