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Writer's pictureLilianah

Donnie Darko (2001) – An esoteric and psychological review

Updated: Dec 31, 2021

Disclaimer: Contain spoilers!!


If you haven’t watched this movie, stop everything you’re doing and watch it right now! This is one of the most cryptic movies I have ever seen and this review is going to be long, for each scene of this movie is so crammed with information! Sadly, I only came to watch it recently, meaning 20 years too late. The flick was released on Jan 19th 2001 (conspiracy theorists go wild). There are several movie reviews dissecting the numbers in the movie, so I’ll skip that and focus on my personal view of the movie events.



One important number worth mentioning, though, is the year when this is all taking place: 1988. The double 8 reference is very significant and from an esoteric point of view it could mean a representation of time and space. 88 is 11 x 8. where 11 represents chaos, imperfection while 8 is the infinite symbol or the everlasting. So this year has a reason to be there, like everything in this movie. All the books, soundtrack, dialogue… sit tight!


We are introduced to Donnie Darko (last name could be an acronym for ‘Drako’ or Dragon) and he is a troubled kid. He sleepwalks and is basically drugged by his doctor and parents. The year of 1988 is very significant not only for the numerology aspect, but for the society transformation that is portrayed here. This decade was a turning point: Pharmaceutical drugs start being pushed to children, cocaine is easily accessible (take some time to research Reagan’s ‘War on Drugs’ and the CIA partnership with drug cartels) and how the youth coming of age is lost. Drew Barrymore's character’s says: 'We are losing them to apathy... this prescribed nonsense... they're slipping away'.


The movie takes place in the fictitious city of ‘Middlesex’- an interesting name indeed. What is the middle sex? It’s not male, nor female. Got the clue? So, Middlesex is a suburban middle class city with all the American clichés. Donnie gets home and we see this bizarre family dinner dialogue where the children offend each other with the most horrific language in front of their little sister and their beta male father. We notice immediately that the house is ruled by the mother. The daughter challenges her ‘republican’ father by stating that she will vote democrat in the next election. Her father says that once she has children and her husband’s paycheck is being eaten up by taxes, she will regret that statement. Next, she tells him that she will not ‘squeeze one out’ before her 30’s and her mother supports her by saying that she will probably go to Harvard, meaning she will do better things than having a family. This dialogue (and Donnie’s offense to his mother latter in his room) is worth discussing.



The 80’s has the boomers' offspring, where the early roots of the degeneracy we see today started being nurtured. It’s the early rupture of what we could call stronger family structure and the deception of politics division, brought up after WWII and the hippie movement (both fabricated for the 'divide and conquer' principle). These parents were the hippies, who now wished for a ‘better world’ and avoided being strict with their children like their parents were with them. These softer parents wanted to be 'friends' with their kids instead of caretakers and agents of discipline.


Their grotesque parenting is evident in several scenes in this movie, like when the father laughs when his small daughter asks ‘what is ass fuck?’ or when the parents buy Donnie presents after he tells his teacher to shove a book up her ass. Donnie’s little sister was part of a dance group trained by Kitty, the cult possessed teacher and with a possible participation of pedophile Jim Cunningham and still the mother allows the child to continue in the dance group! wtf?? yet this mother is shown in the movie as ‘cool’ and progressive.




The more extreme political duality of the ‘left’ and ‘right’ also becomes more evident - 'right' being the weak conservative boomer and the ‘left’ being the strong female going to Harvard and her cool mother. The father, a true believer in his republican politicians - not because of what they do, but because of their party - represents the clueless middle class family head. The father is too clueless to understand that while he is defending political criminals and watching television, his children's soul are being corrupted by evil. And the political hypocrisy of the parents is all too obvious, even for brainwashed kids. By defending/ignoring the indefensible crimes of the republican party from the Reagan era, the youth lost the respect for their elders and embraced the same mistakes, but now on the other side of the coin.


