Is S. Darko actually a Donnie Darko sequel? (2009)

I figured you guys could tell what this was just from the title. But if you're having doubts or can't believe your eyes—yeah, you read that right. This is a sequel to Richard Kelly's 2001 masterpiece. He’s involved with the project, though it's not much more than him letting his original characters live on; he handed the director's chair over to Chris Fisher. Honestly, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence, given his track record with mediocre stuff like Night Stalker, Dirty (which was basically a cheap Training Day knockoff), and Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders. As for the script, Nathan Atkins is stepping up here; it's his first real heavy hitter after just doing the short Cultivation and a TV movie called Point of Entry. The cast is mostly fresh faces and young actors. The only ones returning are Daveigh Chase, who played Samantha Darko in the first one, along with Kristina Malota as Susie Bates and Marina Malota as Emily Bates. For actual names you might recognize, we've got Elizabeth Berkley (from Showgirls), James Lafferty (Nathan Scott from One Tree Hill), and John Hawkes (Sol Star from Deadwood). The budget is actually double what the original cost—$10 million compared to the original $4.5 million. From what I've heard, it's skipping theaters entirely and going straight to DVD and Blu-ray. No release date yet...



IMDB

Official site

TEASER

PLOT

S. Darko takes place in the summer of 1995, seven years after the original film. It follows Donnie Darko's younger sister, Samantha (Daveigh Chase), who, in the wake of his death, has found herself at age 17 with a broken family, mired in feelings of insignificance. She and Her Best friend Corey ( Evigan) set off on a road trip to Hollywood in a bid to 'make it big', but their journey is cut short when their car breaks down unexpectedly, leaving them stranded in a small desert town. When a meteorite happens to crash-land nearby, Samantha is plagued by bizarre visions telling of the universe's end and it appears that their breakdown was part of some grander plan. When she finds out she was actually adopted by the Darkos, and that she is in no way related to Donnie, she must face her own demons and, in doing so, save the world and herself.

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Man, this is terrible!! If the first part was a disaster (to put it mildly!), then this is just an absolute embarrassment for the movie...
🤮

So yeah,
I'm curious to see how it turns out, but I'm not holding my breath... sequels usually suck because they can't live up to the hype anyway 😁

Donnie Darko was a total masterpiece to me.. watched it a bunch of times and it's still easily one of my all-time favorites

Here we go... now they're starting to cash in on the emo crowd too. Most of it is total garbage, honestly.

Donnie Darko is a masterpiece, but there’s absolutely no business for a sequel...

I am seriously counting down the days—there is zero chance this doesn't end up being one of those wonderfully, spectacularly stupid treats that you just can't help but love.

This is one of those movies that absolutely does not need a sequel. Just look at The Matrix.

As for the script? It’s 🤮 and just screams the mindless consumerism we see all over Hollywood.
Honestly, even Michael Dudikoff movies have more depth than this. This is just terrible.

🙂

Can't R. Kelly just ban sequels or something?🙂

What an idiot. I mean, the original is still going to be great. But where did they even get the idea to make a sequel? It was this beautiful, original allegory that should have been told exactly how it was told, and then just end. This isn't some retarded teen sci-fi flick.😢

Nathan Scott from One Tree Hill🙏

Honestly, this is one of those movies that absolutely does not need a sequel. 👎 The original was a total cult classic, but let’s be real—this one is just going to be a complete train wreck. ☕

frozentinker432 said:🙂

Can't R. Kelly just ban sequels or something?🙂

What an idiot. I mean, the original is still going to be great. But where did they even get the idea to make a sequel? It was this beautiful, original allegory that should have been told exactly how it was told, and then just end. This isn't some retarded teen sci-fi flick.😢

Nathan Scott from One Tree Hill🙏

Supposedly he couldn't...

Anthony Smith3 said:Supposedly he couldn't...

Honestly, hands down—after that absolute train wreck of an episode with Southland Tales, I wouldn't even be shocked if the movie actually got Kelly's blessing. It’s hard to imagine anything being worse than Southland Tales.

I first heard about this project about six months ago. My initial impression was decent, and I honestly think this could turn out to be pretty solid.
Generally speaking, I think Jake Gyllenhaal is a solid actor.🙂
It's a shame he isn't part of this sequel.

amberfalcon172 said:Honestly, hands down—after that absolute train wreck of an episode with Southland Tales, I wouldn't even be shocked if the movie actually got Kelly's blessing. It’s hard to imagine anything being worse than Southland Tales.

I don't know... I haven't actually sat down to watch that one yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Though, to be totally honest (yeah, go ahead and bury me for this), Donnie Darko was never really my thing. Like, it's a fine enough movie, but I never really grasped why it earned such massive cult status or what the point of it all even was. I've read some theories and I've got my own ideas, but the whole thing just never clicked for me. You know, that kind of movie where you have to jump on IMDb or Google just to figure out what the hell happened...🤷

Since I'm such a huge fan of Donnie Darko, I’ve known for a while now that a sequel is in the works, and honestly? I am not happy about it. I mean, seriously, with all those millions of dollars floating around, can nobody come up with something original? It’s hard to wrap my head around. Even if you argue a sequel is "needed"—which it absolutely isn't—there's almost zero chance this won't be worse than the original. In fact, I'd bet it'll be catastrophically worse.

And since we're talking about the website and all that, just looking at the S. Darko site tells you everything you need to know. If you ask me, Donnie's official site was one of the best movie sites ever made. Just my humble opinion. ☕

Can someone please break it down for me—what was actually so special about the first Donnie Darko movie?? 🤷

Taylor Cook63 said:Can someone please break it down for me—what was actually so special about the first Donnie Darko movie?? 🤷

The vibe is just spot on—the atmosphere, the storytelling, the characters... it all works. Plus, the humor actually lands, which isn't saying much, but still. The soundtrack is killer, and man, those 80s references? Pure nostalgia. And seeing Patrick Swayze alongside Jenna Malone? That’s basically the icing on the cake right there. 😍

It’s pretty simple, really—you either get it or you don't. There's no middle ground.

Donnie Darko is an absolute masterpiece, but this? This feels like some cheap sequel to an American ninja flick produced without even a hint of Dudikof's influence.😁

Honestly, I’m almost afraid to dive into this. Don't get me wrong, Donnie Darko is an absolute masterpiece, but this sequel feels like it might just be a total violation of everything that made the original work—it's certainly an unexpected turn of events.

DVD/Blu-ray artwork...

In case anyone was actually looking for this, here's the...

official trailer

It looks totally psychedelic. Give him a chance before you start hating on him.
No matter how good the original Holden Caulfield was, he definitely had his fair share of "WTF" moments too.