The Last Temptation of Donnie Darko

“Every living creature on this earth dies alone.”

-Roberta Sparrow, The Philosophy of Time Travel

Donnie Darko is a modernized retelling of The Last Temptation of Christ.

I am not the first to think of it, but the giveaway in the film itself is when Donnie and Gretchen go to the theater to see Evil Dead. When they go in, the side of the marquee we see reads:

HALLOWEEN FRIGHTMARE DOUBLE FEATURE

When they leave, the other side of the marquee reads:

EVIL DEAD

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

I think there’s a fair argument to be made that the story of Jesus in the gospels is ultimately a horror story, at least that section of it which we generally think of as “The Passion”.

But that’s not the point I wish to belabor here, though I’d also like to point out to those who might balk that all moral tales tend to have at least an element of such horror in them, and that this moralizing element tends to emerge again from the horror. To give one example, the “final girl” trope in slasher movies obviously draws from this same well, albeit in a very different way.

Christians even have their own version of a sequel to the Passion and Resurrection, which they call the Apocalypse, and which is told in the Book of Revelation. We might as well call that Jesus 2: The Reckoning.

In Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus, brilliantly portrayed by Willem Dafoe, is a mentally disturbed societal outcast who is having trouble coming to terms with who he is and what his God is asking him to do.

In Donnie Darko, we have a mentally disturbed high school student and social outcast, brilliantly portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal, who is having trouble understanding who he is and what the Universe is throwing his way.

In both cases, we are left with an ending which suggests that, all along, Jesus/Donnie were being given a sort of parallel world/dream sequence series of events that would explain to them why they should do what they are being asked to do, inexplicable as it seems at first, before they awaken to the moment of their untimely demise.

(This could also be correlated with the story of Job, though I think a better analogy to that might be God and the devil (both played by comic legend George Burns) staking a man’s soul on a poker game in the 1984 comedy Oh, God! You Devil. But that’s just me.)

If Donnie doesn’t stay in his room to eat the jet engine, many others he loves will suffer and die. Gretchen, his first love, among them.

If Jesus doesn’t go to the cross, he will live a long and happy life and bear many children with three wives. The first of which, Mary Magdelene, would die happier, for she won’t live as long, but will die fulfilled as mother and wife rather than a disgraced prostitute.

So here we have a strange distinction.

Donnie, if he lives, will live miserably, though not without meaning. When he does consign himself to the falling jet engine, he dies laughing. Perhaps at the cosmic joke?

Jesus, if he lives, will live an amazing, happy life, though also not without meaning. When he dies, he dies in writhing agony, after exhorting God to forgive those who murdered him.

The devil tries to tempt Jesus away from the cross with happiness, whereas the Universe seems to be attempting to convince Donnie to commit his sacrifice by making his life miserable.

And, of course, always there serving as a guide is the eerie and almost demonic “Frank The Rabbit”, perhaps also alluding to those Easter associations with death and resurrection.

I don’t know what to make of that, but we’d love to hear your thoughts at Horror to Culture (where you can also check out episode #25 of the podcast, devoted to time travel).

A few more interesting correlations to add here would be that the film itself, Donnie Darko, was figuratively sacrificed directly following the events of September 11^th, 2001. The picture premiered at the Sundance festival in January of 2001, while its official theatrical release received virtually no promotion, dropping on October 26^th, 2001.

Likewise, this wasn’t the only time writer/director Richard Kelly used time travel prominently in a script. His follow-up, a dystopian black comedy thriller entitled Southland Tales (2006), also heavily featured elements of time travel, dimensional wormholes, and messiah-like savior motifs.

While I personally enjoyed Southland Tales, if for no other reason than its massive cast featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a lead role, it was critically and universally panned, receiving only a limited release in the US at 63 theaters.

Unfortunately for Kelly, despite his highly ambitious storytelling, all his features, including the Richard Matheson adaptation, The Box, from 2009, end up losing money for the studio. Which is one of the reasons Kelly hasn’t directed anything in almost 20 years, however he recently stated that he has several projects in the works and is set to begin filming a new feature in 2025. We can only hope!

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Shel Rogers is retired, a fan of classic horror and science fiction, and enjoys privacy. They're also a Mycological Enthusiast and amateur ham radio operator.