Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

Chernobyl Diaries parents guide

What we could confirm fits an R: real scares and lots of jump scares.

Scare

Properly scary

Frightening, not just tense.

Jump scares

Lots

Jump scares are a main device.

Gore

Light gore

Some blood or injury, briefly.

Violence

Strong violence

Violence is frequent or intense.

Sex and nudity

None flagged

It is rated R, so treat our zero as unconfirmed.

Language

Moderate

Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Chernobyl Diaries scary?

Yes, properly. Chernobyl Diaries is the real thing without being an endurance test.

How gory is Chernobyl Diaries?

Light gore and strong violence.

What is Chernobyl Diaries rated, and is it OK for kids?

Rated R, and it earns it: real scares, lots of jump scares and strong violence. Not one for kids.

What is Chernobyl Diaries about?

A group of six tourists looking to go off the beaten path, hire an 'extreme tour guide' who, ignoring warnings, takes them into the city of Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, but now a deserted town since the disaster more than 25 years earlier. After a brief exploration of the abandoned city, the group members find themselves stranded, only to discover that they are not alone.

Cast and crew

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Chernobyl Diaries is on our Found footage list.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “a horror movie that's actually scary”
• “scary but not gory”
• “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”

Lists with the same feel: Scary, not gory.