Review: S. Darko (2009)

Director: Chris Fisher

Cast: Daveigh Chase (Donnie Darko, Lilo & Stitch), Briana Evigan (Step Up 2: The Streets), James Lafferty (One Tree Hill), Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl), Jackson Rathbone (Twilight), Matthew Davis (Legally Blonde), John Hawkes

The Deal: Seven years after her brother Donnie was killed by a rogue jet engine, Samantha Darko (Chase) becomes plagued by weird dreams on a road trip with her friend Corey (Evigan) when their car breaks down in a small town. To top it off, Corey and the strange local boy, Iraq Jack, have strange dreams of their own. As was the case with her brother Donnie, these dreams are all connected and hold the answers to how things were supposed to play out.

Thoughts: As a devout Donnie Darko fan, I was intrigued by this film despite my worries it would fail, which were only heightened by poor critic reviews. The story, though different, essentially just rehashes all of the ideas and themes from the original, sometimes far too closely. I had hoped that the similarities would be great, but instead they were simply repetitive and executed very poorly compared to its predecessor. Where the story in Donnie Darko was well developed and very mysterious, the story here was jumbled together with no real purpose.

The acting was quite bad across the board. Chase was OK in the lead, but her performance was fairly flat, which made it hard to feel any connection or care towards the outcome of her character. Evigan's performance was bad as well, but considering she's most known for her role in Step Up 2, this is not surprising. Despite a mediocre performance, Rathbone easily stood out in this cast. His performance was barely believable, but was a large cut above the rest. Westwick's was better than most, but all in all, the performances were exactly what you'd expect for a direct-to-DVD film, not very good.

The things that made Donnie Darko so good were all completely absent in this film. The soundtrack was forgettable and never matched the mood of the film well. As bad as the acting was, the story was even worse. One would hope that this installment would have added something new to the Donnie Darko universe, but instead it clumsily readdressed the events of the original film. The scenes felt forced, and were both erratic and far too convenient. Where in Donnie Darko, the viewer was left with complex ideas to piece together, S. Darko has no complexity or puzzle for the viewer, everything is obvious and predictable.

Verdict: A bad script and uninspired acting plague every minute of the film. Though Donnie Darko fans may be drawn to this film, it does not come remotely close to satisfying, and is unfit to bear the "Darko" title. ☆1/2