‘Donnie Darko’ Returns to UK Cinemas for a 25th Anniversary Halloween Run

Twenty-five years after Frank first warned that the world was ending, Donnie Darko is heading back to the big screen. Richard Kelly’s cult debut will return to cinemas across the UK from 30 October, with the anniversary run featuring a newly filmed introduction from the director and a 4K restoration from Arrow Films.

Released in 2001, Donnie Darko initially struggled to find its audience before building the kind of reputation that turned it into one of the defining cult films of the early 2000s.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Donnie, a troubled high-school student dealing with therapy, sleepwalking and increasingly disturbing encounters with Frank, a six-foot rabbit who informs him that the world will end in 28 days, six hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds.

From there, Donnie finds himself navigating teenage life, a near-fatal encounter with a falling jet engine and Frank’s increasingly troubling instructions, all while becoming entangled in questions of time travel, fate and whether reality itself is beginning to fracture.

Kelly has described the film as “The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick”, an apt shorthand for a story that combines suburban adolescence, science fiction, psychological drama and apocalyptic unease.

Alongside Gyllenhaal, the cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross and Noah Wyle. Its soundtrack has also become inseparable from the film’s identity, drawing on 1980s tracks from Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and Duran Duran.

The 25th anniversary screenings will take place at cinemas around the country, including Cineworld locations nationwide as well as venues such as BFI IMAX, The Prince Charles Cinema, Garden Cinema London, Filmhouse Edinburgh, Glasgow Film Theatre, Hebden Bridge Picturehouse and Irish Film Institute.

Arrow Films has also released a new anniversary trailer ahead of the cinema run, giving audiences another look at the film’s blend of teenage alienation, strange visions and impending catastrophe.

The anniversary revival arrives as Arrow Video continues revisiting major genre titles on the big screen and at home. December will also see Bob Clark’s seasonal slasher Black Christmas released on 4K UHD, complete with archival extras and two documentaries.

Donnie Darko returns to UK cinemas from 30 October 2026. Check local cinema listings now for participating venues, screening times and tickets.

Donnie Darko 25th Anniversary trailer