I was really interested in seeing The Chernobyl Diaries when it first came out. I've always been interested in the Chernobyl disaster and especially Prypiat, the now ghost town that housed many of Chernobyl's workers and families. When the accident occurred approximately forty-nine thousand people were evacuated in two days. The exact death toll, is disputed, but from what I've read it's in the hundreds of thousands (counting after effects).
The film follows a group of Americans who take an "Extreme Tour" of Prypiat given by a fellow named Uri, who owns his own little rinki-dink tour racket. When they arrive at the guarded gates, Uri tries to persuade the guards to let them in, but it denied. Uri, however, being the crafty one that he is, knows another way in. So off the group goes to tour Prypiat in all it's decay. After nearly getting mauled by a radioactive bear, they decide it's time to head back to the van and get the hell out.
This is where things go wrong. Apparently, someone has disabled the van. OH NO! What's going to happen? Standard creature fare ensues. What's stalking them? Beats me. Mutated people or something. It's never explained.
The point is, I REALLY wanted to like this one. I actually thought that the film was shot in part there, but apparently it was actually shot in parts of Serbia and Hungary and then CGI was used as set extensions and to add the appropriate buildings and reactors! They had me fooled! Aside from the suitably creepy cinematography, sadly I found this to be quite lacking. Not horrible....just....lacking.
Final Score:
Two out of Five Pizza Rolls
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