For a long time the go-to weird film for teenagers to try and act all deep about, Donnie Darko marked the arrival of new indie filmmaker on the scene. What we didn't know then that Richard Kelly was the definition of a one trick pony; the strangeness that boosted Darko was lazily replayed in all his subsequent films to hide the lack of filmmaking prowess. Kelly could have had a very different career trajectory had Donnie found home as originally intended on DVD. A bizarre, confusing film made on a peanuts budget it would have been able to offset much of its cost on home video, but the presence of star Patrick Swayze and Drew Barrymore (who was also executive producer) led to it being given a small theatrical movie. The theatrical release itself wasn't overly successful. Coming out a month after 9/11, it's plane crash element wasn't the most palatable to domestic audiences and it took another year for it be released overseas. Still, the massive cult that has emerged behind the film since no doubt makes that all seem like a necessary sacrifice.
