{"id":3012,"date":"2012-05-28T10:55:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T17:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2012-05-28T10:55:13","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T17:55:13","slug":"chernobyl-diaries-keeps-the-monsters-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=3012","title":{"rendered":"Chernobyl Diaries Keeps The Monsters in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIn \u201cChernobyl Diaries\u201d there is something menacing lurking in the dark. Of course this is frequently the case in many horror films but this one differentiates itself by keeping those faceless monsters in the shadows the entire time. We never get the big reveal, the monster moment, or to put it bluntly, any form of payoff what so ever. \u201cChernobyl Diaries\u201d is all tease.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The set up: Young kids vacationing in far off land. The movie opens with a montage of video footage showing Chris (Jesse McCartney, known for his delicate vocal performance as the voice of Theodore in the \u201cAlvin and the Chipmunk\u201d Trilogy), his girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Dudley) and third wheel Amanda (Devin Kelley) traipsing through Europe as they head to Kiev, Russia to meet up with Chris\u2019 brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski).<\/strong>
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\n This opening \u201cfound footage\u201d is interesting. The film is co-written and produced by Oren Peli, the man behind the \u201cParanormal Activity\u201d series as well as creator of the recent, short-lived television show \u201cThe River\u201d. Peli is addicted to the \u201cfound footage\u201d genre and by beginning the film this way and transitioning into standard narrative storytelling it makes the viewer aware that Peli is leaving the popular format behind on this one. Considering the \u201cParanormal\u201d movies were much more chilling, maybe it wasn\u2019t such a good idea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile\u2026. in Kiev, brother Paul has a silly idea. Why not visit the abandoned city of Pripyat, which is located right next to the Chernobyl reactor that melted down in 1986? They call it \u201cExtreme Tourism\u201d but it really is just the only way to get a bunch of stupid kids out to a creepy setting so our mysterious fiends can pick them off individually.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The abandoned city is an effective backdrop for a horror film. Once the sun goes down the weight of the solitude can be felt but unfortunately you can\u2019t really see anything. Most of the last act of the film is told using nothing but flashlight. It\u2019s too easy to disengage when you are only listening to a scary movie, especially one with this dialogue. Any time one of our actors opens their mouth to speak; the movie grinds to a halt. Most of what is screamed during the duration is the names of the characters as well as various curse words.<\/strong>
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\n Dialogue Sample:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul: Chris!! Chris! (Walks a bit) Chris! F**k! Chris!<\/strong>
\n Natalie: Chris! Where\u2019s Chris!<\/strong>
\n Paul: Chris!! F**k!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Captivating stuff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m a big fan of Mr. Peli\u2019s but this one is total disappointment. What he is usually able to do is create scary moments that don\u2019t rely on jolting sound effects and gore. Here, he abandons all that has worked for him in the past and gives us a third rate horror film without any nuance. Maybe he should stick with the \u201cfound footage\u201d thing\u2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In \u201cChernobyl Diaries\u201d there is something menacing lurking in the dark. Of course this is frequently the case in many horror films but this one differentiates itself by keeping those faceless monsters in the shadows the entire time. We never get the big reveal, the monster moment, or to put it bluntly, any form of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4190,5811,9327,10636,15341,15479],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-chernobyl-diaries-review","tag-devin-kelley","tag-horror-films","tag-jesse-mccartney","tag-olivia-dudley","tag-oren-peli"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}