Chernobyl Diaries

The movie begins with Chris (Jesse McCartney), his girlfriend, and a mutual friend traveling to Moscow to visit Chris’s brother. Upon their arrival, viewers are introduced to Chris’s older brother, Paul (Jonathan Sadowski), who is clearly more of an extrovert than his brother. After much convincing from Paul, the four agree to skip their day trip to Moscow and instead go on an adventure tour of the dead city of Chernobyl. The desolate city proves to be much more than they expected and takes them on a terrifying journey none of them were ready for.

The trailer made it seem as though Chernobyl Diaries would be filmed in the same styles as the popular movies Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, but that was not the case. Instead, there were only a few scenes that made use of the character’s cameras. All of the scenes were shot as though there were someone running alongside the characters, but no one was actually there. It seemed as though the director wanted to take advantage of this style’s suspense without having to commit to filming the entire movie that way.

As far as acting, I was expecting a lot from singer/songwriter Jesse McCartney, but he gave a subpar performance. His character, Chris, seemed out of place and unmotivated. On the other hand, Jonathan Sadowski gave a wonderful performance as Chris’s older brother. His presence was a metaphorical light in the darkness of Moscow.

Chernobyl Diaries proved to be a great horror film. The movie had me, and many others, cowering in fear throughout most of the film, and is a must-see for horror movie fans.