And this nonsensical behavior is also present at the school. The first scene of ‘Middlesex High School' shows the students getting ready for class and two bullies are snorting coke openly in the hall, with a sticker inside the locker door with the sentence ‘What would Satan do?’ Mongrel, the school’s ‘mascot’ is a man with a dog’s head. By its feet, there is a medieval weapon which resembles one called ‘morning star’. The school’s mascot reminded me of Anubis, the Egyptian ‘god’ of death. It does make sense, since this dark movie is basically about death and destruction. ‘Head over hells’ from Tears for Fears plays the tune to that surreal scene:


I made a fire, and watching it burn Yeah, thought of your future With one foot in the past Now, just how long will it last? Now, now, now, have you no ambitions?







Other important symbolism that can’t be ignored is the all seeing eye – in Donnie’s room on the painting on the wall, where at one point we can see a skull in the pupil, or when he stabs ‘Frank’ through the mirror. When Frank shows up in the movie theater and removes his bunny mask, we can see his right eye injured. Not coincidentally, when Donnie shoots Frank, he hits him in the eye.




Inside Donnie’s room, on the roof where the plane engine falls, we can see a Led Zeppelin poster with the fallen angel next to the American flag. The engine falls represents the fall from Eden, the fall of the rebel angels and the destruction of the American empire (could also represent the upcoming Sep 11th attacks that would take place 9 months after the release of this movie). His room also has an owl lamp. While the owl is the symbol of wisdom, for medieval society 'the owl symbolized mourning and desolation because it is a bird that lives for the darkness. Thus it represents sinners who have given up living in the light and have chosen the darkness of sin.' Quite interesting to see it in the lamp and also as a magnet in the fridge.




While at times one could think he has a mental issue, he could also be demon possessed and the drugs could be making it worse (why are you wearing this stupid man suit?). When the clock strikes midnight (the witching hour), Donnie communicates with a giant demon rabbit who tells him that the world will end in 28 days – which ‘coincidentally’ will be on Halloween.




And this is not the only rabbit we see in the movie. The movie is full of stuffed animals and other animal toys – stuffed dogs, unicorn, panda and rabbit toys… This could be linked with children trauma mind control and MK ultra. Since the movie clearly shows pedophilia in Jim Cunningham’s role, it makes sense to include an alternative interpretation that Donnie might be under mind control and drug influence. MK Ultra splits one’s personality into different roles. Whenever Donnie was ‘possessed’, he would change his behavior and even the look in his eyes. The big mask painting on the wall and the mask on the book shelf inside the psychiatrist’s office might be an interesting clue.



Now what about that stupid school? Another weak male in the figure of the principal with a strong female running the show with Kitty. Kitty, the after school teacher, influences the school to use Jim Cunningham's course. The 80’s was the big boom on the ‘self-help’ paraphernalia and Jim gets for him a cult-like devotion from the teacher and the principal. His theory is a rather simple one: one must overcome his/her fears by transforming them into love. So basically all our troubles, bad attitude and sins are acts of fear.




And Donnie does not seem very worried about the fact that the world will end, so he lives his life normally. We will understand later that he is not so worried about this because he finds a way to keep coming back to the initial scene where he wakes up in the middle of the road. Have you also noticed that ‘Grandma Death’ is also always in the middle of the street? And she keeps doing the same thing, going for the postbox to check for letters, but she seem to just appear on the road out of nowhere…




A prominent scene in the movie is when the literature teacher (Drew Barrymore) talks about Graham Greene’s book on creation out of destruction. The creation out of destruction is in all Donnie’s actions when he obeys ‘Frank’. The axe is also a strong masonic symbol of creation out of destruction, which was used to flood the school (a reference to the biblical flood) and the axe on the mascot’s head.


The apocalypse – magnetic field inversion


Many elements present in the movie also point out the imminent magnetic field inversion, which is the Creator’s way to destroy the world for a cyclical cleanse. Right in the first scene we can hear thunder, but when the landscape shows itself, there is no storm. Later in the movie, when Donnie is looking into the mirror, there is thunder and lightning outside. Mirrors are a representation of subconscious, crossing to other dimensions and the reflection from the dome. Mirrors cracking are a subconscious representation of the dome breaking down (the sky falling) or of split personalities. The mirror focus is everywhere in the movie. In the training video from Jim Cunningham, Linda Connor tells us: ‘I looked into the mirror, not only into the mirror, but through the mirror’.


