Review of Chernobyl Diaries (2012) by Filipeneto — 24 Apr 2018

This film revolves around the forbidden excursion of a group of students to an abandoned city near the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Everything goes well and the film manages to introduce the subject very well. Suddenly, things go wrong and the group becomes isolated and uncontactable in the middle of the city, while nightfall quickly and mysterious things seem to walk in the dark.

It's a great idea for a horror movie, no doubt. Original, relatively little explored, the subject touches a situation well known to people. The big problem is that the script did not know how to properly exploit this, it develops well until the terror should begin to feel more intensely, and its at that moment that the script loses itself. After that, it develops in a hurried and predictable way, without scares or fear, in a relatively warm way. The end is disastrous. To make matters worse, the characters almost did not deserve psychological development, they are just meat for the kill. There are absolutely unlikely moments, and the creatures chasing the characters are absolutely rudimentary, undeveloped, and boring. The sound effects are quite elementary. The scenarios are the best of this film: they really can transport us to the original places and give the idea of ​​the drama that was the evacuation of the region around Chernobyl. The radiation issue is addressed, but its very undervalued and has little interest for the plot, which is bad. It could have been used in a smarter way, like all the rest of this film. This was a good idea, but the final product is very dumb.