Donnie Darko DVD Synopsis:
Writer-director Richard Kelly's debut feature is a mind-bending mixture of social commentary, teen comedy and satire (with nods to Back to the Future and E.T. amongst others), it's also awash with science fiction and horror themes (time travel/alternate realities and a demonic man-sized rabbit who talks to Donnie) and, finally, it's also a dark, edgy, psychological drama (a nail-biter that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the film's stunning ending).

Set against a superbly chosen Eighties soundtrack, it is 1988 and a freak airplane crash decimates high school student Donnie's (Jake Gyllenhaal) house. Donnie, already a borderline-schizophrenic, is then visited by a demonic, reptilian rabbit with eerie visions of the past - and deadly predictions for the future. Unfolding over a 28 day time period the moody teen becomes aware (from the sinister rabbit) of a rift in the time-space continuum.

Donnie Darko DVD Picture Quality:
The anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer is simply gorgeous and captures the contrasting looks of the movie perfectly, from the muted looking "real world" sequences to the vivid, but never overpowering, colour of Donnie's apocalyptic visions and hallucinations. The accurate colour palette hangs together perfectly, with the night scenes' solid and deep black shadows full of detail, and no sign of digital artefacting or smearing, showing off the transfer to it's best effect.

Donnie Darko DVD Sound:
English Dolby Digital 5.1, English & French Dolby Surround. Donnie Darko is not a film that crys out for anything too dramatic and spectacular from your surround sound set-up. Therefore the workman-like DD 5.1 soundtrack does a thoroughly respectable job without really making too much use of the surround speakers. Though, to be fair, the dialogue is crisp and clear, and firmly placed in the centre speaker while the (no more than) ambient effects that fill the rear speakers do add some much needed depth to the soundtrack.

Donnie Darko DVD Extras:
This DVD is packed full of extras that, just for a change, actually are pretty good and relevant to the film; Richard Kelly's remarkably honest and enlightening scene by scene commentary puts the whole film into a much-needed perspective, for the confused people who want a lot of the intentionally ambiguous questions answered that the film raises. Again the deleted scenes (with optional director commentary) provide more insight into, amongst other things, the movie's ending and I can only imagine they were removed to retain more of the subtleties of the plot or for plot pacing reasons. The making of featurette(s) are fun and tongue-in-cheek and, for once, don't look like extended trailers for the movie. The music video is a little dull but the web gallery is cool so quite exciting all round.

Donnie Darko DVD OVERALL VERDICT:
When a film unintentionally doesn't know quite what to be (the new Rollerball and Brendan Fraser's Monkeybone being two recent examples), you're in trouble! But when the film is Donnie Darko and quite intentionally makes itself unable to be classified and placed in one particular genre AND is possibly the most original movie for years then you have something special!!!!
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980's references abound, from the aforementioned sly references to films such as E.T. to the clever casting of Patrick Swayze and Drew Barrymore in supporting yet pivotal roles. This extraordinary film is currently slated for UK cinemas in October and is destined to be a future cult gem so catch it now if you can by buying this feature-packed Region 1 DVD release.

David Hughes