Chernobyl Diaries

Chris (Jesse McCartney), his girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley), and their mutual friend Amanda (Devin Kelley), are traveling across Europe. They stop in Kyiv, Ukraine, to visit Chris' brother, Paul (Jonathan Sadowski), before heading on to Moscow, Russia, where Chris intends to propose to Natalie.

Paul suggests they go for an "extreme tour" of Pripyat, an abandoned town which sits in the shadow of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Chris is against going on the tour and would rather stay on the original plan of going to Moscow, but Paul insists. They meet tour guide Yuri (Dimitri Diatchenko) and are joined by a backpacking couple, Norwegian Zoe (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and Australian Michael (Nathan Phillips). Yuri drives them through Ukraine, before they arrive at a Chernobyl Exclusion Zone checkpoint, where they are refused entry by the Ukrainian military. He then takes them to an alternate entry he discovered years ago.

The group stops at a river where Yuri points out a large, mutated fish apparently able to live on land; while returning to their van several other mutant fish are seen. The group is worried about radiation poisoning, but Yuri assures their safety with a Geiger counter. After spending a few hours exploring, Yuri takes them to the upper floor of an apartment building and shows them the Chernobyl nuclear plant on the near horizon. After hearing noises at the other end of the apartment, it is found to be a bear which runs through the hallway past them, but not harming them.

The group prepares to leave Pripyat, but Yuri finds the wires in his van have been chewed through. He tries to radio for help, to no avail. As night falls, the group decides on whether to hike to a nearby checkpoint which is 20 km (12 miles) away, or to stay put and wait for help. Suddenly, strange noises come from outside, where Yuri goes out to investigate and Chris follows. Shots are heard and Paul runs out, returning with Chris, whose leg has been severely mauled, and claiming that Yuri has been taken. While they decide to stay the night in their locked vehicle, they are attacked by dogs.

The next day, Paul, Michael, and Amanda go out to look for Yuri. They follow a trail of blood to an abandoned cafeteria and find Yuri's mutilated body. They take his gun and are chased by a creature through the building before returning to the van. Amanda checks her camera and one of the pictures shows a humanoid creature inside one of the apartment buildings. Natalie stays with the wounded Chris while the others begin the hike to the checkpoint.

During the hike, Paul, Amanda, Michael, and Zoe find a parking lot, where they find parts for Yuri's van. On the way back they are chased by dogs and also attacked by mutant fish in a stream. Night falls as the group returns to the van, only to find it upside down and ripped to shreds. They find Natalie's video camera, showing that she and Chris were attacked and captured by humanoid mutants. While searching for the two inside an old building, the group is chased by more mutants.

During their escape, a traumatized Natalie is found and rescued, but when the group gets distracted by a mysterious young girl, Natalie is captured again. The rest of the group is swarmed by a horde of mutants and are forced to retreat. While fleeing through an underground passage, Michael is captured. As they continue, they find Chris' engagement ring for Natalie, with no sign of Chris. While climbing a ladder, a gang of mutants drags Zoe back down, forcing Amanda and Paul to leave her behind, emerging from the passage right beside the exposed nuclear reactor core. Paul recognizes that extremely high radiation levels are causing their skin to blister. They come upon Natalie's body just before they are confronted by some of their mutant attackers. Fighting them off, the two survivors then encounter Ukrainian military forces outside the reactor building. Blinded by radiation, Paul stumbles toward the soldiers, who kill him.

Amanda falls unconscious and later awakens on a gurney. Several doctors, in protective hazmat suits, inform her that she is in a hospital and they will help her. The doctors reveal that the "creatures" were escaped patients, and after realizing that Amanda "knows too much," she is then forced into a dark cell and is swarmed and eaten alive by the recaptured patients.

Prior to film's release, the Friends of Chernobyl Centers, U.S., had said that the film's plot was insensitive to those who died and were injured in the disaster, also the movie was sensationalizing events that had "tragic human consequences".[6][7] In response, the producer, Oren Peli, said that his film was done with the utmost respect for the victims, and that the Israeli charity Chabad's Children of Chernobyl wrote him a letter expressing their "admiration" and "kudos" for his creation.[8] Despite this claim, others described the film as a "plot-less mess of disaster porn", citing UK-based charity Chernobyl Children's Lifeline, who thought it was "disgusting".[9]

The film received negative reviews, holding a 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 reviews.[10] The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite an interesting premise and spooky atmospherics, Chernobyl Diaries is mostly short on suspense and originality". Critics at Spill.com acknowledged the filmmakers' attempts to create a chilling atmosphere, but criticized the film's shallow characters, numerous clichés and failure to deliver even the most basic special effects. Joe Leydon's review in Variety stated, "Scattered stretches of suspense and a few undeniably potent shocks are not enough to dissipate the sense of deja vu that prevails."[11] James Berardinelli wrote in ReelViews, "Chernobyl Diaries is afflicted with a fatal flaw that damages many horror films: after a better-than-average setup and a promising first half, everything falls apart."[12] Mark Olsen, a critic from the Los Angeles Times, said: "The lack of suspense and surprise in this dispiritingly rote film becomes its own form of contamination". Positive reviews notably include Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter who said: "A basic monster movie that benefits greatly from its unique setting, Chernobyl Diaries again demonstrates Oren Peli's ability to wrest scares with minimal production values and a clever premise."[13]

• Cultural impact of the Chernobyl disaster
• List of films about nuclear issues
• List of Chernobyl-related articles

• Official website
• Chernobyl Diaries at IMDb
• Chernobyl Diaries at Rotten Tomatoes
• Chernobyl Diaries at Box Office Mojo
• Chernobyl Diaries at AllMovie