Chernobyl Diaries

I saw Chernobyl Diaries this afternoon. The trailer had much more promise than the film fulfilled. The most interesting things about the movie were the setting and the cinematography, but everything else was pretty bland.

The story was very weak and full of holes, and while I jumped with shock at many things that happened, I wasn’t filled with that pervasive chill that follows you out of the theater that some horror films produce. I thought the acting was so-so: not quite “oh my gosh, someone please take them off set,” but also nowhere near “wow, they really nailed it.” 

I thought the overall plot was flimsy, especially since the characters were all extremely under-developed. I understand of course that a horror film’s main objective is not to thoroughly develop a set of hyper-sensitive and deep characters, but let’s face it: you have to know the people a little bit to really care when they are drug down a stairwell and beaten to death. The only way I was really led to care about these characters when they died was through their relationships to other equally flat characters, i.e. someone was someone else’s brother or fiance or best friend. I also felt that the ending was underwhelming and not at all satisfying, though Boyfriend disagreed with me a little on that, so…to each his own. 

The one thing this film did slightly better than most other horror flicks is allow the characters to be at least nearly smart enough to save themselves. I didn’t find myself shaking my head in disgust and whispering things like, “Now why in the world would you go through that creepy door” and “He told you to stay in the car…why are you getting out of the car??” near as much as with some other scary movies (though of course it still happened some). More often than in other movies, when something scary appeared, these guys at least ran. 

So all in all, not a great movie. I didn’t hate the hour and a half I sat there in the theater, but it wasn’t riveting either.