Donnie Darko

The gateway movie to my full-blown film addiction was Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001). Kelly has yet to create a film that matches the mood or magnitude of his first success. This supernatural thriller has sparked a cult following behind its intense narrative and themes. Countless arguments have played out discussing it’s a representation of madness. Made in only 28 days it utilised a low budget of 4.5 million. This made it a poster-child for indie films.

30. Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) Directed by: Jan Švankmajer We’ve already seen two films from Jan Švankmajeron the list, but this elaborate movie about a number of separate, but connected people takes the cake. Conspirators of Pleasure follows six people, each with their own incredibly unsettling fetish. A letter carrier ingests dough balls every night before …

The difficulty in counting down films so clearly influenced by Kubrick is that there are certain directors who are just tailor-made for it. So, you start to run into situations like this section of the list, where two directors have two films and two other directors had a film mentioned in the last section. But …

Hollywood history always makes for fascinating reading. Hindsight and whatnot. During a month in which Sound on Sight takes an opportunity to tip a collective hat in the direction of recently ‘retired’ workhorse auteur Steven Soderbergh, there is a further chance to reel back the years and examine a period of time when one of …

Tony Scott, one of Hollywood’s most marginalized auteurs and easily one of the most exciting presences in that market, died recently of suicide. But this particular obituary will be less a mourning and more a celebration of his artistry. This artistry sharply divided critics and audiences alike, more specifically in the last 10 years of …

I’ve been lucky enough to attend the Fantasia film Festival since the very first year and make no mistake about it, Fantasia has always been a highlight of every summer since. This year is no exception. With another impressive and diverse line-up, any movie crazed die hard genre fans such as myself are left with …

Science Fiction can have a bit of an odd identity in the mainstream publics perception of cinema. Either perceived as a cult, nerdy genre that’s synonymous with Trekkies, gamers, and cosplay Stormtroopers or on the flip-side – a viable channel for overblown, hype-glossy action films, most serious sci-fi goes overlooked by the general film-loving audience. …

Kicking off in 2000 in the humble Prince Charles CInema in the heart of London, Frightfest has been the burning bastion of horror and cult cinema in the UK for the past eleven years and is now in the lead up to it’s twelve come August bank holiday weekend. During that time its been forced …

It was the year that many critics dubbed the worst in recent memory. With a toxic summer movie season that gave us disappointing dreck like Pearl Harbor and The Mummy Returns, and a dismal couple of autumn weeks where theatres were inundated with a staggering level of mediocrity (forgettable titles like Bandits, K-Pax, and Thirteen …

10- Donnie Darko (2001) Directed by Richard Kelly Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror / Mystery Although Donnie Darko was removed from the big screen after a few weeks, it never disappeared. Thrown away by its distributor it ended up finding its audience on home video and at midnight screenings. Recurrent chats on the Internet indicated a …

10- Donnie Darko (2001) Directed by Richard Kelly Although Donnie Darko was removed from the big screen after a few weeks, it never disappeared. Thrown away by its distributor it ended up finding its audience on home video and at midnight screenings. Recurrent chats on the Internet indicated a rapidly growing fan base for the …