Chernobyl Diaries
Short description
Chernobyl Diaries follows a group of six young travellers holidaying in Ukraine who hire a guide for an extreme tour of the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Against warnings, he takes them into Pripyat, the town built for the power station's workers and abandoned after the 1986 disaster. They have a look around the empty streets, then find themselves unable to leave, and as night falls it becomes clear the place is not as deserted as it appeared.
Bradley Parker directed the film, his first feature, from a screenplay by Shane van Dyke, Carey van Dyke and Oren Peli, who also produced. The cast includes Olivia Taylor Dudley, Jesse McCartney, Devin Kelley, Jonathan Sadowski, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal and Nathan Phillips. Made for about a million dollars, it took roughly thirty-eight million worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 5.1 out of 10 from around seventy-one thousand votes, and on TMDB 5.3 from a much smaller number. A critics' rating of 4.1 from ninety-one reviews places it below both audience scores. Parker's second film as director, The Devil Below, followed in 2021.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was not shown to critics in advance.
- The male voice acting in the film is done by the same people who voice the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series.
- During the film's release, rumors circulated that filming took place in the actual locations of Pripyat and Chernobyl. In reality, the film was shot in Serbia and Hungary, as indicated by the credits. This is also visible with the Ferris wheel: in Pripyat, the Ferris wheel is located in a park and there are no residential buildings around it. Furthermore, Pripyat is heavily overgrown with trees and shrubs.
- While searching for Yuri, Michel, Paul, and Amanda follow a trail into an abandoned building. While they are talking in the kitchen, the trail in the dusty ground completely disappears, and then reappears in the next shot as soon as they resume their search.
- In the parking lot, where the bullet-ridden ZiU-682 trolleybus was parked (although there was no trolleybus service in Pripyat), were VAZ 21099 cars, which appeared in 1991, as well as a VAZ 2109 with a “long wing,” which could not have existed in 1986 (although they may have been left there after the 90s). The presence of Moskvich-2141 cars, which only began mass production in the second half of 1986, is also an error, while the accident itself occurred in April.
- When Yuri first tried to pass through the checkpoint, two soldiers in crimson berets (likely special forces) could be seen. Yuri started a conversation with the first one, while the second one circled the van. He had a folding stock of a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a paratrooper version, but such stocks were only present on AKMS and were removed from the armament of Ukrainian troops back in the 90s.
- At the “Pripyat” checkpoint, where Yuri speaks with the soldiers, patches of the “Berkut” special unit are visible on their uniforms.
- There is one nearly completed cooling tower and one barely started, which were intended for units 5 and 6 of the Chernobyl NPP. However, the film shows 3 or 4 fully constructed cooling towers.
- When Yuri first attempts to pass through the checkpoint, two soldiers in maroon berets can be seen. While Yuri speaks with the first, the second walks around the van. A folding stock of a paratrooper version of the Kalashnikov is visible in his hands; however, such stocks are only present on the AKMS, which was removed from the armament of the Ukrainian troops back in the 1990s.
- The idea for the film came to Oren Pele when he stumbled upon photos on the internet of a girl traveling through Pripyat.
- The male roles are dubbed by the same people who provide the voice acting for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series.
- Filming took place in Serbia and Hungary.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
