“Whenever I see the word “”Chernobyl””, I always hear a strong emphasis on the first syllable, Reduced Shakespeare style. That’s neither here nor there, I just felt like sharing.
I dont really know why Chernobyl Diaries ended up on my list. The concept looked cool, but nothing that really made it must see. Guess the movie just benefit from a long weekend with only one other major release. Although I suppose one selling point was that some of the Paranormal Activity team was involved. I dont quite think Paranormal is the be all end all of the new wave of horror, but they def know what they’re doing.
Turned out to be a worthwhile way to spend an afternoon, if only because it gave me an excuse for a rather pleasant walk to and from Somerville. For the movie itself, I really liked the characters. Thats kinda important in a movie like this. You dont wanna find yourself rooting for them to die. Sure, some of the relationships used cliche to quickly establish them, but hey it sufficed and kept the movie going. What was a little frustrating was that there were just too many stupid decisions made by each of them. I felt like the whole thing could have been so easily avoided if they just chose better. True, then we wouldnt have a movie, but you can’t really believe that the entire group was that dumb.
The horror was decent. It very much had the feel of a “”found footage”” film, though it technically wasn’t (a couple scenes kinda were though). But there was that gritty low tech look and minimally scripted dialogue. I’ve always felt that the longer you keep the big bad hidden, the scarier it is, and that’s a philosphy they tended to stick to. I certainly found earlier scenes more intense than the amped up ones towards the end.
I guess there really isnt much to say about the movie because there really isnt much to this sort of thing. But it worked. Nothing that wowed me, but it kept me entertained for 90 minutes
Chernobyl Diaries – \m/ \m/ \m/