Daniel
05-29-2012, 03:26 AM
Chernobyl Diaries
http://www.online24.ws/wp-content/uploads/mvbthumbs/img_24459_chernobyl-diaries-trailer-2.jpg
Admittedly, there are a lot of horror movies that don't make it to wide release that I end up having to acquire years after release. Seeing that my sister and I love horror movies of all kinds, we try to see anything released in the theaters that falls into the horror category. There are some, though, that are better left for the comforts of my home via my laptop or DVD/Blu-ray player. Even then, some of these stinkers (e.g. Woman in Black, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark) I really wish I had never seen at all for the simple fact that it elicits a lack of faith in a genre I already think of as dwindling.
You probably know where I am headed with my review, and I will go ahead and say that Chernobyl Diaries definitely did nothing to change my deteriorating faith in the horror genre. In fact, I felt really misled having seen the trailer, and then watching something that didn't live up to it unfold. What looked to be a rather interesting premise turned out to be a total wash of all the cliches we have come to see in other horror movies, but it was the worst of the cliches with nothing good to redeem them.
Brothers Chris and Paul reunite overseas and find an "extreme tourist" guide named Uri. He takes the group out to the town of Pripyat, the home of the Chernobyl factory workers, which was suddenly abandoned overnight when the nearby reactor had a meltdown and killed/displaced a town full of people. The scene is set, the tension slowly builds, and the characters actually start to become interesting. Then, they start dying, and they make sure to kill the best and most interesting character first, leaving us with the idiots who you know are going to eat it somehow. For 95% of the movie, it's not clear who or what is doing the killing, and once that is revealed, we are led on a short chase scene, and it is suddenly all over. The reveal itself was underwhelming and devoid of anything interesting.
The style of shooting is very much a found footage recording, though more of a professional quality like the majority of Chronicle. This was actually the highlight of the film as some necessary tension was gained by the style of filming and the various camera angles. Unfortunately, the content filmed was rather uninspired. There were the aforementioned terrible cliches, a very underwhelming atmosphere of horror, very little tension, and scares that were already highlighted in the previews.
I am pretty sure I would have fast-forwarded through most of this if at home, especially since there is little interesting happening here. One of the scariest moments, in fact, was a group of german shepherds chasing the protagonists in the daylight. Other than that, the reveal of the ominous, murderous presence was terribly ho-hum, and I found the whole ordeal to be rather silly, especially the ending itself.
2/10
http://www.online24.ws/wp-content/uploads/mvbthumbs/img_24459_chernobyl-diaries-trailer-2.jpg
Admittedly, there are a lot of horror movies that don't make it to wide release that I end up having to acquire years after release. Seeing that my sister and I love horror movies of all kinds, we try to see anything released in the theaters that falls into the horror category. There are some, though, that are better left for the comforts of my home via my laptop or DVD/Blu-ray player. Even then, some of these stinkers (e.g. Woman in Black, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark) I really wish I had never seen at all for the simple fact that it elicits a lack of faith in a genre I already think of as dwindling.
You probably know where I am headed with my review, and I will go ahead and say that Chernobyl Diaries definitely did nothing to change my deteriorating faith in the horror genre. In fact, I felt really misled having seen the trailer, and then watching something that didn't live up to it unfold. What looked to be a rather interesting premise turned out to be a total wash of all the cliches we have come to see in other horror movies, but it was the worst of the cliches with nothing good to redeem them.
Brothers Chris and Paul reunite overseas and find an "extreme tourist" guide named Uri. He takes the group out to the town of Pripyat, the home of the Chernobyl factory workers, which was suddenly abandoned overnight when the nearby reactor had a meltdown and killed/displaced a town full of people. The scene is set, the tension slowly builds, and the characters actually start to become interesting. Then, they start dying, and they make sure to kill the best and most interesting character first, leaving us with the idiots who you know are going to eat it somehow. For 95% of the movie, it's not clear who or what is doing the killing, and once that is revealed, we are led on a short chase scene, and it is suddenly all over. The reveal itself was underwhelming and devoid of anything interesting.
The style of shooting is very much a found footage recording, though more of a professional quality like the majority of Chronicle. This was actually the highlight of the film as some necessary tension was gained by the style of filming and the various camera angles. Unfortunately, the content filmed was rather uninspired. There were the aforementioned terrible cliches, a very underwhelming atmosphere of horror, very little tension, and scares that were already highlighted in the previews.
I am pretty sure I would have fast-forwarded through most of this if at home, especially since there is little interesting happening here. One of the scariest moments, in fact, was a group of german shepherds chasing the protagonists in the daylight. Other than that, the reveal of the ominous, murderous presence was terribly ho-hum, and I found the whole ordeal to be rather silly, especially the ending itself.
2/10