S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale
Directed by: Chris Fisher
Written by: Nathan Atkins
Starring: Daveigh Chase, Briana Evigan, Jackson Rathbone, Ed Westwick, Elizabeth Berkley, John Hawkes

Although Richard Kelly’s directorial debut Donnie Darko didn’t break even upon its initial theatrical release back in 2001, the movie went on to find a pretty massive cult following on DVD and has since become a bit of a cash cow. To this day I’m not quite sure what it is about the film that connected with teen audiences, but I suspect it has something to do with Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as an emotionally troubled outcast and its reputation for being such a mindbender of a film. Either way, it was successful enough to result in a Director’s Cut re-release a few years later, and now, a direct-to-DVD sequel. Yes, that’s right a sequel.

There are certain movies that lend themselves well to sequels, and others that don’t. While Donnie Darko’s name may sound “like some sort of superhero”, I don’t think Richard Kelly ever intended this character to spawn an entire series of “Donnie Darko Tales”. Needless to say, he is not involved in this sequel, which begs the question: how can it possibly be anything more than just a cash grab? I certainly didn’t have high hopes for this flick, but as a moderate fan of the original I was curious to see how they would continue the story. Besides, direct-to-DVD doesn’t always mean garbage anymore… does it?

S. Darko takes place seven years after the events of the first movie, and as you might have guessed from the title, it centers on Donnie’s younger sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase). She is now 18 years old, and together with her best friend Corey (Briana Evigan) they have decided to flee Virginia in order to follow their dream of becoming professional dancers in L.A. Unfortunately, their car breaks down in small town Utah, and they find themselves stranded among a strange cast of characters while Samantha is having visions of the end of the world.

Daveigh Chase is the only original cast member to return, and she has grown up a lot since we last saw her in Donnie Darko and The Ring. Most recently she has been seen playing Rhonda on Big Love, and while she now almost resembles a young Jessica Biel, she still doesn’t quite have the chops to carry an entire film on her shoulders. She is surrounded by a lot of TV actors, including Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl), who does his best Joaquin Phoenix impression as the cool guy that helps them fix their car, John Hawkes (Eastbound & Down) who plays the local motel owner, and James Lafferty (One Tree Hill), who plays town weirdo Iraq Jack. On the other hand, some viewers will recognize Briana Evigan from her lead role in Step Up 2: The Streets, while Jackson Rathbone has a fairly big role in the Twilight movies (a fanbase they probably could have milked further for this movie).

Director Chris Fisher and screenwriter Nathan Atkins both come from TV backgrounds as well, and they do their best to recreate the look and feel of Donnie Darko here. Unfortunately, the majority of it is superficial — essentially it’s a retelling of Donnie Darko but with some of the roles flipped around. Once again, the story is presented as a countdown to the end of the world, with plenty of gratuitous use of slow-mo and ominous music. There is a reformed preacher with a dark secret. There are visions in a movie theatre. Frank’s iconic metal rabbit mask is back, as are the trippy tubes of light. The movie is also chock full of teen angst, and most importantly, it has a former ’80s star in the form of Elizabeth Berkley.

While all of this stuff might seem like a formula for “recapturing the magic”, so to speak, the biggest problem is that the story and the characters are just not compelling at all. The movie starts with them already on the road, so we never really get a full sense of Samantha’s family problems, why she felt the need to leave or what she is going through on the inside. The most dramatic moments of the film are completely uninvolving — it seems like there is more emphasis on inserting cool fast-motion shots of clouds and other surreal imagery. In some ways the sequel even takes away from the original because it makes you realize how much Kelly relied on some of these surface tricks himself. However, much of Kelly’s dark humour and satire also seems to be missing here.

The truth is, S. Darko is watchable on some level and probably could have been much worse, but it’s just so inferior to the original that it’s destined to be forgotten in a matter of months. The only real risk that the movie takes is in the middle portion of the film where it deals an unexpected twist, only to correct itself and carry on some twenty minutes later with minor consequences. Some of the visuals are decent, and through the stylistic similarities, some casual fans of the original may be duped into feeling a connection to the original. Hardcore Darko devotees, however, are going to see this for what it is: an “unofficial” sequel that borders on fan film territory.

The video and audio quality on the Blu-ray release for S. Darko are pretty solid (1080p AVC MPEG-4 / DTS HD Master Audio 5.1). Extras include an audio commentary with director Chris Fisher, writer Nathan Atkins, and cinematographer Marvin V. Rush, six deleted scenes, a “making of” featurette, and a featurette on a song that the cast members wrote about Utah (don’t ask). I can’t say any of this stuff was particularly interesting, as they spend most of their time talking about how great the original is and how they wanted to try and pay tribute to it. Also, none of these features are in HD, unfortunately.

What could they have done differently with S. Darko? I don’t know. The bottom line is that this movie didn’t need to be made, and really adds nothing new to the mythology. On the bright side, it does provide a good excuse for bringing Whale’s short-lived ’90s hit “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe” back out of the vault, so there’s always that to be thankful for. — Sean

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