2 Sentence Version: A group of six people (4 Americans, and a recently married foreign couple) go on an "extreme tour" of the ghost town of Pripyat, Ukraine, now abandoned due to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, which sits just a few hundred meters from the town. Pripyat, they discover, is hiding secrets beyond the crumbling buildings and lingering radiation.
*spoiler alert*
Chris and Natalie (a couple) with their friend Amanda are cavorting around Europe and decide to meet up with Chris' brother Paul, who is currently living in Kiev, Ukraine. Paul meets a man named Uri, an ex-Soviet Special Forces operative who now runs a tourist business. One of Uri's tours goes to Pripyat, to visit the site of the formerly thriving city before that fateful day in 1986. While somewhat reluctant at first, the other three agree to go with Paul and Uri. Michael and Zoe, a couple back-packing through Europe, also join in with this trek.
Upon arrival at the 'Exclusion Zone', the Ukrainian military standing guard at a gate inform Uri he cannot take the group in. Uri drives away from the checkpoint, but heads into the woods nearby onto a dirt road and goes through an old, unmanned checkpoint towards Pripyat. The group wander around outside for a bit with little fanfare, but then head into an old apartment building. Uri points out a view the old power plant, and then wanders alone into another apartment where he discovers a small recently-extinguished fire. Sensing trouble, he suggests they leave - when a large bear comes running through the building without seeing the tour group. After having the "fun scare", they all pile into Uri's van which now won't start because the wiring has been chewed up by "something". Everything goes downhill from here.
Night has fallen and Uri has been unable to reach the military guys on a walkie-talkie to come pick them up. Chris and Uri ignorantly head outside to investigate a noise; Uri gets killed and Chris' leg gets mauled. The 6 surmise to remain in the van for the night, deciding to walk it out during the day to avoid another attack, but before daybreak we see some wild dogs jump up on Uri's van. Were these the animals that attacked Chris and Uri? Of course not.
Chris, unable to walk, stays in the van with Natalie while the other 4 venture back out to Pripyat. They venture in and out of some buildings and realize they are being stalked by "something" - in addition to having to dodge the wild dogs. Finding an old parking lot still full of cars, Michael gets the piece needs to repair Uri's van, so they head back narrowly avoiding the dogs, only to find it flipped over and Natalie and Chris missing. Back to the buildings they go to find their two missing friends, and one by one the group gets killed by a horde of human-looking creatures.
Paul and Amanda (the only ones alive at this point), making their way through sub-tunnels, eventually end up in the old Chernobyl power plant and begin getting radiation poisoning. The skin starts to blister on both of them, and Paul soon goes blind. Finally making their way back outside after having avoided their pursuers, Paul is shot to death by the military guardsmen (all who are seen wearing radiation suits), while Amanda is taken to a "hospital". She is questioned about what happened by two doctors, and she is told the creatures she saw are "escaped patients". The film ends with Amanda being thrown into a dark room with the same creatures they had been evading throughout, because she "has seen too much".
Glowing:
- The basic premise of visiting Pripyat and a brief teaser trailer drew me to this movie. The setting, as well as the unknown elements of what could happen to nature with extended exposure to high radiation levels both lend themselves well to a horror movie plot. I think that using Pripyat as a backdrop was single the best element of the film. The movie is shot very well, as if we were seeing the events unfold as another member of the tour group - but without this being a guerrilla/handheld/ POV style, that seems to be dominating the lower budget horror landscape right now. The apartments and surrounding grounds were eerie, beyond just being deserted; the shots we see make the area look very foreboding. Towards the end, the scenes in and around the power plant were equally hair-raising, even ignoring the fact the characters were being stalked/followed by the creatures. I especially liked that there was a scene inside the old control room. I want to give very high marks to the cinematography to create such an excellent backdrop.
- None of the actors stood out as "excellent" to me, but none of them degenerated into a cliche caricature, either. Every part was acted to what his/her role called for, and I appreciated that. By choosing unknown actors, the audience is much better able to take in everything else going on, in this case.
-Most of the violent action was kept off screen. The creatures were also not shown for any length of time, so we were left to let our minds imagine the horrors the were taking place off-screen.
Radioactive:
- In most horror films there always seems to be an opportunity for the main characters to make a good decision about escape and survival, which they typically fail at. And it happened here; there are moments when the characters could have left the area, but didn't.
- I don't really understand the title using the word 'diaries'. Had this been a "found footage" or POV style film, it would have made much more sense to be called Chernobyl Diaries.
- Ambiguity in film can be an excellent tool to let the audience make their own decisions about what "could be" as far as motivations, actions, character traits, off-screen details, etc.. However, this element is a double edged sword in that "not knowing" what is happening at any given point in a movie can detract from the experience. I bring this up because as far as this film is concerned we did not really "see", nor did we learn anything useful about the humanoid creatures who were attacking the protagonists. They were called "escaped patients" at the end, but that's really it. Based on the action, they must primarily attack in the dark, and somehow may be immune to the effects of radiation. We do not know if these are mutated humans, if they were victims of the 1986 disaster, if this is a Russian experiment, etc.. I think giving us even a skinny fragment of info could have gone a long way to make the events just slightly more palatable.
Instead we are left to guess, and my initial thought as the credits rolled was that we were intentionally left hanging because Peli had already planned a sequel.
Recommendation: A great concept and a well filmed environment - but lacking in character development or plot beyond being "someplace we shouldn't, and now we have to run for our lives". I did not feel any real tension, probably because of the predictability, but I still enjoyed it enough to say "see it", and I have to give props for this being a small(er) budget film.
At the end I did feel like I was set up to watch another installment.
Extras:
- This was filmed in Hungary and Serbia, not actually at Pripyat. Looking at photos of the abandoned town, you can see it is much larger and spread out than what was portrayed. Pripyat does look very eerie, to this day.
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