I went into ‘Chernobyl Diaries’ knowing nothing about the film, I hadn’t even seen a trailer, I’d only seen the poster when the film was first released in cinemas and knew that it was a horror film. As such I went into the film with no expectations or preconceptions of what I’d be in for.
The film starts off well, taking it’s time to establish its
cast of characters instead of just jumping into the action. The film also starts with a great fake-out as
it starts with scenes of hand held camera footage, leading me to believe that
the film was going to be yet another ‘found footage’ film, before shifting to a
traditionally shot film. It was actually
very refreshing to watch a film that was not ‘found footage’ as many of the new
horror films have begun taking up the format.
The film focuses on a group of six tourists and their tour
guide who go on an extreme tour of Prypiat, an abandoned town that sits beside
the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The city of Prypiat
is amazingly beautiful and eerie all at the same time. The massive, abandoned buildings, the over
grown streets and long forgotten everyday artefacts creates a real sense of a
very real world horror. It would be very
easy to visit the location and become both awed and frightened by what you
see. These locations give the film a sense
of scope and beauty that set it apart from a lot of other horror films that
tend to focus on tight, confining spaces.
The plot begins to build well, giving you time to get to
know the characters and explore the location of Prypiat as they do before the
tension begins to ramp up. Unfortunately
thought once the tension builds to a certain point it stops growing. From the first scares to the last there is little
to no escalation in tension, no growth to the threat. The threat itself begins well enough, with
the first encounter leaving it very vague as to what it is, however, once you
become aware of what the threat is you can quickly loose interest.
The film does have one of the best animal scares
though. Where many films will have a cat
or a dog suddenly jumping out at a tense moment Chernobyl Diaries takes this formula
and puts its own spin on it, and creates the most memorable moment in the film.
Chernobyl Diaries is a fairly standard by-the-numbers horror
film that adds nothing new to the genre or tries anything particularly
innovative. That being said it does have
a few stand out moments and the locations are wonderful to look at and create a
visual style that not many other films share.
A fairly competent horror film that is definitely worth a
watch, even though it may not appeal to everyone’s tastes.
Amy.
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