Chernobyl Diaries

Actually, Chris (Jesse McCartney) only wanted to visit his brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) in his new adopted country, the Ukraine, together with his girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and her best friend Amanda (Devin Kelley), and immediately use the trip for a relaxing trip through Europe, at the climax of which he planned to propose to Natalie. But this plan is ruined by a suggestion from Paul: instead of visiting the boring tourist spots, they should rather join the small group of the extreme tour guide Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko) and visit the city of Pripyat, the place where the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor used to live and which has resembled a ghost town since the accident over 25 years ago. Despite strong reservations, Chris is persuaded to take the adventurous trip and together with the couple Zoe (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and Michael (Nathan Phillips) the group sets off in the direction of Chernobyl. But after the initial thrill of touring the abandoned Pripyat, sheer horror very soon sets in as the tour group's minibus refuses to start and night settles over the city, which now no longer seems as deserted as first thought...

Screenwriter and producer Oren Peli has already given cinema audiences the scare with Paranormal Activity in a rather unusual and almost unspectacular way. In the directorial debut Chernobyl Diaries Peli also uses simple means to provide high tension and effective goosebumps. However, it takes a good 20 minutes for the story to really get going. The introduction of the characters uses a rather clichéd dramaturgy, which has some clear weak points, especially in regards to the dialogues. But as soon as the tour group enters Uri's bus, a pleasantly threatening atmosphere spreads, which is loosened up with a rather amusing moment shortly after the entry into the cordoned off area, before the tension screw is then strongly tightened.

Screenplay and staging can score especially with the fact that not too much is revealed and even less is shown. Shadows, screams, footsteps, all create more horror amidst the gloomy ghost town than would have been achieved with hefty splatter moments. True, the film also suffers from the genre-standard sometimes very stupid behavior of the protagonists. But even if the hysterical screaming and the not always comprehensible discussions here and there for slightly unnerved eye-rolling with the viewer provide, this changes the high level of tension only little.

Because even if the film the resolution of the story actually only hints and the logic here and there also says goodbye, it is just the fact that the viewer feels the threat, but hardly gets to see, which gives the film its very special tension potential. If you like it extremely bloody, if you like your horror served directly and solid, Chernobyl Diaries probably won't convince you. But if you like it a bit more subtle, if you prefer atmosphere over bloodshed and if you can overlook some of the genre-typical clichés, you will definitely get a good scare in the not so deserted Pripyat. Therefore applies: with slight deductions for genre fans well worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp