7 years on from the events of Donnie Darko, younger sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase) has hit the road. Leaving behind a family that mourn her brothers passing, and feeling isolated from everyone, her only friend on this journey is Corey (Briana Evigan). When their car breaks down, they find themselves stuck in a small town for a few days, days that are set to become stranger and stranger as prophetic dreams plague Samantha. What exactly is happening to her?

S.Darko is a strange film that follows on from Donnie Darko, a cult movie that really didn’t need a sequel. In many ways S.Darko follows a very similar plot, following the rules that were set up in the original. However, it does go off into it’s own tangents and occasionally completely ignores those same rules. Lacking much of the subtlety of the original, S.Darko has random, bizarre imagery that seems to have very little to do with the overall plot and appears to be present only to confuse the viewer.

More convoluted than the original, S.Darko is found lacking by it’s association with it’s predecessor. As the plot is so close in many ways, it seems like an almost pointless exercise. That’s not to say that it’s a bad film. All of the actors are solid in their performances, taking their roles seriously. Some might say to seriously, as a slightly lighter tone or a little bit of humour would have done S.Darko the world of good.

As a film in it’s own right, S.Darko is of a decent quality, with reasonable effects sequences and well-drawn characters. However, as a sequel it suffers by comparison. Possibly one for people who either haven’t seen the original or are such big fans of Donnie Darko they feel they must continue to venture in it’s universe. Definitely not a film for the casual viewer, though.