Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Radioactive mutants attack in waste-of-time horror movie.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 17+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Chernobyl Diaries
What's the Story?
Chris (Jesse McCartney); his girlfriend, Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley); and their friend Amanda (Devin Kelley) travel to Kiev to visit Chris' brother, Paul (Jonathan Sadowski). After a night of partying, Paul proposes they take an "extreme tour" and visit Pripyat, the city where the workers and families of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant once lived before the infamous 1986 meltdown. After the tour, the group discovers that the van won't start, and they're forced to spend the night in the spooky old place. Hungry wolves are about, and there's something even worse lurking in the shadows, not to mention the threat of radiation poisoning. Can the friends make it out alive?
Is It Any Good?
Oren Peli, the creator of Paranormal Activity, co-wrote and co-produced this high-concept horror movie, but he forgot to write reasonable characters or situations after the concept. CHERNOBYL DIARIES is basically a generic "cabin in the woods" movie, in which the characters are not-very-bright young people who constantly make the wrong decisions. The dunderheaded plot doesn't particularly help, as when -- for some reason -- night falls after only a few hours, or things jump out practically on cue.
Making his directorial debut, Bradley Parker chooses a hand-held camera look, as if an invisible friend were filming nearby. This allows for some money-saving long shots, but the camera also ends up shaking and lurching, causing more upset stomachs than the subject matter. Nearly every scary moment is either right out of the horror textbook, or else it subverts logic for an easy shortcut. Finally, there's the bad-taste factor of using the actual site of a real-life disaster for an exploitation movie. Avoid this one.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the movie's violence. What's shown, and what's suggested? Which is scarier? Why? Is the movie scary? Or is it more suspenseful? What's the difference?
What do you think about the choice to set a horror movie in a place where a real-life disaster took so many lives?
Do the characters make reasonable decisions throughout the story? What are some choices they could have made differently?
Movie Details
- In theaters : May 25, 2012
- On DVD or streaming : October 16, 2012
- Cast : Devin Kelley , Jonathan Sadowski , Olivia Dudley
- Director : Bradley Parker
- Studio : Warner Bros.
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Fantasy
- Run time : 90 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : violence, some bloody images and pervasive language
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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