LEFT BEHIND AKA AFTER CHERNOBYL AKA GHOSTS OF CHERNOBYL is a supernatural found footage horror film about a group of young people who inadvertently end up in the Chernobyl area and get terrorized by a supernatural entity. This story is bookended by that of an urban explorer who found the footage of this group and presents it to us.
I had just watched the thematically very similar THE CHERNOBYL DIARIES, and while that movie was a massive disappointment, compared to this, it is a veritable masterwork.
There are problems here on so many levels:
1. Character exposition: the movie does not properly explain how all the members of the group are related to each other. Also, there seems to be a point of conflict regarding the uncle of one of them that is never clarified.
2. Dialogue: it appears the directors went for the improvisation approach. As a result we get the expected banal, aimless dialogue to which is added a ton of shouting and yelling and pointless verbal sparring. It also rendered all group members thoroughly unlikable.
3. Acting: Generally not good, but then all that shouting turned these characters into one-notes, and therefore I could not tell whether the limited range was a problem with mainly with the acting or the dialogue.
I did notice that the actor who played "Tom" was head and shoulders above everyone else. I was then surprised to find out that he was Russian and that he had passed away 2 years before the release of the movie.
4. Story: Okay, so this is Chernobyl with a supernatural twist. It could have worked, but there was still so much unexplained, especially with all the ghosts other than the girl. And why was there a ghost train?? Why on earth did the urbex guy decide to go back after he had just watched the footage? How did the old footage from a generation before get mixed in with this footage?
5. Cinematography: this is the best aspect of this film, but still problematic. The film-makers decided to give fairly long preview flashes every once in a while. Thus, we see the antagonist early on, before the horror even begins, and the chance for a creepy buildup until the reveal is thrown away.
What a pity that neither this nor DIARIES managed to take advantage of the fantastic setting. Maybe the third time will be the charm.
I had just watched the thematically very similar THE CHERNOBYL DIARIES, and while that movie was a massive disappointment, compared to this, it is a veritable masterwork.
There are problems here on so many levels:
1. Character exposition: the movie does not properly explain how all the members of the group are related to each other. Also, there seems to be a point of conflict regarding the uncle of one of them that is never clarified.
2. Dialogue: it appears the directors went for the improvisation approach. As a result we get the expected banal, aimless dialogue to which is added a ton of shouting and yelling and pointless verbal sparring. It also rendered all group members thoroughly unlikable.
3. Acting: Generally not good, but then all that shouting turned these characters into one-notes, and therefore I could not tell whether the limited range was a problem with mainly with the acting or the dialogue.
I did notice that the actor who played "Tom" was head and shoulders above everyone else. I was then surprised to find out that he was Russian and that he had passed away 2 years before the release of the movie.
4. Story: Okay, so this is Chernobyl with a supernatural twist. It could have worked, but there was still so much unexplained, especially with all the ghosts other than the girl. And why was there a ghost train?? Why on earth did the urbex guy decide to go back after he had just watched the footage? How did the old footage from a generation before get mixed in with this footage?
5. Cinematography: this is the best aspect of this film, but still problematic. The film-makers decided to give fairly long preview flashes every once in a while. Thus, we see the antagonist early on, before the horror even begins, and the chance for a creepy buildup until the reveal is thrown away.
What a pity that neither this nor DIARIES managed to take advantage of the fantastic setting. Maybe the third time will be the charm.