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The desire to blend reality and fiction in film predates the Found Footage genre by literal decades, with classics like The Legend of Boggy Creek and even the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre dipping their toes into documentary-inspired filmmaking long before in-universe-cameras became popular.
Of course, it was only after The Blair Witch Project that creators would realize both the creative and financial potential of making movies like this – and when it comes to lucrative POV thrills, very few could compete with Oren Peli and his DIY Paranormal Activity franchise. For over a decade, these films dominated the box-office with formulaic yet consistently entertaining scares made on a budget, with their success allowing the programmer-turned-filmmaker to invest in other spooky projects. And while I’ve already covered Peli’s over-hated Area 51 on a previous edition of The Silver Lining, today we’ll be discussing one of his most unique productions: 2012’s misunderstood experiment Chernobyl Diaries.
Originally known as The Diary of Lawson Oxford (with the title being derived from a book also written by Peli), this proposed film about extreme tourism gone wrong would only come to feature a connection to Chernobyl once Peli came across a viral photograph of a woman riding a motorcycle through Pripyat. Fascinated by the idea of modern tourists exploring a post-apocalyptic cityscape, Peli enlisted the help of fellow filmmaker Shane Van Dyke – director of the surprisingly entertaining mockbuster Paranormal Entity – to help him expand the story into a proper feature.
Newcomer Brad Parker was then chosen to helm the production due to his experience with visual effects, as this would end up being a very different project when compared to Peli’s previous productions. While the team would still focus on a realism-driven experience by shooting on location in Ukraine and using documentary-inspired camera angles, the newly renamed Chernobyl Diaries would also feature a traditional third-person narrative enhanced by amateur aesthetics.
In the finished film, we follow a group of American tourists who embark on an extreme (and slightly illegal) tour of Pripyat – an infamous ghost town which was suddenly abandoned back in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster. However, once their van is mysteriously sabotaged, the tourists find themselves stranded in a hostile environment that might not be as abandoned as they think.
SO WHAT WENT WRONG?
Chernobyl Diaries may have raked in an astounding $37 million on a $1 million budget, but as we’ve seen many times before, financial success doesn’t always equate to a positive critical reception. As of 2024, the film holds a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the majority of critics agreeing that the flick is an unoriginal slog that simply relocates the familiar radioactive thrills of movies like The Hills Have Eyes and Wrong Turn to a different kind of isolated setting.
It didn’t help that the movie featured cookie-cutter characters who made it hard to root for anyone other than the unusually charismatic tour guide Uri (played by Dimitri Diatchenko). This problem is only exacerbated by some of their baffling decision-making towards the second half of the flick, though this is admittedly par for the course in this kind of movie.
Ultimately, Chernobyl Diaries suffers from the worst of both worlds, featuring all the usual pitfalls of conventional low-budget genre cinema as well as the low production value and physical limitations that so often plague Found Footage productions – all the while having to deal with some unfortunate real-world baggage.
The film was actually slammed by activists back during its initial release due to what they perceived as an inept handling of sensitive subject matter in an effort to profit off of a real disaster. Peli would repeatedly defend the film as a deeply sad and ultimately respectful meditation on what really happened in Chernobyl and Pripyat, but it’s clear that this controversy informed many of the film’s reviews – especially from non-horror fans.
THE SILVER LINING
Back in 1995, Danish directors Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg founded what would become known as Dogma 95, a radical filmmaking movement defined by a series of rules meant to keep filmmaking simple, handheld and as real as humanly possible. These rules would eventually be broken by pretty much every member of the movement (and it’s easy to scoff at silly commandments like “Genre Films are not acceptable”), but it’s clear that these filmmakers were onto something when it came to preserving the heart of a cinematic experience by discarding Hollywood excess.
It might seem silly, but this is what I was reminded of when I finally rewatched Chernobyl Diaries with no expectations regarding its documentarian influences or even its disregard towards the tenets of Found Footage. It may have taken me a while to appreciate it, but Brad Parker and his team did manage to find some kind of tenuous balance in their attempt at a cinematic hybrid, with this unique kind of lo-fi filmmaking being surprisingly effective at establishing raw terror.
From the excellent atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re exploring the radioactive ruins alongside these ill-fated tourists (which is more of a testament to the haunting location itself than any kind of art direction) to some expertly crafted jump-scares, this is a solid little thriller despite its many narrative faults.
Of course, the experience really comes together during the final act when the radiation sets in (albeit in a not very believable way) and we finally understand what/who exactly has been stalking our protagonists. These visceral chase sequences are just as claustrophobic as anything you may have seen in the best Found Footage movies, but they’re also clearer and more suspenseful due to the added flexibility of traditional cinematography.
And while I agree that there is some amount of insensitivity on display here towards the victims of the Chernobyl disaster, I also feel that the film – like many other horror flicks – is more of a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t engage in extreme tourism without really understanding what you’re getting into.
At the end of the day, if you can engage with Chernobyl Diaries on its own terms and go along for the ride, you might just find a memorably spooky bit of exploitational tourism waiting for you down in the reactor. The film is by no means a masterpiece, suffering from cardboard cut-out radiation fodder and a fair bit of dead air in between set-pieces, but I’d argue that the eerie atmosphere and effective jump-scares make it worth revisiting as an over-hated monster movie.
Just remember to pack your Geiger counters before going on this trip…
Watching a bad movie doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad experience. Even the worst films can boast a good idea or two, and that’s why we’re trying to look on the bright side with The Silver Lining, where we shine a light on the best parts of traditionally maligned horror flicks.