This Sequel to a Cult Classic Sci-Fi Movie Is So Bad, the Original’s Director Wants Nothing To Do With It

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It’s surprising now, considering how popular it is today, but Donnie Darko wasn’t initially successful with audiences. The film, which was writer-director Richard Kelly’s first feature, came out in theaters on October 26, 2001. Despite a $4.5 million budget, it only made $110.4 thousand at the box office – a disappointing result that left distributors unsure of how to market it. However, after its initial quiet release, Donnie Darko experienced an incredible comeback thanks to strong DVD sales and popular midnight screenings. Word-of-mouth spread quickly among film fans, building a dedicated following. By the mid-2000s, the movie had become a cultural phenomenon, something no studio could have predicted. It gained a reputation as a film that benefited from multiple viewings, offering a complex story of time travel and suburban anxiety without explaining everything to the audience.

The original film Donnie Darko became a cult classic, so it’s not surprising producers wanted a sequel. Interestingly, director Richard Kelly had given up control of the story when he was just 24, as a requirement for getting the first movie made. That sequel, S. Darko, released in 2009, was created without any of Kelly’s input. It follows Donnie’s younger sister, Samantha, seven years after his death. She and her friend Corey get stuck in a small town in Utah when their car breaks down, and a nearby meteorite crash kicks off a series of strange, time-altering events. While the setup seemed to echo the original, the finished film missed the mark – it became clear that no one involved truly understood what made Donnie Darko so unique. In fact, the sequel was such a failure that Richard Kelly publicly rejected it.

Why S. Darko Is Such a Bad Donnie Darko Sequel

The main issue with S. Darko is that it tries too hard to look like Donnie Darko without understanding what made the original film so good. It copies elements like the dark clouds, Roberta Sparrow’s writing about time travel, and Samantha’s sleepwalking, but these feel superficial. The sequel even reuses footage from the first movie, which just emphasizes how much better Donnie Darko was. While Donnie Darko created mystery gradually, S. Darko throws in multiple alternate realities, resurrections, and character switches, then doesn’t follow through on any of them – resulting in a story that feels both confusing and pointless. The film also spends a lot of time focusing on Corey instead of Samantha, losing the connection viewers had with her character.

Made with a $4 million budget, S. Darko only earned a little over $1 million internationally, despite the popularity of the original film. In the United States, it wasn’t shown in theaters and went straight to video. Critics haven’t been kind to the sequel, giving it a 13% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences aren’t much happier, with an 18% approval rating. This is a stark contrast to the original Donnie Darko, which boasts an 88% critic score and an 80% audience score.

Richard Kelly has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Donnie Darko sequel in interviews. He told Pop Matters he feels frustrated when asked about it, as he wasn’t involved in its creation and doesn’t want to be held responsible for it. He explained that he lost the rights to the franchise years ago, at age 24. Kelly’s annoyance is understandable; the sequel seems motivated by profit and unnecessarily expands on a story that worked perfectly well as a standalone film, ignoring the original creator’s vision.

You can buy or rent S. Darko on popular digital platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. The original film, Donnie Darko, is available to stream on Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, and Fubo TV.

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2026-06-13 22:14