When talking to his doctor, Donnie mentions that ‘the sky will open up’ and as his time is due, we can see a black cloud in the sky. The sky opening up is present in several ancient cultures and also in the Bible and Quran. It’s not myth. One of the references to the supposedly 'white' world above our dome is the so called 'milky way'. Another interesting song in the movie soundtrack from The Church. 'Under the Milky way tonight:

Wish I knew what you were looking for

Might have known what you would find

And it's something quite peculiar

Something that's shimmering and white

It leads you here despite your destination

Under the Milky Way tonight


And the spiral had to be there! the engine that falls on Donnie’s room has the famous spiral, which is present in pretty much any movie and it’s an ancient symbol of the plasma circling around the dome.




What are your thoughts on the jumping bed? That one got me intrigued. No movie would focus so much on that for nothing. Is it representing the depressurization and how our bodies will flow up and down after the sky falls? There are probably other dozens of more discrete apocalypse references that would require ten extra movie sessions to catch, for example, Donnie’s mother reading Stephen King’s IT book, which is 100% about the plasma apocalypse (as called by Jay DreamerZ). Speaking of creepy apocalypse clowns, let's not forget the clown in the in the car with Frank on Halloween.


The ‘gran finale’


When the bullies attack Donnie and Gretchen at Grandmas death’s cellar, before the trans am shows up, this dialogue is very quick but interesting:

(Donnie) - Deus ex machina

(Attacker) - What did you say?

(Donnie) - Our savior


What the hell is deus ex machina?? From Merriam Webster: a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty


The New Latin term deus ex machina is a translation of a Greek phrase and means literally "a god from a machine." "Machine," in this case, refers to the crane that held a god over the stage in ancient Greek and Roman drama. The practice of introducing a god at the end of a play to unravel and resolve the plot dates from at least the 5th century B.C.; Euripides (circa 484-406 B.C.) was one playwright who made frequent use of the device. Since the late 1600s, "deus ex machina" has been applied in English to unlikely saviors and improbable events that bring order out of chaos in sudden and surprising ways.


The absence of God


'You’re searching for the answers in the wrong places', Jim tells Donnie, but he is also saying it to us, the viewer.

Donnie’s struggle in the pursuit of a meaningful existence and his fear are the consequences of a godless generation. The ‘self-help’ gurus, bad parenting, drugs and human decadence is not the work of one year, but decades of ‘killing’ the connection with the Creator with a hypocrite and cynical society.


The camera makes sure to focus on the movies available at the movie theater: Halloween, Evil Dead and The last temptation of Christ. This combination is not there by chance. The western society has chosen to be spiritually dead and the consequences 20 years after this movie was released have worsened significantly.


The creation out of nothing can only be done by our Creator, Yahuah Tseva'oth. The destruction is only used by our Father in order to cleanse our mess or as a deserved punishment. Our enemy, on the other hand, cannot create, but he can destroy the Creator's job for the sick pleasure of dragging people to darkness - also because by destroying, he feels the power of bringing about (or the closest to 'creation') chaos and misery. Nevertheless, he is so good with marketing that he can even sell shit saying it smells good!


The destruction we are watching will not benefit anyone except the very same elites and is making people everywhere more and more miserable. The nihilism presented in Donnie Darko is part of the controlled demolition of the American empire that was officially kicked off on Sep 11th, 2001.



Other Psychological aspects


Besides the overall nihilism, the movie shows the fallacy that creation can happen through destruction, or that destruction can bring ‘good things’ (ordo ab chao). This is the classic satanic idea that easily evolve to ‘the ends justify the means’. By following the demon who possessed him, the protagonist was doing ‘good’ things while also committing crimes. However, once he sees that his interference with the natural flow would kill his girl, he kills ‘Frank’ and accepts his destiny of death.


