Four Americans in Kiev are talked into an “extreme tourist” package by ex-Special Forces soldier Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko). Produced and co-written by “Paranormal Activity’s” Oren Peli and serviceably directed by first-timer Brad Parker, who did special effects on “Let Me In” and “Lake Placid,” this new fright entry opens like a cross between “Hostel” and half-a-dozen found-footage thrillers. They “escape” by racing down, down, down, ever farther into the bowels of a concrete bunker. They split up at the worst possible moments. They back into cramped, pitch-black spaces, shoulders tantalizingly exposed. They ignore their better instincts and repeatedly say yes when no makes more sense. In keeping with some of the best “Wrong Turn” chillers of recent vintage, the dimwit wayfarers in “Chernobyl Diaries” break every rule known to horrordom and are, therefore, ripe for catastrophe. And Hansel and G retel were back by din-din after a brisk Sunday stroll.

Later, checking his Geiger counter, Uri reminds the nervous foreigners that those dormant power-plant stacks in the distance go by the name Chernobyl. This is not ‒ how do you say? ‒ my first rodeo.”

You can pretty much guess what happens next, but “Chernobyl Diaries” makes at least some effort to tinker with the horror formula, subjecting the characters to natural frights (feral wolves and other wild animals, an ever-escalating amount of radiation) and some unnatural ones that the film wisely keeps hidden for as long as possible.How can you not buy into an off-the-beaten-path excursion following these words of assurance? When asked if the advertised trip to the irradiated Ukrainian town of Pripyat comes with a AAA seal of approval, beefy tour guide Uri answers in thick Slavic accent, “Of course it’s safe. And when night falls, things really start going badly. But wouldn’t you know it, someone (or something) rips some of the important cables out of Uri’s van, and they’re stuck there. Russian soldiers at a checkpoint block the travelers’ way, but Uri takes them in through a back road so that they can take photos for a few hours and leave without having too much exposure to the radiation. The plan is to proceed to Moscow, but Paul hooks the group up with “extreme tour” guide Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko), who takes the foursome - along with backpackers Michael (Nathan Phillips) and Zoe (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) - to see Chernobyl, as well as the housing development at Pripyat, where nuclear plant employees and their families lived until they had to quickly flee the devastating accident in 1986. (The film opens with their travel videos, which plants the truly terrifying notion that this is going to be another first-person handheld-camera movie, but thankfully it switches gears pretty quickly.) American tourists Chris (one-time teen idol Jesse McCartney), Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Amanda (Devin Kelley) traipse their way across Europe on their way to Kiev, where they hook up with Chris’ ne’er-do-well brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski).

Chernobyl diarie