Thanks to the Paranormal Activity franchise and Insidious, with Oren Peli’s name, comes high expectations. Bumps in the night, innovative concepts, fun scares and perhaps more importantly than anything, situations that feel real are all elements that are now expected from a Peli film and while each and every one is present and accounted for in Chernobyl Diaries, they’re all achieved on a subpar level.
While on an overseas trip, Chris (Jesse McCartney), his girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Dudley) and their friend Amanda (Devin Kelley) make a pit stop in Russia to visit Chris’ brother, Paul (Jonathan Sadowski). They enjoy a night out on the town and the next day, their itinerary has them hitting Moscow. However, Paul makes a new friend, Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko), and convinces the group to take Uri’s extreme tourism trip to Pripyat, the city which once housed the Chernobyl nuclear reactor employees and their families. At first they’re all thrilled, as the abandoned city is certainly a site to behold, but when they’re ready to leave and their van won’t start, they come to realize they’re not alone.
Inklings of Chernobyl Diaries‘ simple and clever premise are present throughout the film, but are rarely expanded upon. Rather than have each scene lead to a new discovery or propel the narrative forward, the characters merely run in circles. We get a lot of dog chase sequences and quite a few instances where they wrestle with whether or not to go back for a missing group member, and all the while you never get the sense that the group is making any progress. They may get a gun and find a friend, but ultimately, that trapped and helpless sensation never dissipates in the least, bathing the feature in too much dread.
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