Review by Scott Ruth
Back in the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine (formerly part of the Soviet Union) exploded, creating what has been described as the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever seen. This sort of event would make for the perfect backdrop for a horror movie, in theory anyway.
Oren Peli (of Paranormal Activity fame) and Brad Parker's 2012 film Chernobyl Diaries attempted to do just that, to use the disaster at Chernobyl, as the backdrop for a film that would follow a group of young people as they embark on an extreme sightseeing tour of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and it's surrounding region, 25 years after the disaster.
Six young travelers, four Americans along with a pair of backpackers (from Norway and Australia) meet up with Uri, a former local soldier, who agrees to take them to Pripyat, the abandoned company town which sits in the shadow of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. After being turned away by the military at a checkpoint, Uri informs the group that there is more than one way to Pripyat, so they head down through backwoods trails, ultimately reaching their goal of the town of Pripyat!
Once there, they set out on the tour, taking in the sights which include dilapidated housing structures that once was the home of the workers (and family) of Chernobyl, as well as other abandoned structures such as a planned fair, Ferris wheel, bumper cars and all, that never took place due to the disaster 25 years earlier.
As night falls, the group heads back to Uri's van to begin their trek back into civilization only to find that someone, or something, has vandalized the van's engine, leaving them stranded in the very dangerous area, overnight!
To avoid any spoilers, I'll stop this synopsis right there, so let's just say that from that point on, things begin to get crazy and the insanity continually builds momentum throughout the remainder of the film.
This film has restored my faith in modern genre film making. It was so refreshing to see a filmmaker who has remembered how the old formula for horror films worked. We don't need to see any close up shots of the monster just because it's a monster movie and we sure as hell don't need to see said monster(s) brightly lit, throughout the entire film. Unfortunately, most of today's filmmakers don't seem to understand this. Less is often more when it comes to horror. Many of the films that we all grew up with were considered scary for a reason....they left something to the viewer's imagination! A horror film doesn't need to be loaded with gore. It also does not help to immediately desensitize the viewer by showing, often and/or in full detail, exactly what the thing/creature/monster/protagonist looks like. We also do not need to immediately know what the protagonist wants, or why it's doing whatever it is that it happens to be doing. Tobe Hooper's original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was brilliant because we often did not see what Leatherface and the Sawyer clan were doing to Sally, Pam and the other "victims". It was left to the imagination of the viewer, and as well all know, the human mind can conjure up far worse images than a filmmaker could ever put on screen. Our imagination adds greatly to the terror/horror of any film or story! In the case of Chernobyl Diaries, we don't get to see exactly what the monsters look like, nor do we know why they are doing their "evil deeds" until the film's end. This choice is a brilliant one, and it added to the mystery and the "unknown" of the events on screen. That, coupled with the constant and continual building of suspense, which begins early on in the film and does not let up until the climax, makes Chernobyl Diaries one of the best true horror films of the modern generation!
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