Film Talk: Looking Back – Enigmatic entertainment with Donnie Darko

Directed by Richard Kelly, 2001's Donnie Darko broke the mould of the sci-fi psychological thriller and rocketed to cult status in a way few other flicks ever have.

Set in the autumn of 1988, the film follows its titular troubled teenager in the aftermath of his escape from a bizarre accident and his subsequent journey down an even stranger path.

Development of the flick reportedly began in 1997, shortly following Kelly's graduation from film school. Kelly insisted on directing Donnie Darko in person and struggled to secure backing from producers until 2000, when Barrymore's Flower Films agreed to produce it on a $4.5 million budget. Filming took 28 days – incidentally, the same length of time spanned by the film's plot.

With a cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze, Kelly had packed Donnie Darko with a wealth of talent, old and young. But would said cast be enough to bring his ambitious story to life, and lead audiences to connect with its complex protagonists?..

October 2, 1988. American teenager Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) sleepwalks from his home and meets Frank (Duval), a figure dressed in a sinister rabbit costume who tells him the world will end in twenty-eight days, six hours, forty-two minutes, and twelve seconds.

After waking up the next morning on a local golf course, Donnie returns home to find that a jet engine of unknown origin has fallen from the sky and crashed through his bedroom.

As he tries to comprehend his lucky avoidance of what would surely have been his death, Donnie continues to have visions of Frank, and is coaxed down a path of vandalism and arson.

As Donnie's world becomes all the more enigmatic, and the prophesied end of days approaches, strange events and instances continue to plague him. Has Donnie really been saved, or is his path destined to come full circle?..

Having premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, Donnie Darko went on limited theatrical release on October 26. However, because its advertising featured a crashing plane and the 9/11 attacks had only recently occurred, it was scarcely promoted – a fact that terribly damaged its initial box office performance.

Though it only grossed $517,375 from its first run, Donnie Darko did receive positive reviews, and after re-issues it went on to gross $7.5 million worldwide.

Earning more than $10 million from home video sales in the US alone, Donnie Darko gained a cult following, permeating the consciousness of the Millennial generation on both sides of the Atlantic. Such was the film's eventual popularity among teens of the times that its featured cover of Tears for Fears' Mad World went on in 2003 to be number one in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks.

With engaging performances from a strong cast, Kelly's disturbing-yet-compelling vision captured audiences and inspired a mass devotion rarely awarded to stand-alone flicks. A disappointingly woeful follow-up – S.Darko – was released in 2009, though Kelly was entirely uninvolved, and as such it is often discounted.

However, with the intoxicating power of the original still resonating among the film-fan community two decades later, Kelly is well-aware of what a worthy sequel could achieve, and is reportedly working on such a project.

For now though, I'll make do with a re-watch of this early noughties emo poster-child of a flick, that quite deservedly became nothing less than a cultural phenomenon.