20 Movie Sequels Everyone Knew Were A Huge Mistake (But Still Got Made)

Considering the cult success of Donnie Darko on home video, there was a theoretically huge audience for a sequel.

That is, if it at least brought back original wunderkind filmmaker Richard Kelly, which 2009's S. Darko ill-advisedly didn't.

Basically, Fox produced this straight-to-video follow-up quick and cheap without Kelly's involvement because they had the rights to the IP, not Kelly.

This prompted Kelly to publicly distance himself from the film months before release, assuring fans that he had nothing to do with it and it was an entirely separate, independent production creatively speaking.

If you can't even produce a sequel without invoking the ire of the original creator who has a very reasonable grievance, then that's a pretty good sign the movie shouldn't be made.

But S. Darko hit DVD players the world over in 2009, where it was near-universally panned by critics and fans alike for - shocker - being a limp, forgettable sequel nobody was really asking for.