Review of Chernobyl Diaries (2012) by Guillermobm — 28 Jun 2015

Chernobyl Diaries boasts an eerie setting, but its screenplay is awful and the characters are forgettable. 40/100 [C-].

Directed by Bradley Parker and written by Oren Peli. Chernobyl Diaries is a horror film released in 2012. It was filmed in Hungary and some other close locations. Its whole location is scary and the plot is quite interesting. Its first act delivers some false jump-scares; so, if you're a person who gets scared easily, I recommend it. Even though it has 86 minutes of running time, it was pretty boring, mainly because the suspense was awfully handled. Also, the script and all the situations were very cliche. The worst thing about it is that it had lots of potential, this is such a waste of premise.

There was a huge lack of screenplay, the direction and the writing were so lazy. The camera work is cheap and crappy. It's good to see a film talking about this catastrophe, it was a good idea, but "Chernobyl Diaries" fails to give us interesting characters and genuine scares. It definitely has its moments, but the plot was very confusing, especially in its last act. Sometimes the movie is way too dark. It's almost unwatchable. It seems that they recorded this film with a potato. Well, at least the performances were decent and a few scares were effective, but it's just another mediocre Blumhouse production.

I recommend it only for very curious horror fans and people who get scared easily. The first time I saw it, I really liked it, but after the second viewing I realize how bad written it was. In conclusion, Chernobyl Diaries boasts a frightening setting that is wasted by an awful script, lazy direction and horrible camera work. Anyway I recommend it if you're a curious horror fan and you have low expectations. I don't recommend it if you're not a huge fan of the genre and you expect lots of scares, originality and surprises. Spooky location, bad script and poor execution, that's it.