By Ned Jordan
The S. in S. Darko stands for Sam, the little sister of the title character
in the film Donnie Darko. If that means nothing to you, then you're in a lot of
trouble. If it does, then you're going to be angry. S. Darko is a mess of a
film, with no sense of narrative and a barely coherent plot. It is made for fans
of Donnie Darko in that it heavily borrows elements of that film, and even
essentially mirrors its story. However, everything is taken out of context and
collected piecemeal, as if fans would appreciate that things from the first film
were simply there for them to notice. Believe me, they won't. In fact, if it
wasn't for the name "Darko" in the title, you'd assume that you were watching a
cheap knockoff of the original. You've got your guru with a hidden sexual
appetite and the burning of his building, a scene in a darkened theater in which
visions appear on the screen, a ghostly apparition with knowledge of the future,
and things falling out of the sky with deadly consequences. It's as if the
people behind S. Darko watched Donnie Darko once but didn't have any idea of
what it was about and simply tried to repackage it all again. They even threw
rabbits in everywhere for no better reason than that a man in a bunny suit
appeared in the original, even going so far as to name the town in which the
film takes place Conejo Springs. Conejo is Spanish for rabbit ... oooooh.
There's a reason that this went straight to DVD, and it's to try and trick
Donnie Darko fans into buying it. The original talent behind Donnie Darko had
nothing to do with this mess of a film, and neither should you.
I doubt that the special features on this DVD would in any way inspire you to
buy it, but they are worth mentioning because they are just as bad as the film
itself. There's a feature in which the cast talks about the film, and in doing
so admits that there's not really a way to do a sequel to Donnie Darko. They
should have trusted there feelings. Also included is a horrible short featuring
a song about Utah written when the 'creative talent' behind the film, apparently
when they were drunk. That they thought it was worthy of sharing with anyone who
wasn't there when they wrote it is a further testament to their cluelessness.
Final Rating:
