Skip to content
The Chernobyl Diaries‘ premise starts simply when Chris (Jesse McCartney) and girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley) take their friend Amanda (Devin Kelley) on vacation to Kiev to meet up with Chris’ brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) in his hometown, where the latter introduces them to the idea of “extreme tourism”.
Together with couple Zoe (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and Michael (Nathan Phillips) they hire guide Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko) to take them to the derelict city of Pripyat, just on the outskirts of Chernobyl, a city which was so full of life and promise back in 1986 when all of the nuclear reactors moved in, yet the incident that followed in April of that year changed everything forever. Radiation was rife and the residents didn’t even have five minutes to collect precious belongings. The place became a ghost town in an instant.
With a guide who looks just a little on the ‘completely bonkers’ side and the eerieness of the location, this looks, on the face of it, like the setting for your typical pick-them-off-one-by-one horror film. However, I have a particular afinity for this one because I’ve been fascinated with the Chernobyl incident ever since I went on a school trip to Russia in April 1986, where we were there just two weeks before it happened (it wasn’t my fault – honest!).
We visited Moscow and Leningrad – as St Petersburg was known then – and both were glorious places I would dearly love to visit some day. I would also be intensely curious to take a trip to Pripyat itself, although that’s not possible, not least for the high levels of radiation, which the young travellers are told means they can only stay for two hours, but also for the fact that there’ll be roaming wildlife such as the big brown bears and rabid dogs we witness here. And perhaps there’ll be some of the other weird creatures as well…
With great performances from all concerned, The Chernobyl Diaries doesn’t outstay its welcome in the 80 minutes before the end credits begin. At times it also feels like a superb movie equivalent of a F.E.A.R. game and it’s one of the few films I’ve seen that comes up with a satisfactory ending rather than, like most movies, which run out of ideas as they go. Chalk this one up as a hidden gem.
This one comes highly recommended, especially if you’ve been to Russia.
Cert: 
Running time: 86 minutes
Year: 2012
Released: October 22nd 2012
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Rating: 10/10
Director: Bradley Parker
Producers: Oren Peli and Brian Witten
Screenplay: Oren Peli, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke (based on a story by Oren Peli)
Music: Diego Stocco
Cast:
Zoe: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal
Uri: Dimitri Diatchenko
Natalie: Olivia Taylor Dudley
Amanda: Devin Kelley
Chris: Jesse McCartney
Michael: Nathan Phillips
Paul: Jonathan Sadowski
Russian Check Point Guard: Milos Timotijevic
Little Girl: Ivana Milutinovic
Medic Goldshimdt: Alex Feldman
Medic Grotzky: Kristof Konrad
Doctor: Pasha Lynchnikoff
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.