Let's think about the first scene in the movie, where Donnie wakes up in the middle of the road and ‘The killing Moon’, a song from Echo & the Bunnymen starts playing. (An interesting choice for a band. Coincidence, probably ;)) Check the lyrics:


Fate Up against your will Through the thick and thin He will wait until You give yourself to him

Hence the invitation to question ‘free will’. Do we really have free will? By denying his fate and creating his own alternative reality, Donnie realizes that his choices are not better. ‘some people are born with tragedy in their blood’, Gretchen told Donnie. Is Donnie Frank? Is he using Frank to release his own demons? Why was the name hunting Donnie? Donnie’s father talks to his wife in the hotel bed about his high school friend called Frankie who died and who ‘was doomed’. Frank is also Jim Cunningham's character in the course: 'a guy searching for love in the wrong places'.






It’s a profoundly nihilistic story, on the hopelessness of youth and despair. In his session with his psychologist, Donnie mentions that Grandma Death whispered to him ‘all living creatures die alone’. And Donnie realizes that he sees no point in searching for God if one is to die alone.


The reference to the ‘Cellar Door’ is the our personal universe that we keep hidden. When Donnie enters Grandma death’s cellar, we see his spiritual universe. Dark, neglected and with a low key music. But at least he is no longer alone.


Gretchen Ross, his high school sweetheart, is Donnie’s anima. She represents also Goethe’s Faust ‘Gretchenfrage’, or Gretchen’s question. Faust is the story of a man who makes a conscious decision to sell his soul to the devil and Gretchen one day asks him what his opinion on religion is. In Donnie’s case, this is her question to Donnie: ‘what if we could change our past to make something better in the future?’ This crucial question, or ‘Gretchenfrage’, is what Donnie remembers as he decides to remain in his room and get smashed by the plane turbine.


Gretchen is also a representation of the American youth, or the sleeping masses, who will wake up only when the credits start rolling up, as we can see when she was in the movie theater and asks Donnie: ‘How long was I asleep for?’ and Donnie answers: ‘The whole movie’. This message is to us, not to Gretchen. We (or the masses) are sleeping through the movie. On her first day at school, Gretchen opens the door to Drew Barrymore’s class looking completely lost and the teacher tells her: ‘You look like you belong here’. The class was on destruction. Gretchen is the lost youth being dragged into chaos.


Ultimately, the end of the world is an individual experience. Our world ends when we die and this is the conclusion drawn by the psychiatrist in Donnie’s last hypnosis scene. When he sacrificed himself for the girl he loved, love made him overcome his fear of death. Ironically, Jim Cunningham was right.


(Tears for Fears 'Mad world')



To be continued...

Unanswered riddles from the movie:


  • ‘They made me do it’ – who is ‘they’?

  • Why didn’t Donnie talk to Grandma Death? He does write a letter, that we see in the woman’s hand towards the end of the movie, but was that the letter she was waiting for? Is this why she kept going back to the mailbox?

  • Why would Grandma Death and Donnie wake up in the middle of the road/street?

  • What’s the Chinese girls role about? She only says ‘Chut up’ and Donnie tells her ‘things will be much better for you in the future’ – what could that mean?

  • The focus on Samantha's poem 'the last Unicorn'.

  • We see Grandma Death with a letter on her hands in Halloween day, is that Donnie's letter?



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2 Comments


Taylor Brewer
Taylor Brewer
Feb 07

Please continue this analysis! It is absolutely amazing and mind-blowing. I've been captivated by this film throughout the past two years, and I've finally woken up to the realities of my life after contemplating what the message within this movie could be. While writing about myself and analyzing my character one night, the truth dawned on me almost out of nowhere; there is someone else making decisions on my behalf, and I allowed this mind control to take place through my apathy. I recognized how I was nothing but a product of the emotions I felt (emotions merely being feelings manifested from low vibrational assumptions & beliefs formed from childhood trauma). In which case, I was nothing but a blind…

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Lilianah
Lilianah
Mar 21
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Many thanks for stopping by and leaving your insightful comment. I do need to write more often. Cheers!

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