Chernobyl Diaries

Horror movie 101- when walking down a dark corridor thinking the distant noise is your lost friend, you’re allowed to call out their name once maybe twice. If they don’t answer, you stop calling! You don’t get louder! The people in Chernobyl Diaries kept following noises and shouting even after they knew something was trying to kill them. Seriously?

For a second, I thought this was gonna be one of those horror movies where “John” leaves the house to check out the strange noise. When he doesn’t return, “Bob” leaves to checks on him. When he doesn’t return, “Mary” leaves to check on them both. It wasn’t. Thank goodness.

Anyway, Chernobyl Diaries was entertaining. I couldn’t pass on this one. The previews didn’t show the monsters- just people screaming and running. I figured it was more atmospheric then blood and gore. My kind of movie. It wasn’t the best horror movies I’d ever seen. It wasn’t remotely scary. I had moments when I jumped but it was nothing like Paranormal Activity.

It had the feel of a “found footage” movie without actually being one. The idea is interesting. The setting was awesome. But, a horror movie where people are simply running and screaming from some creature just doesn’t do it for me. They really didn’t do anything but run, scream and cry. I’ll give them points for picking up weapons before they went into the super creepy and dark room but they barely used them. I loved The Descent because those women kicked some serious butt. They weren’t a bunch of screaming ninnies (women usually are in horror movies). They went down fighting. It was awesome.

This one didn’t have the typical horror movie women either. The female wasn’t frozen and crying I can’t go on while dozen of things were chasing them- it was the male. She kept the man moving, kept him focused. The women didn’t turn into warriors but they weren’t complete wimps either- at least not all of them.

The creatures were always obscured. We didn’t see their faces clearly until the end. I liked this. What was also great was the writers never forgot about the setting. On top of things hunting you down, why not add the threat of radiation poisoning. Well played writers. Chernobyl Diaries did try really hard to be a subtle horror movie but it failed to add the creep factor.

I’m reluctant to say this was a completely terrible move because it really wasn’t. Though I don’t plan on watching this again, I didn’t leave the theater going why did I waste my money. The acting was good. It wasn’t the most original story-line but I liked the idea of it and more importantly, it wasn’t a remake and it had like no gore.