Review - S. Darko

Seven years after the events of the first film, Donnie Darko's sister Samantha, is on a roadtrip with her bestfriend Corey to Los Angeles. While on their journey the two girls breakdown in a tiny rundown town in the Southwest desert and get more than they bargained for. Samantha is plagued by visions that connect her, her bestfriend, a Gulf War veteran and a missing child together all leading up to a catastrophe that tests time and it's proper place in the universe.


"S. Darko" is a worthless pile of crap that should never be associated with Richard Kelly's fantastic film Donnie Darko. When I first heard this film was being kicked around, I said, "What the hell for? Donnie Darko is perfect and does not need a sequel." Richard Kelly luckily felt the same way and got as far from this project as he would a hooker with STD's. I knew before watching the film it would be shit, but for some reason I felt the need to punish myself and what a punishment it was.

There is not one positive thing I can say about "S. Darko" other than the soundtrack. The soundtrack did a decent job of taking a thumbprint of the 90's and incoporating it into the terrible film. I especially enjoyed hearing Catherine Wheel's, Black Metallic. Outside of the soundtrack, the film drags along trying to scrap away at what worked in Kelly's original film.

The story is absolutely dreadful and has the viewer checking out within the first 20 minutes, if you can even last that long. This is one of those films, that you really have to force yourself to watch (My wife asked 3 times if I was ready to turn it off, unfortunately for both of us, I had to see it through). The dialogue and performances are just as bad and ultimately scream daytime soap opera's. Daveigh Chase (Donnie Darko) and Briana Evigan (Step Up 2) play the best friends and their on-screen chemistry is about as flat as a soda left out in the sun all day. The rest of the cast is just plain terrible and do nothing to intrigue the viewer during the 101 minute mess.

Director Chris Fisher proves once again why he stuck doing nothing but direct-to-dvd and television directing. The director presents nothing original in the film and desperately tried to copy and recapture the same imagery from the Donnie Darko, he however, fails miserably. As for Nathan Atkins, who wrote the screenplay, dude stick to editing and sound mixing. The film just stumbled along getting more and more ridiculous as time passed. As for the bunny suit, what in the hell was that? Why on earth did Fisher find it necessary to try and reproduce it in lesser form. The suit made sense in Kelly's original, here it just had me rolling my eyes and laughing hysterically.

"S. Darko" is a huge waste of time and should have never even recieved a direct-to-dvd release. This should have had a one-time airing on the SciFi Channel and that is it. I suggest someone round up every copy of this film and have a nice bonfire, it would seem to be more useful than watching it. Hopefully you never have to sit through this movie, but if you find yourself saying I just want to see, turn away. You'll regret it, I assure you.