On October 26, 2001, writer-director Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko opened in theaters following its Sundance Film Festival bow early in the year. The feature, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jena Malone, made just over $8 million globally. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

Quick: What rhymes with “Darko”? “Bizarro,” “sicko,” “weirdo,” “nutso.” You get the idea of this film real fast from the tide, which is the good and bad news. Playing in the dramatic competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Donnie Darko is the latest progeny of the alienated, upper-middle-class, private school-kid genre. In its dark depiction of the well-manicured suburbs, one feels the dark shadow of Kevin Spacey and a bouquet of dead roses hovering over this odd and bright offspring.

With its mix of teenage alienation, anti-authority diatribes and heaps of personality disorder, Darko is appealing in a kind of neo- Heathers , anti-establishment way.…