The Collider:
The first trailer for the latest horror-thriller from Paranormal Activity creator Oren Peli has gone online. Chernobyl Diaries follows a group of friends vacationing in Eastern Europe who find themselves stranded in a ghost town near the nuclear reactor incident site of Chernobyl. As expected, they begin to realize they’re not entirely alone. I actually think Chernobyl is an intriguing location for a horror pic, and though I’m not normally a fan of Peli’s stuff, the historical aspect of Chernobyl on display in the trailer is appealing. It’s hard to tell if the jump scares work or not from a computer screen, but I’m sure audiences will have a better idea of the film’s “scare factor” when they see the trailer in theaters. I still can’t figure out whether this is a found footage movie or not; either it is, or it’s filmed in a very handheld style. Peli was originally set to direct Chernobyl Diaries but he handed duties off to Brad Parker while assuming a producer role.
Bluray.com: Bearing an uncomfortable resemblance to Craven's 1977 shocker, "The Hills Have Eyes" (which spawned a marvelous 2006 remake from Alexandre Aja), the creators of "Chernobyl Diaries" have a lot of explaining to do. Of course, pinching a premise from a cult classic is the least of the cinematic offenses found in this stillborn horror creation, as the wretched acting, moronic dialogue, and general void found in the picture causes far more irritation than simple déjà vu. The cure for insomnia, "Chernobyl Diaries" is yet another 2012 chiller with nothing to offer its hungry audience beyond a few cheap scares and a miserable attempt at mystery. Considering the spread of death and disease following the actual 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, the film is borderline tasteless too, turning unimaginable human suffering into a playground for Hollywood stupidity.
Chernobyl Diaries is the sophomore project of Paranormal Activity’s Oren Peli and is about a group of tourists who decide to take a venture into “extreme tourism” (yes, they actually called it that) by wandering out in a bus with one tour guide to a town called Pripyat, which housed the workers from Chernobyl, and is completely abandoned.
Nicholas of Movies Hate You Too writes:
Last week was filled with great new and catalog Blu-ray releases including Prometheus (3D), ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, and Dial M for Murder 3D. This week isn’t quite as strong, but there are still some noteworthy releases including Wes Anderson’s newest film, the highest grossing film of all time finally gets a wide 3D release, a new season of AMC’s highly rated ad drama, and some classic animation. Unfortunately it’s not all good news; Adam Sandler’s latest cinematic abortion is also being unleashed which should be avoided at all costs.
Interesting but not enough to pay money to go see.
I'm a fan of Oren Peli's work, so I'll definitely check this out at some point (DVD/rental). Appears that it's not found-footage, though (despite the articles confusion). There are several shots in here which give away that the camera isn't being operated by a character (ie the shot into the vehicle when they're all inside, the shot from the building looking down towards them, and a couple others), but definitely has a handycam thing going on. Interesting as I'm pretty sure this is Peli's first venture outside of found-footage. Looks interesting though.
I didn't even notice that. I'll have to watch it more closely and see if I can tell.