Chernobyl Diaries is a 2012 American found footage horror thriller film co-written and produced by Oren Peli and directed by Brad Parker, in his directorial debut.

The film stars Jonathan Sadowski, Jesse McCartney, Devin Kelley, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Nathan Phillips, and Dimitri Diatchenko, and was shot on locations in Pripyat, Ukraine, as well as Hungary, and Serbia.

After spending a few hours exploring, Uri takes them to the upper floor of an apartment building and shows them the Chernobyl nuclear plant on the near horizon.

While climbing a ladder, a gang of mutants drags Zoe back down, forcing Amanda and Paul to leave her behind, emerging from the passage right beside the exposed nuclear reactor core.

[6][7] In response, the producer, Oren Peli, said that his film was done with the utmost respect for the victims, and that the Israeli charity Chabad's Children of Chernobyl wrote him a letter expressing their "admiration" and "kudos" for his creation.

[8] Despite this claim, others described the film as a "plot-less mess of disaster porn", citing UK-based charity Chernobyl Children's Lifeline, who thought it was "disgusting".

[10] The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite an interesting premise and spooky atmospherics, Chernobyl Diaries is mostly short on suspense and originality".

Joe Leydon's review in Variety stated, "Scattered stretches of suspense and a few undeniably potent shocks are not enough to dissipate the sense of deja vu that prevails.

"[11] James Berardinelli wrote in ReelViews, "Chernobyl Diaries is afflicted with a fatal flaw that damages many horror films: after a better-than-average setup and a promising first half, everything falls apart.

"[12] Mark Olsen, a critic from the Los Angeles Times, said: "The lack of suspense and surprise in this dispiritingly rote film becomes its own form of contamination".

Positive reviews notably include Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter who said: "A basic monster movie that benefits greatly from its unique setting, Chernobyl Diaries again demonstrates Oren Peli's ability to wrest scares with minimal production values and a clever premise.

"[13] Mark Kermode gave the film a negative review, claiming that it has "a great idea hiding in there somewhere - shame they didn't find it.".