Product Details

• Actors: Devin Kelley, Jonathan Sadowski, Ingrid Bolsř Berdal, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Jesse McCartney
• Directors: Brad Parker
• Writers: Oren Peli, Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke
• Producers: Oren Peli, Brian Witten, Richard Sharkey, Rob Cowan, Andrew A. Kosove
• Format: AC-3, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: German (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: French, Spanish
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English, German
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 16, 2012
• Digital Copy Expiration Date: October 16, 2014 (Click here for more information)
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (293 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B008VPF3LW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,591 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Chernobyl Diaries [Blu-ray]" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A big part of the marketing pitch for Chernobyl Diaries is that it sprang from the mind of Oren Peli (cowriter and producer), the creative force responsible for birthing a new genre of "reality" horror with Paranormal Activity. Chernobyl Diaries doesn't follow the same Paranormal rules of pretending as though what we're seeing is genuine found footage of something horrific, or documentary evidence of actual supernatural events. But it does stick to the general rules of the slick new breed of horror movies that force a more immediate sense of dread by placing us within the action in periods of real time. Added to that is the stylistic use of jangly hand-held camera, natural light, and nerve-wracking glimpses of action that mimic the unsettling effect of peripheral vision. The setup is as old as Friday the 13th: a group of beautiful young bodies trapped in an island environment are gruesomely knocked off one at a time by a barely seen vengeful presence. A couple of movies have exploited the creepy potential of the deathly ghost town of Chernobyl and the adjacent city of Pripyat, where the doomed nuclear plant workers lived, but none with such an air of hair-raising authenticity (there's lots of seamless digital background fakery, and the actual stand-in filming location was Serbia). Four American friends and a pair of European travelers take a spur-of-the-moment "extreme tourism" visit to the wasteland city with a mysterious Russian guide based in Kiev, only to be turned away by Russian authorities when the vanload of them try to enter through the main gate. Undeterred, they find a back way in and at first have lots of creepy fun wandering the ominously desolate ruins, with nary a thought for the clacking of a Geiger counter or the strange signs that they may be under surveillance. The big trouble begins when they find the van sabotaged, stranding them overnight while feral dogs, psychotic bears, and possibly something more sinister circle around to mess with their minds and their bodies. It all ends very badly over the course of the next day and night. The presence of mutated creatures is hinted at, and they're briefly seen in the dank corners and dusty halls of abandoned apartment flats, institutional chambers, or industrial warehouses that have become home to ghastly inhabitants in the intervening years since the nuclear accident. While not a classic of the genre, Chernobyl Diaries makes excellent use of its premise and surroundings to keep the tension high. Horribly rendered things happen unexpectedly on the edges of the frame or just out of sight from a flashlight beam or around the corner of a decaying concrete slab. A whiff of conspiracy is suggested when the Russian authorities make brief appearances, but the more disturbing and effective scares grow from the threat of activity that's a result of the paranormal elements in a story and a place where no hapless, numskulled young thing should dare tread. --Ted Fry

Product Description

Six tourists hire an extreme tour guide who takes them to the abandoned city Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. During their exploration, they soon discover they are not alone.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!! October 19, 2012

By S. Peele

Format:Amazon Instant Video|Amazon Verified Purchase

I see alot of bad reviews for this movie but....I simply enjoyed it not really original but what is in this day and time.I love movies so i never,ever listen to bad reviews i watch them for myself due to the fact people like different things.The movie had a few jumps and scares but i freaking loved the ending!!!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good premise but clumsy execution October 19, 2012

By S. Boone

Format:DVD

The idea of an "extreme tour" of an abandoned city is a good one, this city being Pripyat, which was home to the workers and their families that ran the Chernobyl reactor, up until the disaster in 1986 which led to its abandonment. A group of young tourists go in a van to see this place but are turned away at the checkpoint due to "maintenance". Their tour guide, however, knows more than one way into the place, so the group gets to see the abandoned city, but something else is going on and they're stranded when someone or something tampers with their van. The good bits are that the film is creepy and the atmopshere is good. The bad bits is that the film becomes increasingly clumsy and events are a bit beyond belief as the film rolls on toward the end. Yeah, it's a movie, and things are not necessarily meant to be believed. As the surviving members flee for their lives from mostly unseen assailants and you realize where they actually are, it's a bit shocking, but the ending itself is just a bit too ridiculous. Overall, it's worth a watch, not great but definitely passable. 3 out of 5 stars.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Seen this type of movie countless times October 8, 2012

By Joshua Matthew Bonner

Format:DVD

I'll give it 2 stars for the simple fact that the first 15 minutes or so of the film is decent. The setting is original but that's pretty much it.
If you've seen The Hills Have Eyes 1 or 2, then you've seen this movie also. Any movie goer will be able to predict who dies next in the group with astonishing accuracy. Many of the scenes in the movie are just simply ridiculous and obviously meant to prolong the storyline. It would have been a good 45 minute short film but the director saw fit to include another 45 minutes of cliche 'Hills Have Eyes' horror into the movie.

(Slight spoiler alert)
I began losing interest in the movie when a bear comes blazing down the hallway but what did the movie in for me was when the ex-spetsnaz (Russian special forces) takes running off into the woods at night with just a 9mm and no light to find out what's making a strange noise. He already knew the woods were extremely dangerous at night. Why not just stay in the van until morning when he said he would fix it? To me, the scene was solely shot so that the movie would keep dragging on. Plus, why would you start blaming and yelling at the guy who quite literally, is their only hope of getting out alive. It's just common sense not to piss off the guy who can fix the van and has the only gun.
Next plot hole, the girl who was taking all the pictures see's a guy in one of here pictures looking at them from a 6 story window but says nothing to anybody about it....why? So far, theyhave only seen dogs but now she knows there are other things here also. Why wouldn't you share that information?
Next as the film drags on, the group splits up (how cliche) and a couple people set off in search of help but happen to find a replacement part for the van but you can probably guess what happens to the van. It's destroyed when they return and the people who stayed back are gone.
Finally, the last 30 minutes of the movie are exactly as another review said, running, screaming...then more running and screaming. A little kid shows up out of no where and is obviously meant as a distraction while someone else is taken and killed all the while the group is oblivious. More running and screaming. Then, I have never been inside a nuclear power plant but it was very obvious the survivors were but they kept running straight through the destroyed reactor building and finally, the last two plot holes. One of the survivors speaks Russian but 'just happens' to speak only English when the Ukrainian (Chernobyl is in Ukraine if you didn't know) soldiers arrive. He keeps walking towards them even though he is supposed to understand their language and they kill him. All the while, where did the mutants go that were chasing them. The mutants have already killed guards in the past so why do they disappear suddenly. Finally, the sole surviving person is taken to a hospital, barely able to talk because of radiation poisoning but the so called 'doctors' throw here into a solitary confinement cell and miraculously, she walks, talks and hears perfectly just before being killed by the mutants in the cell.

All in all, it wasn't a waste of my time but paying more than a few bucks, I would consider it a waste of my money.