The 10 Best movies like ‘Donnie Darko’

Update: June 13 2023, 10.57 CST: In a previous version of this article we referred to the Ted Chiang short story that Arrival was based on as “The Entire History of You,” when the actual title of the story in question is “Story of Your Life.” We regret the error.

Bizarre, creepy, and with plenty of cultish fans — the daring Donnie Darko is widely considered one of the best surrealist, reality-bending films of our time, and it’s easy to see why. Following the titular Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he meets a mysterious and horrifying bunny named Frank and discovers the world is about to end, the movie messes with conceptions of time and space in a way that most wouldn’t dare, blending the esoteric with a huge dollop of sci-fi. There are a few films that have a similar vibe, but if you want to know the best of them, check out our list of the 10 best movies like Donnie Darko!

The Butterfly Effect

The title of this film says it all, really. Undoubtedly inspired by Ray Bradbury’s iconic short story ” A Sound of Thunder,” Ashton Kutcher stars in this brilliant flick about a man who discovers he can go back in time and change certain moments in his life, although when he returns to the future he doesn’t know how his new actions have altered not just his life, but the entire world.

Part love story, part dark sci-fi movie, and part thriller, The Butterfly Effect explores all sorts of deep themes, from how much of our life is predetermined, to how the smallest change can have the most wide-reaching consequences. Kutcher and his co-stars are brilliant, capturing all manner of emotions on screen and making you really empathize with them. The Butterfly Effect spawned a couple of sequels, but none compare to the original. Very Darko-esque in a number of ways, but especially thematically.

Under the Silver Lake

Not as supernatural as Donnie Darko, but still with plenty of strange elements that make the characters question reality, Under the Silver Lake is the darkest shade of comedy. The movie melds surrealism and realism to create an addictive film that’s spawned quite the cult following, with thousands online convinced that (like Donnie Darko) there are countless hidden messages in the film. It follows Sam (Andrew Garfield), a disenchanted, conspiracy theory-obsessed man who runs into the mysterious Sarah. After they spend a romantic but strange night together, he discovers Sarah and her roommates have all moved out of their home, and embarks on a quest through Los Angeles to find them, meeting an odd bunch of characters on the way.

Mulholland Drive

Surreal, odd, and a bit creepy: these are the three things that seem to define every David Lynch film, and Mulholland Drive is no different. Like Donnie Darko, the movie really messes with the notion of reality and memory and is buoyed by a standout performance from Naomi Watts.

The plot follows an amnesiac woman who’s just been in a car crash trying to recall what happened before her accident. She teams up with a budding Hollywood actress to follow a trail of clues, only for things to get even weirder as the plot unfurls. Full of mystery and surprises (as well as one of the best audition scenes in history), like Donnie Darko, this film demands your attention, and even then you might be left with more questions than answers.

Stay

Though this film isn’t quite as critically acclaimed as Donnie Darko, like the film that inspired this list it begins with an accident, and dives deep into the idea of reality and delusion overlapping. The film chronicles the attempts of Sam (Ewan McGregor), a psychiatrist, as he tries to help his suicidal patient Henry (Ryan Gosling).

However, as he learns more about Henry’s life, fact and fiction begin to meld into a confusing mess, leaving Sam grasping at what’s real and what’s just his brain trying to make sense of the strange situation he’s in. Like Donnie Darko, the film is suffused with intriguing visual clues and callbacks to that lay out the truth of what happened, but it’s a little too confused to reach the heights of the Jake Gyllenhaal movie.

Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Tim Robbins stars as Jacob Singer, a Vietnam vet who is traumatized before and during his stint as an infantryman in the brutal war, leading to bizarre, confusing visions and strange hallucinations haunting him as he tries to make sense of what happened to him on the battlefield. The movie jumps between realities (or Jacob’s mind does, we never quite know until the shocking end), and as things unravel in increasingly confusing ways, the soldier is left grasping at anything he can to ground himself.

Robbins is excellent, showing a wide range that helps the audience feel everything from confusion to happiness to utter despair. A great watch that supposedly inspired Silent Hill, and has rightfully earned itself a cult following. Just make sure you don’t accidentally watch the truly terrible 2019 remake.

The Machinist

Like Donnie with Frank the Bunny, the main character in this film has visions of a strange thing following him everywhere that nobody else seems able to see. The Machinist is not one for the faint-hearted and follows Trevor (Christian Bale), an insomniac machine operator who finds his lack of sleep is making him experience strange occurrences at home and work. Memory, the fragility of reality, and the overhanging presence of death inform this brilliant film, which will linger long in your memory after you’re done watching.

The Jacket

Another film that delves into amnesia and the fallibility of memory, The Jacket stars Adrien Brody as a Gulf War veteran named Jack, who’s found at the scene of a murder but can’t explain why. He’s then ordered to a psychiatric institution, where a strange doctor orders him an unusual and sadistic treatment plan, involving unexplained injections, confinement in a straitjacket, and sensory deprivation. As Jack is left alone, he discovers he can travel into the future, where he tries to investigate his own fate and help an old friend along the way. With its sci-fi, time travel plot, and exploration of the ease with which reality can alter, The Jacket has very strong Donnie Darko vibes.

Predestination

Inspired by the excellent sci-fi short story “‘—All You Zombies—'” by Robert A Heinlein, this time-bending film stars Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook, and manages to be both smart, logically consistent, and highly watchable, a combination that’s incredibly rare. Hawke stars as a government agent who’s sent back in time to stop a bomb attack, only to find that fate won’t let him. As in Donnie Darko, the notion of destiny plays a huge theme, as does confusion caused by not knowing what’s real and what isn’t. However, unlike Donnie Darko, this film is a little neater with its shocking but satisfying ending.

Coherence

A large part of Donnie Darko‘s appeal is the concept of alternate and occasionally intersecting timelines, and that theme is well explored in the 2013 film Coherence. The movie charts the confusion of eight friends who have reunited for a dinner party, only for a passing comet to start a chain of unsettling and deeply bizarre events. Despite its low budget, the film is an aesthetic and narrative success, building tension in all the right places, and tying up in a way that feels both real to the world the film is set in but also leaves some questions for the audience. A great watch that puts a spin on the reality-bending genre.

Primer

Much like how author Ted Chiang studied linguistics for years to write “Story of Your Life,” the short that inspired Arrival, writer, director, and producer of Primer Shane Carruth studied physics to make this script as authentic as possible. And, while the plot of Primer might need a diagram to be explained, this time travel film makes complete sense when you finally get to grips with its rules. The movie follows two students who accidentally stumble upon time travel technology, and end up altering various timelines as they discover the limits of what they can do with it. A little confusing? Yes. But still an engaging watch? You bet.