8 Filmmakers Who RUINED Their Movies By Explaining Them
4. Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko
Everything director Richard Kelly has said about Donnie Darko in the near twenty years since it released has made it clear that Donnie Darko was a total fluke.
The dark thriller became an instant cult favourite in the early 2000s thanks to its moody retro soundtrack and ambiguous plot all about a deadly prophecy foreseen by a dead, time-travelling human bunny rabbit. As you can imagine, a film with a narrative like that is destined to start discussion, and the unanswered questions made for perfect ice-breakers at stoner college house parties.
The mysteries were more important than that though; Donnie Darko was another film of that era obsessed with highlighting the anxieties of behind-closed-doors American suburbia, and the unanswered dread of the theatrical cut was integral in selling that drama.
This pervasive, uneasy mystery turned out to be totally accidental however, as a director’s cut made its way to home video with 20 minutes of footage Kelly couldn’t originally implement due to his contract.
The added scenes sucked all the mystery out of Donnie Darko and replaced it with boring waffle and nonsense sci-fi exposition instead. It became obvious: Kelly’s intention wasn’t to make an atmospheric teen drama first with sci-fi trappings on the side, but very much a hard sci-fi film wrapped in the teen drama sheen.
Hell, the director’s cut even changed the soundtrack - pretty much the one thing everyone agreed was perfect the first time around.
[Josh Brown]