The perils of dubious tourism come to the fore when a group of young travelers see more than just the sights in"Chernobyl Diaries,"the new make-work horror-thriller directed by Brad Parker but perhaps more significantly co-written and produced by Oren Peli, the man responsible for the"Paranormal Activity"franchise.
Though not a found-footage film, "Chernobyl Diaries" maintains the grammar of the formula, all handheld whip pans and shaky running and did-you-see-that in the background. The go-to spook effect throughout is flashlights piercing dusty, mysterious darkness after the characters â€" who agree to travel from Kiev, Ukraine, with a former Special Forces soldier turned "extreme tour guide" â€" find themselves threatened by forces unknown in the town of Pripyat, evacuated and abandoned following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The characters have first names but lack personalities beyond bare-bones building blocks. Th ere is a swagger bro (apparently as much a contemporary stock character as the preppy jerk was in the 1980s), his kid brother, a girl with a camera, a girl from Norway, a guy with an ambiguously Australian accent and a young woman with plentiful cleavage.
Will our intrepid band of blandness encounter mutant animals or zombie people? Wild brown bears, weird fish or government conspiracy and cover-up? Will they begin to feel their skin burn and peel? Maybe, whatever, move it along.
The lack of suspense and surprise in this dispiritingly rote film becomes its own form of contamination.
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