It was 1986, and i was 10yo... I can still remember when the news struck on tvs and newspapers. How they were talking about what happened, about the radioactive cloud that could hit everywhere, the poor people that have died and the ones who will die soon because of radiations.
Probably 10 years isn't enough to fully understand the magnitude of a disaster like this one, surely not right away but it have left a strong footprint on the time being.
With the passing of time Chernobyl never completely faded away from our minds (i guess it did from who's in the control room, but that's another story) and stories, legends started to blooming over the years.
Let's face it : the place,it's history,all those voices around it,the secrecy that seems to cover everything, is like a wake-up call for the imagination of people and horror history is full of stories where mutations, holocausts and the fall of society is builded up on some nuclear mayhem and Chernobyl fed them well enough.
Without going too back in time I can easily remember a good first person shooter located there (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) and now this movie, that tells us the story of six tourists (plus a local guide) on an extreme tour in the city of Pripyat, where workers of Chernobyl's reactor used to live and that has been left in great hurry, leaving everything behind and changing it into a ghost town.Obviously things turns into nightmare (it's an horror movie!) and our heroes should fight to survive.
Bradley Parker (at his first try behind the camera after have worked as digital artist in movie like Fight Club, xXx and Lake Placid) direct a movie where, at least, not too many gender stereotypes are presents, apart the dualism good brother (Jesse McCartney/Chris best known as singer but with some movies and tv series in his story, like Greek) and bad unstable brother (Jonathan Sadowski/Paul tv-movies face but that also has been in 2009 Nispel's Friday the 13th) but that lacks where a movie with a location like that MUST have its strongest point : atmosphere, eerie sick suffocating atmosphere!
The attempt to build it up over the first part of the movie fails for the most, so the rest of it suffers for that ... and for the fact that things seems to happen a bit too quickly or, better, not enough things happen before the end is upon us (that is too much easily predicted too).
The faulty direction is also the reason why the characters seems so flat even if decently performed by the cast.
Between them we can find Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Cold Prey I/II ,movies that clearly Bradley Parker missed, because they're full with a shitload of things his movie lacks), Nathan Phillips (Snakes on a plane, Wolf Creek) and a couple of actors more accustomed to tv series (Devin Kelley - The Chicago Code) or as character actor (Dimitri Diatchenko - bad russian guy in some movies or tv series episodes) but blame isn't theirs to share, they all did a pretty decent work on screen.
Closing, this is surely a missed chances to create a good flicks and all the blame is on the director and his writers, but I can also say that i saw many worst movies around and that you can find some amusement too here.
Giving it a try won't hurt.
(gifs aren't mine)
Probably 10 years isn't enough to fully understand the magnitude of a disaster like this one, surely not right away but it have left a strong footprint on the time being.
With the passing of time Chernobyl never completely faded away from our minds (i guess it did from who's in the control room, but that's another story) and stories, legends started to blooming over the years.
Let's face it : the place,it's history,all those voices around it,the secrecy that seems to cover everything, is like a wake-up call for the imagination of people and horror history is full of stories where mutations, holocausts and the fall of society is builded up on some nuclear mayhem and Chernobyl fed them well enough.
Without going too back in time I can easily remember a good first person shooter located there (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) and now this movie, that tells us the story of six tourists (plus a local guide) on an extreme tour in the city of Pripyat, where workers of Chernobyl's reactor used to live and that has been left in great hurry, leaving everything behind and changing it into a ghost town.Obviously things turns into nightmare (it's an horror movie!) and our heroes should fight to survive.
Bradley Parker (at his first try behind the camera after have worked as digital artist in movie like Fight Club, xXx and Lake Placid) direct a movie where, at least, not too many gender stereotypes are presents, apart the dualism good brother (Jesse McCartney/Chris best known as singer but with some movies and tv series in his story, like Greek) and bad unstable brother (Jonathan Sadowski/Paul tv-movies face but that also has been in 2009 Nispel's Friday the 13th) but that lacks where a movie with a location like that MUST have its strongest point : atmosphere, eerie sick suffocating atmosphere!
The attempt to build it up over the first part of the movie fails for the most, so the rest of it suffers for that ... and for the fact that things seems to happen a bit too quickly or, better, not enough things happen before the end is upon us (that is too much easily predicted too).
The faulty direction is also the reason why the characters seems so flat even if decently performed by the cast.
Between them we can find Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Cold Prey I/II ,movies that clearly Bradley Parker missed, because they're full with a shitload of things his movie lacks), Nathan Phillips (Snakes on a plane, Wolf Creek) and a couple of actors more accustomed to tv series (Devin Kelley - The Chicago Code) or as character actor (Dimitri Diatchenko - bad russian guy in some movies or tv series episodes) but blame isn't theirs to share, they all did a pretty decent work on screen.
Closing, this is surely a missed chances to create a good flicks and all the blame is on the director and his writers, but I can also say that i saw many worst movies around and that you can find some amusement too here.
Giving it a try won't hurt.
(gifs aren't mine)
