Hello, and welcome back to Netflix Dumpster Dive. I’m on a pretty good streak here with posts, and it’s good to be back again, especially on such a high note.

I had no idea what I was going to watch this time around. For the last few months I’ve been caught in this weird loop, where I feel I’m unable to pick anything but B-horror and Netflix Originals. However, I’ve hit on something that satisfies something a bit different.

When looking at my track record, the choice to review Chernobyl Diaries may seem a bit odd. It’s a Warner Bros. distributed movie, has a $1 million budget, and has a decently notorious cast. However, my initial mission statement for Netflix Dumpster Dive was not just to review unknown movies, it was to evaluate underappreciated ones. This is why I have reviewed the two Netflix Originals I have, because I hadn’t heard much of anything about them, and thought they may be worth some attention.

Chernobyl Diaries is a somewhat similar case. I think I heard some things when it was released, but the memories are far from vivid. It’s been six years since the initial release, and Chernobyl Diaries sits at a meek 17% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing this. Honestly, all I could think was, “It can’t be that bad, can it?”

As I started the movie, I had neutral expectations. I knew this was a Horror/Thriller, set in Chernobyl in 2012, and had Jesse McCartney in a leading role. Honestly, starting with those things, the movie already sounds somewhat unimpressive. And yet, I was pleasantly surprised by Chernobyl Diaries.

Now let me say. I have no stock in Jesse McCartney. I never followed his work, outside of his voice role as Nightwing in Young Justice. I might know most of the words to Beautiful Soul, and I may listen to it once in a blue moon. Point is, I don’t consider him an integral part of my childhood as someone my age might. So, let me say completely unbiased, the acting from Jesse blew me away. I knew he was good in a voice booth, but I was expecting cardboard on the screen. He’s great though, and as a matter of fact, everyone hit it home with their parts. I think that kept me engaged more than a lot of other things might have.

The story of this movie isn’t some particularly original plot, but I think it’s handled in a gripping way. Straightforward– group of friends in a foreign country encounter creatures they don’t understand –but satisfying and entertaining. I didn’t feel like I was being dragged, or that I needed to take a break and walk away, or anything. I felt totally content playing the movie front to back. I liked that the creatures that exist as a result of the Chernobyl incident were built up to the final encounter, though the slow build into the tired “humans are the real monsters” message didn’t jive with me. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie at a base level.

I do have some questions that leave me scratching my head, though nothing that ruins the movie. Some are– why are some things physically mutated and others not?, why does the first thing to attack miss everyone and vanish?, what does the radiation actually do? Each of these is important, but doesn’t ruin the movie for me. I only really got to thinking about it after the movie was over. CGI on a certain scene probably could have used some work as well, but it’s nearly absent from the film as a whole, so it’s a small gripe.

I want to make a note on pacing. If you like a movie that starts slow in the first act, gets fast in the second, and moves moderately through the third, don’t come here. That’s a fine format and I’d typically gravitate toward it, as long as the shifts in pace aren’t jarring. Chernobyl Diaries is a different beast entirely. The first act is slow, but that’s normal. From there, the movie seems only to speed up faster and faster, and the end seems to go by with the snap of a finger. Is that a bad thing, not necessarily. However, the point stands. It could be unsatisfying to some viewers to feel everything gallop by in the final moments. Personally, however, I enjoyed the speed and adrenaline of it.

With the setting and “Diaries” part of the title, I think it’s somewhat hard to avoid The Blair Witch Project comparisons. However, while there is a single “found footage” scene in the movie, the found footage style is absent. Mostly. See, there are shots and moments where this could be a found footage movie, though they are of a higher resolution than would make sense. The reason for this is that there is a direct effort to make the film seem voyeuristic. Several shots are seen where you can feel in your heart the characters are being watched, and this is one of my favorite parts of the movie as a whole: the undying sense that I am looking through the eyes of the monsters, and not the humans.

All in all, there are few who cannot enjoy this movie in passing. The Rotten Tomatoes score for Chernobyl Diaries baffles me, because this movie is worthy of a higher rating without a single doubt in my mind. It’s far from perfect, and I wouldn’t say it’s even within my favorites on Netflix Dumpster Dive, but it was good.

Overall Personal Rating: 7/10

 

Thank you for reading! If you want to be notified of when the next Netflix Dumpster Dive comes out, feel free to follow the site, and you can also follow me on Twitter. As mentioned previously, I just published my new fantasy book, and it’d mean the world if you’d check it out, and if it’s not your cup of tea, share it with someone who might like it. Thanks again, and I hope to see you here next time.

-Vincent

 

© 2018 Vincent C. Russo. All Rights Reserved. This post is intended for review and constitutes fair use. This film and any images used belong to their respective owners.